Catholics Pissed Over Busty Model's Topless Pics Mocking Pope

Pope Benedict XVI, wherever you are, you may want to cover your eyes right about…now.

A renowned Catholic organization is in a huff over a topless magazine spread featuring a busty British glamour model that pokes fun at the pope’s recent retirement.

Lucy Pinder, a UK model—and sometime reality star—graces the recent cover of Loaded magazine accompanied with the headline, “For God’s Sake!” and the tagline “for men who should know benedict” above its title. The model is wearing black garters, a bejeweled crucifix around her neck, and is holding a diamond-encrusted crucifix up in the air. A crucifix-adorned stole—a liturgical vestment, in a clear nod to the pope—hangs off her arms and she is sporting a loose-fitting shirt, exposing her ample 32G chest. In the accompanying photo spread inside the magazine, Pinder is depicted in various poses: completely topless and on her knees praying, biting the chain of a diamond crucifix (again topless) and, once again, holding that same diamond crucifix up in the air as the stole covers her breasts.

The pictorial enraged Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League—a non-profit Roman Catholic advocacy organization that has an estimated 350,000 members according to their last membership statement released in 1999. The group has previously condemned everything from Kathy Griffin to the films Dogma and The Golden Compass.

“Lucy Pinder shouldn’t have any problem turning men’s heads, so it is all the more gratuitous to see her wearing a priest’s stole, stitched with crosses, nicely covering her plus-sized chest,” Donohue told TMZ. “If Lucy has any guts, perhaps next time she’ll carefully drape herself in some Islamic garb during Ramadan. And then run for the hills.”

Pinder, 29, appears to be nonplussed, telling the website, “The shoot is meant to be fun and very tongue-in-cheek.”

Pope Benedict XVI announced his retirement on Feb. 11, citing his advanced age and the demands, both mental and physical, which came with the post. He became the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415. Some of the rumors surrounding his resignation, meanwhile, are far more scandalous than anything in Loaded.

Founded in 1994, Loaded bills itself as “the original lads’ mag,” and during its peak in the late-‘90s sold over 450,000 copies a month. During the second half of 2011, its circulation had fallen to a measly 34,505, according to The Guardian.

The Pinder pictorial recalls Hustler’s infamous 1983 Campari ad parody depicting minister Jerry Falwell engaged in alcohol-fueled sex with his mother in an outhouse. Falwell sued Flynt for libel, with the Supreme Court eventually siding with Flynt in what was seen as a big victory for free speech. The case was depicted in the Oscar-nominated 1996 film The People vs. Larry Flynt.

Sex sells.

Then again, so does religion.

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