You have a point, that was poor wording on my part about the fluids.  Let me be more specific.<p>Of course, blood has a very central role in Catholic services and doctrine.  Milk is also heavily used symbolically in the bible (Hence I have said to you, &quot;You are to possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.&quot; I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples.) -- but is probably not specifically Catholic.  Semen and that type of &quot;seed&quot; are indeed used a lot in Christian symbolism.  I don&#x27;t know about urine.<p>So...the significance of these fluids is considerable.  People may and do recoil at the notion, but there it is.<p>Have you seen the full series of Serrano&#x27;s work from that time period?  That&#x27;s what I&#x27;d invite you to do, rather than judging His intentions from small photos on the Internet.  To see if there&#x27;s anything in it for you.<p>Yes, I remember Madonna&#x27;s work from that era that engaged those kinds of symbols.  It was just designed to shock, as you say, just pushing buttons.  (She has done better work, &quot;Vogue&quot; still stands up.).<p>But Serrano is really, as I said, more aesthetic and philosophical than just a shock artist.  That&#x27;s why I counterposed Gilbert and George.  That&#x27;s what trying to shock looks like.  (Those photos are life size, e.g. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.candidmagazine.com&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2014&#x2F;07&#x2F;installation-view.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.candidmagazine.com&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2014&#x2F;07&#x2F;ins...</a>, so they make quite an impression.)