Heaven forbid Madonna ever go more than six days without creating some sort of major controversy. And running over my Madge timeline from the last year (I keep a detailed, stalker-esq accounting of all of Madge’s activities in my head) it appears that she hasn’t offended any major religion explicitly in at least a year. And it’s been quite a while since she’s made a dig at her old favorite – and technically the one in which she is still a member – Catholicism.

So needing a little publicity (because she’s definitely not getting enough of that since the whole A-Rod love triangle ended) Madge decided to dedicate her recent performance of classic hit “Like a Virgin” to the Pope. It’ll get her headlines, but it’s actually not nearly as shocking as you’d think.

Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet tour hit Rome on on [sic] Saturday, September 6th. Playing to a crowd of 60,000 people, Madonna dedicated her song “Like a Virgin” to the Pope, saying, “I dedicate this song to the pope, because I’m a child of God. All of you are also children of God.” According to Reuters, “Italian newspapers gushed over the singer’s electric performance and called the dedication a surprising provocation.”

[From the Huffington Post]

It could be argued either way that Madonna was trying to stir shit up with her comment, but I think it was rather all-encompassing and inclusive rather than anything else. She’s had excommunication threatened on her many times and obviously has a sometimes unusual and tense relationship with the church – what with her attending Kabbalah services more than anything else. But considering her lack of specificity, it just sounds like she was making a point of unity. Here’s a clip. Header photo of Madonna in concert on August 23rd. Images thanks to PR Photos.