The Catholic League and its president, Mr. Bill Donohue attacked a children’s movie The Golden Compass starring Nicole Kidman and James Bond. Says Donohue: “Throughout the film, confession is trivialized, celibacy is ridiculed, the Virgin Mary is disrespected, nuns are belittled, last rites are mocked, and priestly vocations are caricatured. In short, that which is uniquely Catholic is trashed.”
Nothing enrages the Granny more but ungodly, hypocritical Holier than Thou attitude. More of Donohue: "Unsuspecting (emphasis A.G.) parents who take their children to see the movie may be impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present. And no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part of these books."
Do not buy them kids books, send them to Catholic priests like John Geoghan instead. This fellow is now in prison for "playing" with a child. Take Rev. Joseph Birmingham a priest in Boston Arcihedose who, allegedly abused at least 50 boys during his 29 years long tenure. What would he have to say about peril of books that question an institution, the one that gave him a refuge during hard times of facing his victims? Or perhaps Rev. Paul R. Shanley who is awaiting a trial on charges he raped four boys could shad some light to the crucial issues like a movie? What about Rev. Ronald H. Paquin who is serving 12 to 15 years for rape? What is so “uniquely Catholic” about all those guys?
Where was The Catholic League during twenty and nine long years of Birmingham's undisturbed sexual crimes?
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington picked up slightly slimmer tap when it has reached a $1.3 million settlement with 16 men who were sexually abused by priests between 1962 and 1982.
It is outrageously offensive what the Catholic Church has been doing for decades, shushing up witnesses and victims alike by orchestrating harassment and bribes, by hiding such hideous crimes and ungodly betrayals of everything that is holly and sacred, like the trust of children and their parents. The League's principles are "Motivated by the letter and the spirit of the First Amendment," the Catholic League states and adds that it "works to safeguard both the religious freedom rights and the free speech rights of Catholics whenever and wherever they are threatened." These noble causes apparently do not preclude the League and its president to, in fact, seek a denial of the same right to others. Sometimes like in this instance those "others" are filmmakers and sometimes the "others" are innocent victims of Catholic Church's decades long sexual abuses.
4 comments:
We just got back from watching the Golden Compass. I enjoyed it, though I'm not exactly sure it is a kid's movie (there's a scene where one of these polar bear guys rips the jaw off of another polar bear and it's pretty graphic...).
Anyway, it is fictional, perhaps there are undertones of religiosity that I didn't pick up on, but it was a pretty innocent movie.
Because there were people dressed in black suits they're ridiculing priests? I don't get it.
Perhaps the Catholics were offended by seeing the movie's portrayal of a massive organization which "tells people what to do" and claims they're supporting the greater good, even while they steal the souls of young children and commit atrocities such as murder and genocide, all the while attempting to kill off the other religions.
That's not much of a spoiler, but it loosely wraps up some of the elements of the movie.
Oh Catholics...the least tolerant of all religious fanatics.
pft! ok, haven't seen the movie yet but i'm planning to as soon as i finish reading the book again (can't remember what happened) frankly, pullman (the author) is a genius and, though it is a children's/young adult's book you'll appreciate it more as you're older and can pick up on his nuances. I HATE (and i do not use that word lightly) hypocrits, especially when they're zealots and being attatched to any kind of religon just makes it worse. Here is a good bit of the book: The main character, Lyra, has just rescued a little boy who, essentially has had his soul cut away and, in pity and compassion, holds him as her armored bear friend takes them back to their camp and party of people. When they get back these grown adults all pull back from this "mis-formed" child who has no dǽmon (soul). The bear then says to them, "Shame on you! Think what this child has done! You might not have more courage, but you should be ashamed to show less." Why should something that teaches this kind of compassion be ridiculed for something as trivial as that it makes fun of the church? Shouldn't we be teaching how to show love and compassion no matter what form the lesson?
As for the catholic church: the bigger it is, the harder it falls... and what goes up, must come down. Has anyone shouted "TIMBER!!" yet?
Hopefully this won't shock too many people out there, but, I'm a Catholic and I do agree with what is being said here. Many Catholics are intolerant of ideas or people which are different from the status quo or who question their ideology. Peter Berger said "we question least that with which we are most familiar" and that is the tract that most Catholics take. They never question anything they do in the name of religion, they just do what they have been told to do.
The problem with the Catholic Leagues booklet is that it takes away from the 'Christian' (sorry to belt you over the head with that) elements of the book: forgiveness, acceptance, compassion and focus on the only point that they can see, the atheistic focus of the book, when it is actually promoting Christian values.
The other problem is that they suffer from tunnel vision, I quote from the book, from the TCL booklet: “Ever since Pope John Calvin had moved the seat of the Papacy to Geneva and set up the Consistorial Court of Discipline, the Church’s power over every aspect of life had been absolute. The Papacy itself had been abolished after Calvin’s death, and a tangle of courts, colleges, and councils, collectively known as the
Magisterium, had grown up in its place.”
The CL was so caught up in the anti Religion message of the book that they failed to realise that it doesn't directly attack the Catholic Church, but all organisations that attempt to control people's lives. The Church has been abolished in the book. If anything you can take this section and flip it around. Depending on your reaidng of this comment it can change your whole view of the book to the idea that this is what can happen when you allow your beliefs to be controlled by fundamentalists and be corrupted. Hmm anyone drawing any lines here between the CL and the book.
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