VIENNA — Is it art – or is it blasphemy? Although the calendar clearly states that it’s the year 2008 in the 21st century, the debate continues – and the latest battlefield for artistic freedom is Austria. Regardless of international progress in the area of same-sex rights, religious leaders are nearly guaranteed to have a strong emotional reaction to depictions of their prophets indulging in explicit or even implicit behavior of a homosexual nature. Although Muslims aired their international outrage after a series of caricatures lampooning the prophet Mohammad appeared in a Danish newspaper, the majority of high profile art “assaults” and resulting protests have been Christian.

The latest artistic challenge to conventional religious thinking echoes last year’s Folsom Street Fair promotional poster by depicting Christ’s Last Supper – as a homosexual orgy.

Curators from Vienna’s Roman Catholic Cathedral museum expected to take heat for exhibiting 80-year-old Alfred Hrdlicka’s erotic work along with others from his collection during a show assembled to honor him during his birth month. After all, in spite of the fact that the dental technician turned painter and sculptor had represented his nation during the Biennale exhibition in Venice, this year’s Religion, Flesh, and Power series of apostolic works are homoerotic in nature – and therefore no likely to meet with the Viennese Catholic Church’s approval.

What they didn’t expect was to see the main painting removed from the walls by the Church and demands for the show’s complete closure both from gallery visitors and Catholic website visitors.

Bernhard Boehler defends his decision to exhibit all of the art works – including the last supper that even its creator describes as a “homosexual orgy.”

“We think Hrdlicka is entitled to represent people in this carnal, drastic way,” Boehler, whose office is across the street from the massive St. Stephan’s Cathedral, insisted to Reuters. According to the museum director, no offense was meant – and art should be permitted to generate discussion.

“I don’t see any blasphemy here,” continued Boehler, pointing out Hrdlicka’s crucifixion painting, which features a Roman soldier both beating Jesus and cupping his genitals. “People can imagine what they want to.”

And imagine, they do — with the painting earning the most speculation having been restored by Italian filmmaker and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was murdered in 1975. Leonardo’s Last Supper depicts the 12 Apostles as lounging on their table while masturbating one another. Hrdlicka’s defense of this depiction rests upon the fact that De Vinci did not include women in his iconic work.

Critics are vociferous in their condemnation, demanding an apology to all Catholics from the director and describing the works as an “abomination.”

While some might consider the blank wall that now greets visitors as evidence of censorship, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn insists otherwise.

“This has nothing to do with censorship,” a representative for the Cardinal assured the world via prepared statement. “Rather, this corresponds with the understood ‘reverence for the sacred.” The Cardinal’s statement continued, explaining that “it is also an act of respect toward those believers who feel this portrayal offended and provoked them in their deepest religious sensitivity.”

The diocese was careful to distance not only itself but its museum from the controversy by stating that its exhibition was not an endorsement of all its pieces.

Hrdlicka, a communist and atheist who considers the Bible to be one of the most exciting books he has ever read, is not without opinions about the brouhaha generated by his work. “There was such a reaction to its physicality,” he observed to Reuters. “For me, it was quite surprising the museum wanted to show the piece in the first place,” he confessed, while praising the director of his courage. Nonetheless, as Hrdlicka sees it, “If the Cathedral Museum is having problems now, it’s not really my affair; it’s for the Cathedral Museum to deal with.”

For the museum’s part, the issue is honest discussion of complex topics – even religiously taboo ones. Alas for the Church, it did not rise to the challenge, at least not in the eyes of curator Martina Judt, who stated that “People have said the Catholic Church has become a lot more liberal. But in the end, the reactions show this perhaps isn’t the case.”