(LifeSiteNews) — German car manufacturer Porsche edited a video to include a statue of Jesus, which it had originally removed from a new ad, after the company received backlash.
Porsche released a 2 ½-minute video to announce “the new 911 S/T” and celebrate “60 years of the Porsche 911.”
On Saturday, a user of social media platform X, formerly Twitter, posted two images featuring the Cristo Rey statue in Lisbon, Portugal. In one photo — a screenshot from the recent Porsche advertisement — the figure of Christ is edited out, leaving just the pedestal in the background. In the other, the full 133-meter (nearly 440 feet) statue is seen from the same view but with Jesus’ depiction unedited.
“Hey, @Porsche, why did you erase the statue of Jesus Christ from your video filmed in Lisbon?” reads the post that has been viewed on X at least 5.7 million times since August 5.
Hey, @Porsche , why did you erase the statue of Jesus Christ from your video filmed in Lisbon? pic.twitter.com/VxcfUBrN8D
— Alex B. (@maisumcarneiro) August 5, 2023
The original video was then made private on YouTube, with an updated version released Sunday with no edits made to the clip featuring the Cristo Rey.
A representative from the company later told MailOnline that editing the depiction of Christ “was a mistake” and offered an apology “for any offence caused.”
While X users shared resounding sentiments of disappointment and wondered why Porsche felt the need to film from an angle that would tempt them to remove a symbol of Christianity from the shot, the Coalition for Canceled Priests went a step further, encouraging people to “boycott @Porsche” with the message that “JESUS CHRIST IS KING.”
Boycott @Porsche
JESUS CHRIST IS KING. pic.twitter.com/tTevgyHw4F
— Coalition for Canceled Priests (@canceledpriests) August 7, 2023
The effort to hide the fundamentally Christian symbol comes at the end of World Youth Day 2023, which was held in Lisbon, Portugal for the past two weeks. The annual tradition among Catholic Christians, instituted by St. John Paul II in 1985, has stirred up considerable controversy this year with many questioning some of the messages being sent to youth by Church leaders.
As early as February, parents sought answers as to why the event seemed to support the United Nations’ pro-abortion 2030 Agenda. Reports of notoriously pro-LGBT Fr. James Martin addressing the youth also raised concerns, leaving Catholics disappointed that such an opportunity for evangelization was being permeated by messages directly contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
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