New York (Reuters) -- A life-size sculpture of a naked Jesus made out of chocolate has angered a Roman Catholic organization and forced a Manhattan art gallery to reconsider exhibiting it during Easter week.

The sculpture "My Sweet Lord" by Cosimo Cavallaro was to be exhibited for two hours each day next week in a street-level window of the Roger Smith Lab Gallery in Midtown Manhattan.

It was set to open Monday, days before Good Friday when Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus.

"We're considering our options," Matthew Semler, the gallery's artistic director, said on Friday. "We're still assessing the situation."

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights called for a boycott of the accompanying Roger Smith Hotel, writing to 500 religious and secular organizations.

"This is an assault on Christians during Holy Week," said Kiera McCaffrey, director of communications for the league, which describes itself the largest U.S. Catholic civil rights group.

"They would never dare do something similar with a chocolate statue of the prophet Mohammad naked with his genitals exposed during Ramadan," she said.

Semler said the hotel had no knowledge of what the gallery planned to show and was being unfairly targeted. Moreover, he said the work was not irreverent.

"It's intended as a meditation on the Holy Week," Semler said of the sculpture, which depicts Jesus as if on the cross.

A photo of the piece on the artist's Web site shows the work suspended in air.

The Catholic League has no intention of bringing legal action but seeks to punish the hotel with a boycott because "they're the ones bringing this into the mainstream, in the heart of Manhattan, for any child holding his mother's hand to see," McCaffrey said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/30/chocolate.jesus.reut/index.html

I don't really find it offensive and I am a Roman Catholic, I respect "art". I've been bashed so many times because of my religious beliefs, it's made me understand that not all people have respect when it comes to religion.

i personally dont like it i understand its art but i just doesnt look right and i dunno about him being naked but w/e its not my battle

It makes me really sad that there is so little respect for Christian beliefs in this country. McCaffery had it right when she said that had the sculpture been of Mohammed it would never have been tolerated. The public outcry would have been so huge, and all of the anti-Americans out there (including a surprisingly and saddening number of our own citizens) would have jumped on it to show how awful and intolerant we are... but since it is against Christianity, no-one seems to notice or care. I think that the Forefathers would be disgusted with the way that people twist their words to think that "Freedom OF religion" was supposed to mean "Freedom FROM religion". Arrgh. Alright, stepping off of my soapbox.

i dunno...i mean...it's art. yeah it's going to offend some people. maybe they wouldn't ever do one of mohammed...so what? there's a lot of stuff people won't do for fear of offending others. yay for freedom of expression :)

It makes me really sad that there is so little respect for Christian beliefs in this country. McCaffery had it right when she said that had the sculpture been of Mohammed it would never have been tolerated. The public outcry would have been so huge, and all of the anti-Americans out there (including a surprisingly and saddening number of our own citizens) would have jumped on it to show how awful and intolerant we are... but since it is against Christianity, no-one seems to notice or care. I think that the Forefathers would be disgusted with the way that people twist their words to think that "Freedom OF religion" was supposed to mean "Freedom FROM religion". Arrgh. Alright, stepping off of my soapbox.

I could not have said it any better.

I dont see a problem with the artwork but I do disagree that it is naked.