Sinéad O’Connor ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II on *Saturday Night Live*.
The incident happened on October 3, 1992, during O’Connor’s second performance of the night. She sang an a cappella version of Bob Marley’s “War,” changing some lyrics to protest child abuse and what she viewed as the Catholic Church’s failure to confront it. At the end, she held up a photograph of the pope, tore it into pieces, and said, “Fight the real enemy.”
The image came from her late mother’s bedroom and showed Pope John Paul II. O’Connor had reportedly planned the protest without telling the show’s producers, so the studio audience and crew were caught off guard. The broadcast ended in stunned silence rather than applause.
A common mix-up is confusing this moment with Madonna’s later 1993 *SNL* performance, when Madonna tore up a picture of Joey Buttafuoco. O’Connor’s protest became one of the most controversial moments in the show’s history and severely damaged her standing in the American music industry.