"Austrian bishop allows ‘Jesus clock’ made from upside down corpus with broken arms to be installed in church"

lifesitenews.com

"Bishop Hermann Glettler of Austria gave permission for an artist to install a salvaged corpus from a crucifix that serves as a clock within the sanctuary of the historic Spitalskirche in downtown Innsbruck.

From the hands of artist Manfred Erjautz, 53, and dubbed 'Your Jesus,' the upside-down wooden corpus projects from a mechanism on a shaft that is embedded in the torso. The severed arms of the sculpted icon of the Crucified mark the minutes and seconds on the timepiece. There is no clock face in the installation on the wall of the historic baroque Spitalskirche that continues throughout Lent.

A professed fan of modern art and supporter of religious art, Bishop Glettler is allowing similar artwork to be put in place in churches throughout his diocese.

Erjautz supposedly saved a 150-year-old carved wooden corpus from destruction and ravaged it for a new purpose. The repurposed image of the Redeemer was praised by Bishop Glettler, who counts Erjautz as a friend. Commenting on the piece, the bishop said, 'The Cross is neither an arbitrary decoration nor a symbol of power. It must be reviewed and studied in depth. Manfred Erjautz with his Jesus clock in the church causes not only a new reflections on the Cross, but confronts us with serious questions about the essence of life.'...

At Innsbruck’s Cathedral of St. James, Bishop Glettler permitted an artist to install scaffolding featuring an inscription that read: 'So long as God has a beard, I will be a feminist.'...

According to Catholic tradition, sacred images that are damaged or beyond repair should be buried."