"The Passion of the Crust"

It's Good Friday and Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza in Dongan Hills, New York is running a Lenten promotion aimed at Catholics abstaining from meat.

Their Lenten-specialty pizza features tender chunks of lobster, crabmeat and shrimp drizzled with a champagne and blackberry brandy cream sauce, tomatoes and scallions scattered above a layer of homemade fresh mozzarella cheese. Atop a cheese and coconut-infused 10-inch crust, it's a veritable slice of heaven.

But some say the name the pie's creators picked for the pizza, the "Passion of the Crust," is as sinful as the cheesy seafood masterpiece is delicious.

The restaurant's co-owner, Scot Cosentino, a Scientologist, and executive chef Sal Russo, a Catholic, insist they mean no disrespect.

"We wanted to give everybody a chance to have a special pizza," Russo explained, adding that the pie has been popular since it was introduced at the start of Lent, and especially so on Fridays, when Catholics are enjoined to abstain from meat.

And the name, both said, derives from their passion for pizza, and the special coconut crust.

"We're very passionate when we describe our pizza to our customers," Russo said. "They start to drool."

But though he said the pie "is nothing against the church," he gestured to the old-fashioned brick oven where the Passion pizza was turning a gooey golden brown and joked that he sometimes sees a heavenly light shining from inside. "If you listen very closely, you can hear the voices of the archangels," he said.

Some are not amused.

"It's taking advantage of a term that I hold very sacred," said John Tiplady, sports coordinator at St. Margaret Mary's R.C. Church in Midland Beach. "I think they could have come up with something else."

Russo said pizzeria staff called St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan to try to arrange for an official blessing of the pie, in preparation for his journey to Las Vegas on April 1 to enter it in the International Pizza Challenge. But an archdiocesan official called back and said the name of the pizza was too controversial, he said.

"I think the owners probably intended to do a very good thing in providing a seafood pizza," said Sister Lois Darold of St. John Villa Academy. "I think perhaps they didn't realize the title of this new pizza might be considered a little in poor taste.

"I don't think there was any intent to make fun of the Catholic religion and the Christian experience. I'm not personally offended, except that I would have preferred a pizza that probably tastes very delicious would have a name that is a little more respectful."

Personally, I think the name of the pizza is pushing it. I find it offensive. I think it's in poor taste, but I'll move on.

I won't be rioting or acting out violently because a restaurant chose to create and name a pizza that references Christ's Passion.

As for the restaurant's co-owner, Scot Cosentino, a Scientologist, and executive chef Sal Russo, a Catholic, while they have to deal with a bit of controversy, they're benefiting by getting a lot of free advertising. I suspect they'll profit rather than suffer.