(RNS) A recent satirical cartoon in the Boston Globe depicting a Catholic nun beating a school-age Mel Gibson is stirring controversy among Globe readers, prompting many to cancel subscriptions in anger and disgust.

The cartoon, by Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Pat Oliphant, shows a nun holding a ruler, hovering over a battered and bloody schoolboy with a light bulb over his head. The caption reads: “In his early school days little Mel Gibson gets beaten to a bloody pulp by Sister Dolorosa Excruciata of the Little Sisters of the Holy Agony, and an idea is born.”