BY CHRISTINA FARRELL
SINGER CHARLOTTE Church has ridiculed Catholicism.
The Channel 4 pilot episode of The All New Charlotte Church Show, filmed in London last week, allegedly features the Cardiffborn songstress dressed as a nun, taking communion wafers in the shape of smiley face Ecstasy pills. With coperfomer actor John Altman she then pretends to hallucinate before taking part in a chapel rave, shouting: "Love WI love Running."
Ms Church also reportedly describes Pope Benedict XVI as a Nazi and makes jokes about the Queen, Diana, Princess of Wales, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela. In another sketch she is said to smash a statue of the Virgin Mary and stub chewing gum on the face of the Child Jesus.
As a 12-year-old Miss Church, a Catholic, was invited to the Vatican to sing for Pope John Paul 11. However, she has since insisted that her grandmother told her she had to be "ridiculously respectful".
After reports suggested that Pope Benedict did not
approve of children reading Harry Potter books, Miss Church said: "I don't like this new Pope."
The multi-millionairess, the girlfriend of Welsh rugby union player Gavin Henson, is hoping to compete with BBC's Jonathan Ross.
Critics said the antiCatholic line was hackneyed, having been already tried by Madonna and Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, who famously ripped up a poster of the Pope on stage.
Miss Church has been feted for her "voice of an angel" classical recordings, and her website features a Make Poverty History band. But the decision to turn from diva into pop princess appears to have backfired.
Bishop Edwin Regan Of Wrexham told reporters that "it all sounds very distasteful".
Fellow Welshman Fr Shaun Middleton of St Francis of Assisi, Notting Hill, London, said: "I'm sure they'd be shocked at her home parish of St Mary of the Angels, Canton. But all things considered I'm convinced that one day she will see the light."