A Naked Woman on the Altar

A friend sent me the following paragraph:

On Christmas Eve, while Cardinal Joachim Meisner was celebrating Mass in Cologne Cathedral in Germany, a young woman sitting in the front row tossed aside her leather coat and leaped onto the altar, naked from the waist up, arms outstretched as if crucified, with “I AM GOD” written across her bare torso.

News to me. My friend says his first reaction was shock and outrage, but reading this description, I automatically assumed the woman was insane, and felt concern and pity instead. I read the paragraph, without comment, to my wife, and her reaction was the same as mine.

In fact, a little later, the Ukrainian feminist protest group Femen took responsibility, and said this was all about drawing attention to the Vatican’s stance against abortion.

I still suspect my initial assumption was right. The fact that Femen took credit may not mean—probably does not mean—that the real objective was political. In both individuals and groups, political demonstrations are commonly used as a cover for other issues. I’ve spent a lot of time around the “mentally ill,” count a few as close friends, and not a few use “radical” politics as a cover for their delusions. Louis Riel is perhaps the most famous example to Canadians. This woman, perhaps Femen as a whole, may be doing the same. The woman’s claim and action still looks like a classic delusion. And, as someone once said, madness, while rare in individuals, is common in groups. Each member can give sanction and validation to the others’ delusions.

To be fair, the woman’s claim that she is God might also be a reasonable affirmation of the experience of mystical union in some traditions (e.g., Hinduism, Sufism). But on reading the paragraph, I dismissed that out of hand, because a true mystic would not do this as a public display. It is part of being a mystic that one does not shout out one’s experiences from the rooftops. And, of course, this would not be compatible with Femen’s claim of a political motive.

But the claim of a political motive also does not make sense.

There is no objective need to publicize the fact that the Catholic Church opposes abortion. Everyone who reads the papers—anyone who is going to hear of this protest—already knows that. Nor does the protest illustrate any reasonable argument against this stance. The assertion of an individual woman that she is God seems instead perfectly calculated to lose that argument. It is just about the wildest possible assertion she could make. At the same time, this disruption of a mass is likely to inspire sympathy for the believers, among those who might previously have been neutral.

So it was counterproductive unless the true motive was really

1) The desire on the part of Femen and this woman for personal attention, regardless of any cause,

2) the desire of this woman to advertise herself for sex, or

3) delusional. But all three of these possible motives seem, prima facie, unbalanced, not healthy, insane.