Give me a break

Sometimes you just can’t win. I am Catholic and completely fed up with all these other Catholics getting so upset over a little fiction set against the backdrop of the Catholic Church. Seriously, don’t we have a little more to be worried about?

I’m talking of course about Angels and Demons, the latest Dan Brown book made into a blockbuster movie. Catholics far and wide, well, at least vocal ones, are condemning the film as a “gratuitously outrageous” portrayal of the Church. It has been called “outlandish.” I’ve got another word for it: fiction.

Storytelling has been entertaining people for thousands of years. Whether from cavemen around campfires or modern movie makers, we all want to hear a good tale and be entertained. Would Harry Potter be such a smash if it were about a bunch of normal kids? No. Would you care about Harold and Kumar if they just went out and got a few hamburgers? No. Normal kids and fast food are the stuff of ordinary life. We want to see something extraordinary when we go to the movies.

How do you think the Catholics would like the Church portrayed in movies? I saw a movie a few years ago called The Barbarian Invasions. It’s a pretty misleading title, I’ll give you that, but in one scene the son goes to a Catholic Church in Canada. It’s essentially abandoned. All the statues and other religious things are in the basement in storage because the congregation withered away. That’s a pretty realistic portrayal of today’s Catholic Church in Canada – or so I’m told. Where are the news stories of Catholics saying “See? See? This is the true Catholic Church, The Da Vinci Code is sooooo unrealistic.”

One of these vocal bishops somewhere said that it was irresponsible to stir up anti-Catholic sentiment with this movie. I agree that stirring up “anti” sentiment is bad, but we’re not talking about the Holocaust here. We’re not talking about racial prejudice. We’re not talking about anything new, either. The Catholic Church did plenty to stir up anti-Catholic sentiment by covering up decades of sexual scandals. Don’t blame Ron Howard for that. Perhaps the Church should look in one of those fancy, gold covered mirrors in the Vatican museum and stop pointing the finger at Hollywood.

Let’s not even talk about the Church’s stance on female priests, contraception, and abortion. I’m not saying I disagree with the Church. I’m saying the Church has taken strong positions on these issues and these issues are divisive. That stirs up a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment with or without a new movie.

So I’m excited to go see Angels and Demons. I loved the book. So far it’s been a great movie season with X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Star Trek. Don’t even get me started on these two though, they were sooooo unrealistic…