Sensitive C4 nervous at screening church send-up

C4 is weighing up whether to go head-to-head with the Catholic Church again by screening an episode of South Park featuring the Virgin Mary.

The latest series in the animated comedy for adults includes an episode called Bloody Mary.

It includes the discovery of a bleeding statue of Mary in a nearby town, and South Park characters go there hoping to be healed.

In the US, Comedy Central screened it once last year but pulled a repeat showing after pressure from the Catholic League of Religious and Civil Rights, who said it "defiled" Mary.

C4 spokeswoman Amanda Wilson said C4 had neither seen the episode nor decided whether it would screen.

"We need to sit down and think about whether to run the episode, given a lot of people internationally were not happy with it. After Popetown we are a bit sensitive on that point."

Lyndsay Freer, the communications manager for the Catholic Church in New Zealand, said she had not seen it, but expected the church would have strong objections to its screening.

"On the face of it, it is a scurrilous attempt to lampoon Mary the mother of Jesus, and it is completely unacceptable that any broadcaster can claim the right to lampoon one who is so deeply loved and esteemed."

The Catholic Church has already complained to the Broadcasting Standards Authority about C4 screening Popetown - another animated series set in a fictional Vatican city.

The authority has not upheld any of the complaints about Popetown.