Bishop surprised by reaction to giant spider robot on Cathedral

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I know people who can’t even look at a picture of a spider on Facebook without freaking out, so I’m not surprised.

On the other hand, people get offended over everything these days, and it looks like a cool robot or puppet or whatever it is, and it wasn’t inside the church. Real spiders probably crawl all over the Cathedral inside and outside anyway.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I know people who can’t even look at a picture of a spider on Facebook without freaking out, so I’m not surprised.

On the other hand, people get offended over everything these days, and it looks like a cool robot or puppet or whatever it is, and it wasn’t inside the church. Real spiders probably crawl all over the Cathedral inside and outside anyway.
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I’ll never forget the day that I was serving communion and went to wash my hands up on the Altar afterwards. There laying in the bowl was a live spider almost the size of a tarantula!
I’m glad I’m not a screamer!
 
SolicitorPirate said:
catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2017/ottawa-archbishop-surprised-by-negative-reaction-to-robotic-spider-on-cathedral.cfm

Look, all I’m saying is that the world needs more giant spider robots
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Why did it have be follow the spiders? Why couldn’t it be follow the butterflies?

That said, I love your quote. :rotfl:

Now it mentioned it was supposed to kind of follow another spider named Maman (same as Mammon?) and show some symbolism with Mary, but I’ll be honest I’m a bit lost there.

Overall it seems an interesting way to take part in Canadian festivities. I do wonder just how many people were saying the archbishop sacriligeous and if it was a small but vocal minority (not that it’s more acceptable if it’s smaller) or a larger group actually worth mentioning.
 
Along with the ‘tyranny’ of noise that we must endure, there is the ‘tyranny’ of poor taste. Why can’t we just go to church and pray today?
 
I am not in tune with the occasional theological discussion of beauty, but at my low level of comprehension of that subject, I am repelled by mixing metaphors of church architecture and giant spiders.

The only similar (and probably much more appropriate) placement of a large artificial spider that I’ve ever encountered was on an amusement ride at Six Flags over Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, at Halloween time, some 20 years ago – an eye-catching advertisement for the theme park.
 
The large spider reminds me of the spiders in the Hobbit. They were symbols of evil. Maybe that’s why some people were offended. They didn’t like the imagery of evil trying to get into the Church. Just a thought of how some might have viewed it.
 
The upset is not about it being a spider.

The upset is that this is a place of worship, supposed to be holy and sacred. Some people who witnessed their fellow soldiers blown to bits find it very offensive to see people burn or stomp on the flag, which is only a symbol of what he fought and others died for. Most people respect that and honor their wishes not to disrespect the flag. So why is it religious have to turn tail and accept desecration of what they deem holy? This goes for any religious belief. It’s just plain thoughtfulness and kindness not to mock and to be respectful.

It doesn’t matter if they decided to put a giant fedora hat on the church roof, or a giant peony, or a large bumblebee. The fact is, it’s very poor taste to do this to a place of worship and I’m surprised the bishop didn’t realize this would cause upset. 🤷 Why is this allowed at the expense of the faithful? Our very own catachism speaks of holding reverence for holy things. The bishop is to hold the catachism up.

Put the spider on some other building. Be “cute” on some other building. Problem solved.
 
What an incredibly silly thing to do.
Why? What purpose? How does this advance the Kingdom?

The bishop comes off as arrogant when he says he thought some would find it disrespectful but thought they would be minimal? What’s the upside to knowing you will offend some?

I find this just plain odd.
 
For those getting upset, I get you might not prefer it, but it doesn’t seem inappropriate given the context. The cathedral has taken part in other celebration and this was a downtown Ottawa evemt to celebrate 150 years of Canada. Not to mention the spider also tied into symbolism, according to the article, in regards to Mary. (I don’t understand how it’s symbolic so if someone could explain, I’d be thankful.) So with it being temporary, part of the local people’s celebration, and symbolic, it’s hard to see how it was disrespectful. Not to mention the diocese’s archbishop, who has the authority, approved of it.
 
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