SANT JOAN, Mallorca — Seeking to raise money for their Roman Catholic youth group on the Spanish tourist destination island of Mallorca, members came up with a risque idea: Pose nearly nude for a calendar recreating scenes from the Passion of Christ.
The group has almost sold out of the $13 calendars for 2011 and is considering another print run because of high demand. But Mallorca’s Bishop Jesus Murgui is blasting the effort as showing disrespect for the most important Catholic holiday.
“The calendar trivializes Easter,’’ the Bishop’s office said in a statement e-mailed to the Associated Press yesterday.
Members of the Davallament Catholic group of young adults that gives Sunday school classes say the sheer popularity of the calendar shows they have the public’s support.
They paid $1,940 to have 300 calendars printed, and have almost sold out for a profit of $1,940 that will be used to buy material for their work aimed at educating young Catholics and keeping them in the fold.
The controversy over the calendar came just a week after female police officers in Spain’s coastal mainland area of Lleida near Mallorca released a calendar of themselves scantily dressed in cat burglar outfits.
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