Now I shall stop spamming and go to bed

[tree_and_leaf]

Unintentionally hilarious statement of the day, from an article about the Vatican banning the crew of Angels and Demons from filming in Roman churches (and quite right, too): The DaVinci Code was also contested bitterly by the arch-conservative Roman Catholic organisation Opus Dei, represented in the film by a ruthless killer monk, although it has no monks.

Right. Because suggesting that Opus Dei is a religious rather than a lay confraternity is, of course, the most objectionable element of the portrayal....

Comments

LOL!

[prelud.livejournal.com]

Maybe Opus Dei wants to keep a slightly sinister image :P I don;t believe the "Catholic Mafia" rumors, but they don`t exactly try to project an image of simpleand kind Franciscan brothers, for example.
That or this sinisterimage is already embedded in the writer`s mind. *rolls eyes*

Re: LOL!

[fpb.livejournal.com]

"Simple and kind Franciscan brothers?" You mean like Lawrence of Brindisi, philosopher and Doctor of the Church, who personally, on horseback, led the charge of 18,000 Austrians against 80,000 Turks? Or Marco d'Aviano, who stayed in Vienna in 1689 when the Emperor had fled, and kept the locals fighting until Jan Sobieski's rescue troops showed up? Or...

Do not be misled by the Franciscan image. Except for the military orders, there is no more aggressive order in the Church, and, except for the Dominicans, no more intellectual. Their job is preaching, and that makes them both pugnacious and risk-takers. And unlike Dominicans, they do not mind getting their hands dirty.

Re: LOL!

[tree_and_leaf]

Maybe their lay assassins felt offended at being forgotten? ;)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I am just grateful that the media seemed to admit from the back of their mouths that the "conservative" Catholics had something to complain about. Incidentally, about "conservative" Catholics, I am willing to bet that the media's favourite rebels - the Richard O'Briens, Hans Kuengs, Andrew Greeleys - would be just as disgusted as the rest of us. This is not a matter of ecclesiology, but of basic fact. But since when has that bothered journalists?

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story...

[tree_and_leaf]

Also, Opus Dei sound vaguely sinister and are therefore always good copy. A bit like the Jesuits used to be.

[tree_and_leaf]

Half the stories one reads in the mainstream press about religion give the impression that the journalists don't have the faintest idea what they're talking about. I always have the impression that they have even less of a clue about the C of E than Roman Catholicism, but I'm not sure if this is true - in which case it might well result from the fact that they at least know that they don't understand Catholicism and its structures - or whether I just notice the mistakes about the C of E more because I'm more familiar with it.

I certainly can't see Hans Küng as a Da Vinci Code fan.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Do they know less about the CofE or about us? I would say that there is no way to measure the fathomless. Only a couple of days ago I found an American complaining that the media had completely missed the point of developments within the Southern Baptist body - calling someone an arch-conservativew whereas the point was that he was an Arminian with a marked dislike for Calvinism. Which, you will agree, is a significant difference in the USA's largest Protestant church. So, really, I would say that all Christians are in the same boat.