Jesus Photos Protested in Sweden

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- A crowd protesting the opening of a photo exhibition
depicting Jesus Christ in the company of homosexuals threw rocks at the
photographer when she stepped outside the museum Sunday.

The exhibition, titled ``Ecce Homo,'' has provoked occasional protests since
first being shown in Stockholm last summer. Since then, it has been shown
around the country, including at the Swedish parliament building and at
Uppsala Cathedral, the seat of the Church of Sweden.

On Sunday, it opened at the city museum in Norrkoeping, about 75 miles
southwest of Stockholm.

Several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the museum and some hurled
stones at photographer Elisabeth Ohlson when she stepped outside to photograph
the crowd.

``I went out to document what was going on. It was when they discovered it was
me that the tumult began,'' TT quoted Ohlson as saying. ``I didn't think they
would recognize me.''

Ohlson fled back into the museum. The news report did not say whether she was
hit or injured.

An unidentified person later called in a bomb threat to the museum, but no
bomb was found, the Swedish news agency TT said.

The photographs depict Jesus in various situations involving homosexuals,
including one based on Leonardo da Vinci's ``Last Supper,'' in which the
disciples are portrayed as transvestites.

The showing of the photos in Uppsala Cathedral prompted the Vatican to cancel
a planned visit last year by Karl-Gustav Hammar, the Church of Sweden's
archbishop at the time.

The exhibition's title is Latin for ``behold the man,'' which according to the
Bible is what Pontius Pilate said when presenting Christ to the crowd that was
calling for his crucifixion.


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