LOLSaints

In watching traffic to this website, I stumble upon interesting forum topics and discussions from time to time, and yesterday I found an especially interesting one with a discussion about why some people may be offended by LOLSaints, while others are perfectly fine with the idea, over on ChristianForums.com.

Basically, it seems to be that those with a more Eastern or Orthodox mindset are offended by the 'profaning' of sacred icons and images (although not all of them are sacred, mind you), while those of a more Western bent take part in the humor without thinking of sacrilege.

In the forum topic, some images of Pope Benedict XVI, along with some humorous captions, were also displayed. To those who laugh at the captions in these pictures yet scoff at the images here on LOLSaints, I ask: What is the difference? The communion of saints includes those in Heaven, in purgatory, and, yes, those of us still here on Earth trying to make our way into Heaven. Including Pope Benedict.

Will the captioned images of Pope Benedict XVI become sacrilegious if he is someday canonized as a saint? If so, that seems like a double-standard to me.

Expanding on this, are images of saints that are painted (rather than photographic representations) somehow more sacred that photographed or lifelike representations of saints? Is there any difference in an ancient icon of one of our saints and a picture of Saint Gianna?

Now, unanswered is the question of whether any image of any member of the communion of saints—living or dead—is sacred; and even then, is the profanation of such an image morally inappropriate in all situations, or can exceptions be made? I will be approaching these question in the coming days... stay tuned!