How to deal with "Angels and Demons" film?

I was recently privy to a lively discussion about how the church should deal with the upcoming film "Angels and Demons," the sequel to the ludicrous and anti-Catholic "The DaVinci Code." "Angels" hits theaters May 15.

The consensus seems to be ignore it and not enable controversy, which it fears would add to the ticket demand and ensure that more books from this series be turned into films. They said they were burned with "The Da Vinci Code" and feel that their responses and fear of the film helped its exposure and helped it become one of the biggest box-office grossing films of all time. The opposing, minority argument is that much effort should be made in the public sphere to dispel the errors (and there will be lots of them, if "The Da Vinci Code" is the gauge) and be proactive in educating listeners.

I tend to be of the latter argument. Millions of people are going to see this no matter what. Having a well-thought-out response to the film that people can match the film with is not going to hurt things. Many self-described Catholics are going to see this film whether we ignore it or not. Many youth groups will be dealing with this, so the more we can give them to dispel the Hollywood fabrications and explain Catholic Church teaching, the better.

"It's only a movie" is a popular argument, but it completley dismisses the reality that films and pop music have tremendous influence on the beliefs of the last couple of generations. Why will you find more teens and 20-somethings at the premiere of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" than at Mass? Even though "The Da Vinci Code" was thoroughly debunked by Catholic scholars, it still fed the general skepticism toward religion (particularly Catholicism) that has taken root in our relativist culture. Ignoring and waiting for it to go away hasn't exactly helped the church in recent years. In the words of John Paul the Great, "Be not afraid!"

I'm not saying we have to engage supporters of the film in an aggressive way (no doubt the filmmakers rely on The Catholic League to drive ticket sales), but we should have resources available to explain the inaccuracies to as many as possible and let the truth speak for itself. I have not seen any guides yet (unlike "The Da Vinci Code," where there were many resources prior to the film's release), but as soon as I find some decent online ones, I'll link to them on this blog.

So what do you think? If the Herald ran an "Angels and Demons" response, would we be furthering the mission of the church or would we just be falling into a trap, fueling the fire and padding box office numbers? Is there a solid middle ground?

Below is a story about how the Vatican is non-plussed by the filmmaker's attempt to embroil it in controversy.

'Angels and Demons' fails to generate Vatican outrage

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY. On the eve of its world premiere, "Angels and Demons" was a film in desperate search of controversy. At a press conference in Rome May 3, director Ron Howard tried to pick a fight with the Vatican, suggesting that the long arm of the Holy See was somehow behind unspecified problems in shooting the film, a pseudo-religious thriller based in Rome.

The Vatican wasn't taking the bait, though. The only real criticism in Italy on the eve of the film's premiere came from a 102-year-old Italian bishop -- not exactly the kind of publicity storm that marketing gurus dream about.

Tom Hanks, the film's star, put his finger on the problem at the press conference when he was asked if the movie's marketing people might try to exploit potential conflict with the Vatican.

"Every movie is exploited by the marketing people. There's no such thing as a movie that is not exploited by the marketing people," Hanks said.

"The marketing department of any studio would love to be able to create controversy over their films. But they can't do it on their own; they need a partner," he said.

The movie, based on a novel by Dan Brown, was set to premiere in Rome May 4, and was to open in the United States May 15. It tells the tale of a secret society that kidnaps papal candidates at the start of a conclave, forcing the Vatican to turn to the mystery-solving symbologist Robert Langdon, played by Hanks. Howard began
the press conference with a string of vague accusations against the Vatican. It seemed, he said, that "sort of through back channels and so forth, the Vatican had exerted some influence" to prevent the crews from shooting scenes in a couple of areas where a particular church was in the background.

"I suppose we could have contested this. We didn't," he said.

He added that a screening of the film -- or a reception, he wasn't quite sure -- was moved away from a venue near St. Peter's Square, "and I suppose the Vatican had some sort of influence over that."

"Was I surprised? No. Am I a little frustrated by it at times? Sure," Howard said.

The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, declined to comment on Howard's accusations, saying they were merely designed to generate publicity for the film. Howard also cited the case of retired Italian Bishop Antonio Mennonna, 102 years old, who has signed a legal complaint saying the movie is full of historical inaccuracies and misrepresentations of Christianity.

Howard said his company had earlier offered to screen the film for some bishops and others, but that the invitation was never taken up. In any case, he said, if anyone feels the film will be offensive to them, they shouldn't see it. That prompted Hanks, who had tongue in cheek throughout the press conference, to interject: "No, no, don't
even go! Stay away please! We beg of you!"

Hanks had fun with other inquiries designed to provoke debate with the church. After a reminder to keep questions germane to the film, one reporter asked Hanks if he were a spiritual person and what he thought about the recent controversy over the pope and condoms.

Hanks responded: "Oh, that's germane to the film. I am a spiritual man and because I'm happily married for 21 years, I really don't know what a condom is anymore."

Howard, who directed "The Da Vinci Code," also based on a Dan Brown novel, said that, whatever church leaders may think of these books and films, many people find that it gets them thinking about what they believe.

As a result, he said, church attendance swells and Bible study groups spring up.

"I think that's a positive and constructive thing," he said.

Brown, who made a rare public appearance at the press conference, said he first got the idea for "Angels and Demons" while on a tour near the Vatican. The tour guide mentioned that popes once had to flee along a Roman passageway to escape their enemies, and that got Brown thinking about the scientific "enemies" of the Vatican, which he said "seemed like too good an idea to let go."

In the book "Angels and Demons," modern members of a secret society called the Illuminati plan to destroy the Vatican with antimatter. The Illuminati were a group formed in Bavaria in the late 1700s that historians say survived for only nine years. Conspiracy buffs have speculated that the Illuminati exist yet today, secretly controlling world events.

Brown was asked whether he really believed the Illuminati still exist.

"Did they ever?" he said abruptly. Then he added a defense of his approach to his novels.

"These are fictional stories built around real-world topics. And these stories, it is my hope, spark a lot of interest and research on people's own, to figure out what in these stories is fictional, what is real," he said.

Several weeks ago, Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, signaled that the Vatican would not be jumping into a debate over "Angels and Demons." He said people should be cautious about "the boomerang effect" of calling for a boycott because it could translate into unintended publicity for the movie.

He said the Vatican wasn't worried about people of faith falling for the book and movie's anti-Christian inventions. The Vatican believes Christians are strong -- inoculated by centuries of persecution and testimonials of faith," he said.

Copyright (c) 2009
Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Jubilee men's conference in Springs has Web site

The Rocky Mountain Catholic Men’s Conference, which was previewed in the Dec. 5 issue of The Colorado Catholic Herald, has launched a new Web site with a different address than mentioned in the article.

The new Web site address is http://www.rockymountaincatholicmensconference.com/. The site is active and speaker and registration information will be available soon.

The conference will take place from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. March 21 at Holy Apostles Parish in Colorado Springs.

Bishop Michael Sheridan is scheduled to attend and will conclude the day with a Mass. The conference was originally conceived as a special event for the Diocese of Colorado Springs’ 25th anniversary next year, but its scope has expanded and it is now cosponsored by the Diocese of Colorado Springs and the Archdiocese of Denver.

[UPDATE: The RMCMC link is working again.]

Kevin McHale discusses role of faith in his decision making

Kevin McHale, the hall of fame Boston Celtics forward who is starting his second stint as the Minnesota Timberwolves coach, discussed his faith during a press conference yesterday.

About whether to accept the Timberwolves' offer to coach the team and step down as vice president of basketball operations, McHale said he had to give it a lot of thought and that he came to a decision while in church:

"I guess last night when I was at church; I went to 6 o'clock Mass. I sat there, and I got that calm, peaceful feeling. I thought, 'All right. I'm going to go home and do it," he said during the press conference.

Tonight is McHale's first game behind the bench.

Bullfights

An interesting question was posed this morning on a media e-mail list I am part of... a Catholic school is taking a student trip to Spain and there is the opportunity to attend a bullfight. Should the students go?

I'll post some reaction from the list after we get some thoughts from you.

Archbishop Chaput on separation of church and state

Archbishop Chaput had a strong column in First Things yesterday, saying that recent legislation proposed in Colorado that is supposed to be aimed at having the church play by state rules if it accepts church money is really a far more hostile attack on the church in general.

This is something that I've noticed too over the last three years in witnessing some of the hearings on legislation that affects the church. It seems that the aim is not just to separate church and state, but to bury churches. At the heart of this, I'm starting to believe more and more, is a desire among some in power for an atheistic society. Archbishop Chaput goes so far as to say that, even though statistics say there are more Catholics in the world than any other faith, that the Catholic view is rapidly losing weight in the public arena.

The lesson here for American Catholics is this: For more than forty years, we’ve worked to integrate, accommodate, and assimilate to American society in the belief that a truly diverse public square would have room for authentically Catholic life and faith. We need to revisit that assumption. It turns out that nobody gets anything for free. If we want to influence, or even have room to breathe in the American environment of coming generations, we’ll need to work for it and fight for it—always in a spirit of justice and charity, but also vigorously and without apology. Anyone who still has an easy confidence about the Catholic “place” in American life had better wake up.

We need to fight, indeed, and that means knowing our faith so we can defend it.

Archbishop Chaput's review of "Golden Compass"

We posted this on our Web site yesterday, but in case you missed it... here's an excellent review of the film from Archbishop Chaput in Denver. He went to see it opening night. Here's one point I found particularly interesting:

Strangest of all — and in striking contrast to the Harry Potter and Narnia stories — is the absence of joy or any real laughter in the movie. The talented child actress who plays the film’s leading role is hobbled by a character that is uniformly unpleasant, rebellious, belligerent and humorless; the kind of young person described by one of my parent friends as needing a “long time-out.”

Colorado bishops rip Planned Parenthood

The following statement was released through the Colorado Catholic Conference on Nov. 8:

In early November, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) broke ground on a new headquarters and clinic in northeast Denver. Planned Parenthood
of the Rocky Mountains purchased this property secretly under the guise of Fuller 38 LLC.

Planned Parenthood told The Denver Post that PPRM planned to complete the entire project in secrecy to avoid protests and delays that other Planned Parenthood buildings have encountered around the country. The new PPRM location
is 7155 E. 38th Ave. in Denver. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2008 and the general contractor for the project is the Weitz Company LLC.

The public deserves to know the facts about Planned Parenthood. The national organization is among the leading abortion providers, performing across the nation 264,943 abortion procedures in 2005 alone, a 29 percent increase since 2000. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains has stated that it served 125,000 patients in five states, including Colorado, last year and of those 8,800 received abortions.

Teens and young people are the primary customers for their services and information, which include the distribution of contraception, emergency contraception and chemical and surgical abortions. Nationally 70 percent of Planned Parenthood’s customers are under age 25 and 27 percent are under age 19. Furthermore, Planned Parenthood is a supplier of graphic and explicit sex educational materials. These materials are being used in some of Colorado’s public schools.

Planned Parenthood calls itself pro-child, pro-woman, and pro-family. Yet it is an organization based on falsehoods about the human person, the family and community life.

When a minor comes to Planned Parenthood, she is provided information on contraception, sex education and treatment of STDs without parental notification. How can Planned Parenthood justify calling itself pro-family or pro-child when it intrudes itself between a child and parent?

Planned Parenthood vigorously opposes any legislation that would provide advance medical information pertaining to an abortion procedure, and opposes any legislation that would provide a woman, who is seeking an abortion, knowledge of her unborn child’s development or information regarding alternatives to abortion. Considering the psychological and physical effects of abortion on a woman, how can Planned Parenthood call itself pro-woman and oppose widespread access to advanced information?

We, the Catholic bishops of Colorado, deplore the negative impact of the actions and philosophy of PPRM. We urge the Catholic community and all people of good will to defend themselves and their beliefs against Planned Parenthood by every legal and ethical means at their disposal. We ask all Catholics to pray, within their families and parish communities, that the dignity and sanctity of every human life will be upheld at all stages of development.

Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap.

Archbishop of Denver

Most Reverend Arthur Tafoya, D.D.

Bishop of Pueblo

Most Reverend Michael J. Sheridan, S.T.D.

Bishop of Colorado Springs

The "Conquest of the Americas"

Now that Rockies Nation has had some time to heal from the crushing World Series sweep, it's time for the Herald blog to get back into some serious discussions. Just a heads up, this is a long post...

From time to time, the Herald gets screeners of movies either coming out in theaters or on DVD. Most of the time, they are not box office hits, but low-budget or made-for-TV type family films that companies hope will get some positive press from faith-based papers.

One recent DVD, however, did catch my attention -- "The Other Conquest." Originally released in Mexico in the late 1990s, it has just been re-released on DVD in the U.S. Why a re-release now? We'll get to that in a moment, but the basic plot revolves around the arrival of Cortes and his army and the attempts to Christianize Mexico -- sometimes by brutal force.

The film attempts to explain why some Latin American Catholics and Christians still feel strong ties to their pagan ancestry, causing for an interesting twist on Catholicism. In "The Other Conquest," a Spanish friar is given the task of converting the main character, Topiltzin, whose village is crushed by Cortes' army. Topiltzin is sent off to a monastery, where he develops a devotion to the Virgin Mary but believes himself an Aztec first and foremost in his soul. We see the frustration with the friar's attempt to reach the heart of Topiltzin and compassion with Topiltzin's plight, to the point where the filmmaker asks the question, "Just who is converting who?"

The timing of this re-release is not accidental. High school and college campuses often promote a view of Christianity that makes it seem that it only survived in the Americas by brute force. It's as if Christianity is not realistic and that it duped millions of people over the past 2,000 years. The recent crop of pro-atheism books are evidence of that. "The Mission," one of the finest films ever made about Catholic missionaries in the Americas (even though the filmmaker isn't Catholic) is considered a joke. When Columbus Day recently passed, it was common to see T-shirts around here condeming the holiday. There is a train of thought today that entices people to go back to before Christianity entered the picture, and to embrace the pagan cultures that Christianity converted. I believe this rejection is first and foremost a rejection of the Church's teachings on sex and gender issues, but that's another post.

Now this is not a defense of Cortes and his army's methods. From what we know, they were often brutal and unchristian. There were many other holy men and women who came to the Americas in peace. Some were martyred. But Christianity could not have survived for 500 years if the people did not find some Truth in its teachings. I posed this issue to a friend of mine (who is Mexican and a devout Catholic), and here are some of his thoughts:

As far as Columbus goes…I have no great affinity to the man. If we, as Catholics, want to hold on to an homage for the Spanish for bringing Christ to this continent then we should find out the names of the Franciscans that were on those boats named after Our Lady or the Bishop/Provincial that sent them. Not Columbus…he and the subsequent Conquistadores actions were a scandal to the neophyte and the friar of yesterday and today.

It was Divine Intervention plain and simple that spread our Faith to the masses here in our homeland, in the form of The Virgin of Tepeyac (Guadalupe). The Lord of History sent his faithful and stalwart friars to an unknown land to prepare a path in the wilderness and a teenage girl appeared once again to draw her children near to the Son in her womb.

The paganism of Europe and the Near East has been incorporated (for 2000 years or so) and absorbed by Catholicism so completely that today it is wrongfully considered to be, in the collective psyche of the Western world, completely Christian. Christmas day was hi-jacked from pagan sun worshippers in the 11 century that were celebrating that the shortest day of the year was gone and the days (and the sun) would be getting longer. A Christmas tree is completely pagan and druid in orgin. Easter – Passover – based on the Lunar phases. Even the rituals and secrecy of the early Mass (after being “theologized” by John in Revelations) were influenced and adapted from the near east cult of Mithros brought to Rome by the soldiers.

…segway to today and “mixing” of Catholicism in the Americas with native/pagan beliefs/rites…whether it be Santeria in Mexico, Voodoo in the Carribbean, etc. that has been occurring for only the last 500 years and has not been fully absorbed or incorporated. Europe’s paganism has a 1000 year head start.

I don’t think it is ever a bad thing to reveal beliefs and rituals of different cultures
throughout time …the Truth is the Truth and it is true freedom and over time and
history has saved many from the bondage of many different errant beliefs and
ideologies.

So, what are your thoughts? This is an issue that will not be going away anytime soon, and it is important to have an answer -- especially for those good young men and women who are being led away from Christianity because of this. As we have run our New Age series the last four months or so, we have heard several times the comment that if we get rid of pagan cultures, then get rid of altars, holy water fonts and any other things that Christianity "redeemed" from those cultures.

More on Cardinal Arinze itinerary

In the latest Herald, we printed a Colorado Springs itinerary for Cardinal Francis Arinze, who will be in town this week as the keynote speaker for the national Legatus Conference. In addition to a public talk he'll give, we just learned he will be giving the homily at the
5:30 p.m. Mass Thursday at St. Paul Church. So his public appearances will be:

Wednesday, Sept. 19
3 p.m. Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral
7 p.m. Lecture: "The Apostolate Specific to the Lay Faithful" at Holy Apostles Church (No cost to attend but tickets are required for seating. A limited number of tickets are left and can be acquired by calling Esperanza Griffith at 719-866-6492.)

Thursday, Sept. 20
5:30 p.m. Homily at Mass at St. Paul Church.

Total Consecration to Mary question

A writer asks:

Are there any parishes in Colorado Springs who will be celebrating the St Louis de Monfort Total Consecration to Mary on Aug 15 2007? If so, which one and at what time? I will be visiting from Jacksonville FL, attending the “Why Catholic” conference at the AF Academy and would like to participate.

I have asked around and not found anything at a parish. Do you know of anything going on?

More bioethics from Fr. Tad

Here is a Q&A I did with Father Tad in 2003 at my previous paper, Texas Catholic, where he touches on a variety of important topics, such as euthanasia, do-not-resuscitate and advance directives, pros and cons of a national health-care system, stem-cell research, cloning and fertility methods.

If you have a question for Fr. Tad or would like to see him write about a particular issue, send me the question and I'll pass it along.

Dealing with tests of faith

Excellent Catholic blogger Amy Welborn wrote an outstanding post addressing an L.A. Times column by one of its former religion reporters, William Lobdell, who says that covering the Catholic Church during the abuse scandal helped lead to his decision to drop out of RCIA. Ultimately, he writes that the scandal, plus other tough faith questions that he couldn't answer, led him to pretty much lose his faith altogether.

The questions that I thought I had come to peace with started to bubble up again. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does God get credit for answered prayers but no blame for unanswered ones? Why do we believe in the miraculous healing power of God when he's never been able to regenerate a limb or heal a severed spinal chord?

. . . My soul, for lack of a better term, had lost faith long ago — probably around the time I stopped going to church. My brain, which had been in denial, had finally caught up.Clearly, I saw now that belief in God, no matter how grounded, requires at some point a leap of faith. Either you have the gift of faith or you don't. It's not a choice. It can't be willed into existence. And there's no faking it if you're honest about the state of your soul.

These are questions all of us have struggled with. That is one reason why Welborn's responses are appreciated. Among them:

(H)is justifiable anguish and shock (and God help us when we are not anguished and shocked by these things) could be shared by any Christian during any era, any place. Christianity has never been pure in the human sense, always been a difficult, challenging mix of mostly sinners and a few saints. . . . For years, I had online conversations with a friend about the current scandals. I told him over and over that I really didn't understand how the current scandals could be a deal-breaker for one's Catholic faith, and say, the papal history of the 10th century or the bad Renaissance popes was not. Or, as discussed in comments below, in my Ursulines in Montana post, the way that clergy, especially bishops, sometimes treated founders of new religious orders of women from the post-Reformation era on. Or how the Franciscans battled each other for their legacy in the middle ages.

and

(F)aith is hard. Does anyone really think that faith is easy in the face of the innocent suffering of a child? Or the ravages of Alzheimer's? Or the existence of evil? Or, as we're talking about here, the ironies, paradoxes and counter-witness of the Church?

and

But in the end (at least to me) what is even harder than faith is making sense of reality without God and making sense of what happened 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, period. It is too late at night for me to ramble on about this (thankfully), but simply put - one's faith in Jesus Christ is faith in Jesus Christ. It is more than a challenge, because that whole "Jesus Christ" thing involves this other thing called "Incarnation" which means that, nonsensically, the God became human as a baby, grew up, and was executed by those he had created out of love. The whole thing is almost impossible from the start, and once you throw in the rest of the billions of us, with all of our sins and blindess, it gets crazier still. And even more painful because of how many of us (all of us, perhaps?) use God as a cover for our sins.

There is a lot more to delve into on the original post, and there is an excellent discussion in the comment box. I know several people who left the Catholic Church after the scandals broke. I see their disappointment, but never understood how that could be seen as the reason to just abandon the Catholic Church altogether. To me, it always seemed a weak argument. I think that the doubts of faith were in play long before and the scandals gave them an "out," a dealbreaker as Welborn says.

As she says, faith is hard. Our goal is heaven, not to have a comfortable life here. And an understanding of redemptive suffering is key. Witness the struggle between scientism (which says everything must be proved by science to be real) and faith these days. But having faith in God, in Christ, is not a weakness. I know a man who has been in a hospital for the past year because of skin sores resulting from years of paralysis done by a drunk driver in 1989. Yet you talk to him and, while he is often frustrated by his condition and rightfully has many questions about why this happened to him, he still firmly believes that God is Love. He is firmly against embryonic stem-cell research to cure his condition, too. Is he weak for holding on to his faith and letting his trials strengthen his faith? Why doesn't he just abandon his faith since it hasn't cured him physically (as Lobdell asks)?

Pottermania

CNS photo by Peggy Weber, The Catholic Observer

So... do you have Harry Pottermania? I remember when the series first became popular that it was criticized by some Catholic groups as promoting witchcraft. As the final book of the series gets devoured by millions over the next couple of days, I see many books and articles showing pretty much an about-face on the series, saying that there are many positive lessons to learn from the books. I haven't read the books (I've seen the films) so I don't feel qualified to give an opinion on which side I fall on, but I have several solid, Catholic friends who enjoy the Harry Potter series.


Where do you stand?

Keeping on our toes...

I have a couple of interesting stories from my mini-vacation in Chicago this weekend, stories that have me feeling like a wuss to be honest. I just wrote this out to a family member so let me cut and paste it here and flesh it out a little.

On the back of my car, I have one of those ribbon magnets that you see on so many cars today. Mine is black with a little white "collar" at the top and says "please pray for our priests" (btw, I have about eight extras to sell for $5 each.) When I was flying out of the Springs on Friday morning, the parking lot shuttle bus driver broke the silence of the ride with: "Doesn't God take care of the priests?" I replied, "Huh?" And she said, "You have on your car, "please pray for our priests." but doesn't God take care of them?" I didn't know what to say since I was getting off the bus and folks had planes to catch. I said something like, "It never hurts to pray for them," and then she asked me what I do for a living. I just smacked my head in the terminal at what a weak answer I gave to her prayer question. Of course, I can't get into free will, miracles, power of intercession, etc... in 10 seconds... or maybe I could but I just wasn't quick enough on my feet. On the plane, I started thinking of what Archbishop Sheen would've done and said. At any rate, I'm glad God is keeping me on my toes, but I wish I had said something a little more substantial.

And on the way to a music club Saturday night I overheard a woman talking to her friends and surmizing that her neighborhood is dead because there's a Catholic Church right in the middle of it. She said she wished there was a bar or club there instead. They were walking behind me and I started thinking, did I hear what I thought I heard? And finally after getting up the nerve to turn around and say something a couple of blocks down the road, they had turned off onto another street and were gone. Uggh... God has a lot of work to do with me. I pray for the courage of St. Peter and St. Paul.

How would you have handled either or both of the above situations? Have you found yourself in similar situations? I'd love to hear your stories.