Art & Architecture

The Use of Religious Images on Inappropriate Profane Items

Marian T. Horvat

Beanbags are thrown at this ‘holy’ cornhole board

TIA has received several questions from readers asking about the trend today in some devout circles to place a cross, Sacred Heart or some other religious symbol on just about anything – from socks and diaper bags to leggings and pajamas.

Another recent trend is to put beautifully rendered pictures of a Monstrance, the Madonna and Child, the Sacred Heart, etc. on skateboards. There are even so called Catholic entrepreneurs who are making Cornhole Game Sets with religious symbols painted with images such as the Sacred Heart, Immaculate Heart and Our Lord Crowned with Thorns. (Cornhole is a lawn game where players throw bean bags at a board with hole)

Disordered & unbalanced

It would seem the purchasers of such items are pious persons, not those who would want to stamp on, smash and debase the Face of Christ or the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady. That is the ironic note in the matter: Surely those who are striving to have a devotion to Our Lord and Our Lady should have the good sense and balanced spirit to realize that to throw beanbags at the Holy Face of Our Lord or an image of Our Lady is to offend and debase those Persons.

The Sacred Heart ‘decorating’ pajamas & even night slippers; below, a diaper bag & diaper decal

A sound and serious Catholic would realize that placing objects like crosses on socks, which become soiled and foul-smelling, is to degrade and offend the Cross of the Savior.

To recognize these abuses is a simple matter of Catholic propriety and basic good sense. Sadly, the modern world, so disordered and imbalanced, has transmitted its unstable spirit even to men and women of good will.

These Catholics, in an effort to prove how Catholic they are by putting religious symbols on every possible item of use, end by demonstrating the opposite: that they have lost the Catholic spirit of respect for what is holy, sacral and good.

A good Catholic should become indignant at the use of holy images on inappropriate profane things. This indignation is an ordered reaction and commendable.

Today, many Catholics – even priests and religious who should be more acutely aware of the dignity of sacral images – make use of the symbols of our Faith in ways that are entirely unbefitting the reverence due to them. This abuse, blatantly evident in the cornhole boards and skateboards, extends to T-shirts, shoes, slippers, socks, diapers, seat covers, face and bath towels, and many more commonplace things that cannot possibly give Our Lord, Our Lady or the Saints the honor and glory due to them.

Sign of an unbalanced soul

‘Holy’ skateboards that will be stepped on & receive all types of scratches

The balanced man understands, as if by instinct, that holy images should be in a place of honor, and never should be stepped upon, tossed, hit or used in any casual manner. Holy images may be used to elevate the ambience of a home, as for instance many European peasants would often do by painting their furniture with images of the saints and the Holy Family.

These pieces of furniture, however, were always treasured sacral objects and displayed as an expression of the piety of the family.

On the contrary, the toilet seat and diaper bag have a prosaic use, and are not the places to show an image of Our Lady or a Saint. One should not soil or throw around the image of the Cross or a Saint stamped on a baseball hat, etc. The sweaty t-shirt, which originated as a piece of underwear until it became a unisex symbol of revolt in the 1960s – should not be emblazoned with images of Our Lady and the Saints.

Until the religious authorities opened her doors to the modern world in the 20^th century after Vatican II, such abuses of sacral images was unthinkable and would have been condemned by all Catholic priests, nuns and teachers, as well as by Catholic parents.

Sadly, today there are priests who even bless the “holy” cornhole boards, giving their approval to a game that – all in good fun – throws beanbags at the Immaculate Heart of Mary, symbolically striking her Heart that is already so sorely offended.

I even heard of a young man who asked a priest to bless his skateboard imprinted with a Sacred Chalice and Host. Thus the youth stamps upon and profanes a symbol of the Holy Eucharist, the precious Gift of His Body that Our Lord gave to man – not to be banalized and undervalued with inconsiderate treatment, but to be honored and adored.

Lack of seriousness

In another article I have addressed the topic of the debasement of the American flag, a symbol of our country. If the misuse of a patriotic symbol trivializes and dishonors what should be treated with dignity, how much greater is the dishonor and outrage made against the symbols of our Holy Faith. It is not appropriate to throw bean bags at the American flag, and it is even less appropriate to throw bean bags at sacred images.

St. Joseph socks & Our Lord on tennis shoes...

If Catholics would only consider the many saints who died for the defense of Holy Images against the iconoclast heresiarchs, they would realize that these martyrs would rather face cruel tortures than step on or hit a Sacred Image.

In those blessed days of the past, Catholics understood the importance of paying homage to the Sacred Images as representations of Our Lord, Our Lady or the Saints. Any act of reverence shown to a painting or statue is an act of reverence towards the Saint it represents. In like manner, any abuse of a Sacred Image is an abuse to the Saint it represents.

Ultimately this lighthearted spirit of displaying holy objects on every item of clothing or game reveals at the least a lack of seriousness. The misuse of Sacred Images is born from a casual and spontaneous attitude toward what is holy and good.

T-shirts become sweaty & dirty, an inappropriate place for images of Our Lady

In the past, Catholics cultivated a strong sense of the contrast between good and evil and were able to discern not only what was good and beautiful, but also how it should be respected and honored.

Today, good and evil have been constantly integrated into a kind of mush, as Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira points out here. Consequently, man has lost the sense of outrage at seeing what is good and beautiful misused and abused. Thus do we have today Sacred Images casually imprinted on the most banal and prosaic items, such as women’s leggings, t-shirts and socks.

If any reproach is made, it is not against the one who abuses what is holy, but rather against the one who criticizes and condemns the abuse as unsacral and inappropriate. The latter is accused of being ridiculous, oversensitive and out of touch with reality. This is because at depth the modern man does not want to believe that things are as serious as they are, that life is as serious as it is.

In short, Catholics should return to the respect our forefathers had for everything sacred and divine. Instead of making Our Lord, Our Lady and the Saints into fan merchandise printed on everything, let us adorn our homes with beautiful sacred art, and dress ourselves with the dignity befitting children of God and co-heirs with Christ. (Rom 8:17)

A double debasement: A cornhole board
with the Cross & the American flag

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Posted February 7, 2025

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