.-') _      .-') _  
                      ( OO ) )    ( OO ) ) 
          .-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,'
         '  .--./ |   \ |  |\ |   \ |  |\  
         |  |('-. |    \|  | )|    \|  | ) 
        /_) |OO  )|  .     |/ |  .     |/  
        ||  |`-'| |  |\    |  |  |\    |   
       (_'  '--'\ |  | \   |  |  | \   |
          `-----' `--'  `--'  `--'  `--'
       lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
       
       
       ARTICLE VIEW: 
       
       Commercial featuring nuns taking potato chips for communion sparks
       outrage in Italy
       
       By Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN
       
       Updated: 
       
       8:34 AM EDT, Tue April 16, 2024
       
       Source: CNN
       
       A potato chip commercial that features nuns receiving the crispy snacks
       for communion is “blasphemy” and should be taken off the air,
       according to an Italian Catholic organization.
       
       The features doe-eyed young nuns inside a convent delighting that their
       communion wafer, known as the host, is actually a potato chip.
       
       A mother superior figure looks on as the nuns giggle, and it is
       revealed that it was her that substituted the hosts for potato chips in
       the box where communion wafers are kept, called a tabernacle.
       
       The Catholic Church teaches the communion is the body and blood of
       Christ.
       
       Giovanni Baggio, the head of AIART, a Catholic group that monitors
       Italian radio and television, called the ad “blasphemy.”
       
       In a statement, Baggio said the 30-second commercial was
       “outrageous” and that it “offends the sensitivity of millions of
       practicing Catholics by trivializing the comparison between the potato
       chip and the consecrated object.”
       
       The Catholic newspaper Avvenire also criticized the ad in an editorial:
       “Christ has been reduced to a potato chip. Debased and vilified like
       2,000 years ago.”
       
       Amid the backlash, Italy’s advertising standards authority, the IAP,
       announced an order for the commercial to be taken off air. Amica Chips
       has seven days to appeal the decision, during which time broadcasts
       will continue. The order does not apply to online placements.
       
       Social media users also reacted in horror to the ad.
       
       “This is blasphemy! Respect Our Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist!”
       wrote one Instagram .
       
       Another said: “You don’t play with God. To my Italian friends, I
       suggest a total boycott of this company.”
       
       One user said Amica Chips had “offended all the Catholics of the
       world,” and another accused the company of “a very serious lack of
       respect.”
       
       Amica Chips did not reply to a request for comment.
       
       Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated
       Catholic doctrine about the eucharist. The Catholic Church teaches
       communion wafers are transubstantiated into the blood and body of
       Jesus.
       
   DIR  <- back to index