A new TV3 show which features its leading man being given oral sex by a nun in front of a statue of Christ on the cross has been branded "evil" by New Zealand's Catholic Church.
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Californication, which opens on Thursday, stars X-Files hunk David Duchovny as self-destructive novelist Hank Moody who spends the first minutes of the debut episode moving from the church dream scene to performing a sex act on a married woman.

It caused outrage in Australia when it went to air in August, with a Catholic priest holding a candlelight vigil outside the Sydney offices of Channel Ten and major advertisers boycotting the show.

"It's crass, it's desecration, it's seriously sick and actually evil," New Zealand national director of communications Lyndsay Freer told Sunday News. "I think it's going to seriously offend the religious sensibilities of many, many people.

"It's not just the Catholic Church, but people of other faiths all people's faith should be treated with respect."

Bishop of Auckland Patrick Dunn said he was reluctant to draw attention to Californication but felt Christianity was increasingly becoming fodder for controversial TV shows.

"If the setting were in a Muslim mosque, a Hindu temple or a Jewish place of worship would they be as happy to show it?" Bishop Dunn asked.

"My feeling is Christian Churches are regarded as easy targets but they'd be reluctant to show other faiths in these settings."

TV3 is confident there is a market in New Zealand for Californication.

"TV3 has a reputation for being edgy and pushing the boundaries a little," said director of marketing and communications, Roger Beaumont.

"We certainly will be responsible, with warnings on this show to flag it to people who may be offended by it.

"If they still choose to watch it, they do so by their own choice."

Kelly Martin, director of programming for TV3, said: "Californication is a cable show out of the US and we realise it is edgy TV.

"We genuinely believe that the NZ audience is ready for Californication and will appreciate the humour in it."

But Pacific community leader Reverend Mua Strickson-Pua isn't so sure.

"I think for the conservative community there will be outrage," Strickson-Pua said. "For those of faith it's an abomination.

"It reflects that people don't understand religion they don't understand the values that are inherent for the followers."

Freer added: "Sometimes context can justify certain things but in this case (Moody's dream of sex with the nun scene) that is really complete desecration and a person (Moody) who acts in such a contemptible way towards people's deeply-held religious faiths is either a sicko or evil."

Californication is the latest TV show to cause a furore among religious leaders in New Zealand.

Last year, Catholic bishops failed to get the Broadcasting Standards Authority to uphold a complaint over Popetown, a satirical animation set in the Vatican. The complaint said three episodes of the show, which screened on C4, breached codes of good taste, decency and fairness and deliberately insulted the Catholic faith. Offensive elements included mocking the church, the office of Pope, an alcoholic priest, and characters' sexual interaction.

The authority ruled the characters and plots were "so absurd and farcical" no one could reasonably believe they aimed to represent reality. The right to satirise, dramatise and laugh at institutions was the essence of free speech.

In February last year an episode of South Park showed a statue of the Virgin Mary menstruating. Muslims, Christians, Jews and followers of other faiths joined to condemn the show.

- Sunday News