The Catholic Free Press did us a good turn in publishing the CNS article on the Movie The Golden Compass [Critics debate merits of 'The Golden Compass' CFP 12/7/2007].
The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig (007) is based on the books by atheist Philip Pullman. Pullman has declared "I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief." His character Mary Malone, in The Amber Spyglass (the third volume of his trilogy), says, "The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake." The atheism and Anti-Christian themes in the Pullman books have been toned down in the movie in an attempt to prevent the outrage that could prevent the making of the second and third movies of the Pullman trilogy. However, as the CFP article pointed out, many Catholics rightly worry that children seeing this mildly anti-Christian movie will want to read the strongly atheistic and Anti-Christian books.
What is most troubling is that movie reviewers from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have written a mostly positive movie review, with none of the moral caveats one would expect from a Bishop, and now the Movie publicity campaign has taken this review and is promoting this anti-Catholic movie as "'entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching' - the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops." As if parents do not have enough of a problem limiting the corruption of their children in todays self-centered culture.
The Bishops need to take back control of the USCCB, and fire Harry Forbes, Director of the U.S. Bishops' Office for Film & Broadcasting, for writing this execrable review and for putting our Bishops in the position of endorsing scandal.
14 comments :
It didn't do well at the box office this weekend. It may not be around long enough to be much of a threat.
A great informative posting, Jay.
I did see a debate on Fox News, and it was cited by the supporter of the film that the Catholic Conference of Bishops were favorable in its review of the film. I was very troubled by this. However, when it was made clear that it was not the Bishops, but the board of film critics, then I fully realize what a disservice this board has done.
Yes, the Bishops should "fire Harry Forbes, Director of the U.S. Bishops' Office for Film & Broadcasting"
It would appear [based upon his flawed review of The Golden Compass] that Mr. Harry Forbes has misplaced a compass of his own: his moral compass. Pray for him. And pray for the U.S. Bishops: that they exercise more discretion as a body in the future when dealing with movie reviews.
On another note, Keene State College appears to be politicizing the Holocaust to advance an anti-Catholic, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual/same-sex "marriage" agenda.
Please visit La Salette Journey to add your own thoughts. There is much at stake not only in the Monadnock area of New Hampshire but beyond.
Thank you & God love you all,
Paul Anthony Melanson
cleghornboy@juno.com
I want to apologize to JayG and all readers of this great Blog. When adding "priests for life" at my links section, I inadvertently did something which must have deleted the DTF link. I just noticed this - have been very busy with many projects.
Please be assured that this was completely unintentional and that the link to DTF goes back up right now. Jay, keep up the great work!
God bless you all,
Paul.
DTF now has pride of place at the top of my links list....even above EWTN...:)
http://newshub.cnslis.com/2007/12/10/usccb-withdraws
-review-of-the-golden-compass/
Thank you very much Paul, and for all the good work you do. I also noticed the CNS story (via SpiritDaily) where the Bishops withdrew the Movie Review of the Golden Compass by Harry Forbes.
Now they just need to fire him too.
Thanks Jay. DTF is doing a tremendous job. Did you see how Michael Brown is reporting that Marshall Ganz, a co-founder of the dissenting group VOTF, is now advising the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Barack Obama?
Read here:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.
com/new.php?n=11219
I wonder if he'll ask Barack to "Keep the Faith, change the Party"?
:)
VOTF - they're not just for Suburban parishes anymore.
During Christmas, we should all meditate upon this passage from the Catechism:
"Envy is a capital sin. It refers to the sadness at the sight of another's goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes grave harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:
St. Augustine saw envy as "the diabolical sin."327 "From envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity." - CCC, 2539.
During Christmas, we should all meditate upon this passage from the Catechism:
"Envy is a capital sin. It refers to the sadness at the sight of another's goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes grave harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:
St. Augustine saw envy as "the diabolical sin."327 "From envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity." - CCC, 2539.
A priest from the Worcester Diocese has given a homily in which he attempted to convince his parishioners that Mary sinned (in her thoughts) just as the rest of us do. Mr. Melanson has covered this whole scandal at his Blog. What are your thoughts?
Michael Cole
mcole1977@hotmail.com
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