Mags Gargan
A local parish priest has expressed concern at a non-religious Passion play with a female Jesus, due to be played out across the streets and civic spaces of Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard in Dublin.
On Holy Saturday Brokentalkers theatre company is presenting a re-imagining of the Passion of Christ through a confrontation between a homeless young woman and a property developer.
“A concern for me is that they have a female Jesus,” Fr Joe McDonald of St Matthew’s, Ballyfermot told The Irish Catholic. “I am trying to understand why, when there are lots of other ways to highlight the feminine.
“We have a number of heroic women in the community who have suffered great loss. We have third generation drug addiction and we have lost people through suicide leaving behind a broken-hearted mother or wife. The need to highlight the feminine is not lost on me, but they could do that without a female Jesus.”
However, Fr McDonald said he did not want to be negative about the project, which he said has “good intentions”, including raising money for the Simon Community.