Anamchara

A TRAVESTY AT NOTRE DAME: THE HONORING OF PRES. OBAMA

I'd love to let this rest, but it's just impossible.  Again, the problem is with the school administration, not President Obama.  He came with a rather conciliatory message.  And if I heard right, he wants a conscience clause in any health care bill provision to protect those who refuse to do abortions.  That's good.  However, his argument was based on the primacy of tolerance, that reasonable people can disagree over the abortion issue and that we all want to make abortions fewer.  But the nice words belie the facts--he's making them easier to get.  Say one thing; do another.  I've come to expect that from him.  He is no friend to our Catholic faith.  Let his actions speak his values. (You can check out the text of his speech here.)

The real travesty was Fr. John Jenkins whose introductory speech sounded suspiciously like those French Revolution/Napoleonic prelates who threw the ancient faith overboard in their haste to make peace with the secular government.  He lauded Obama in almost Messianic terms and then added that Catholics are against his position on abortion but other than that he really is the Messiah.  One looks for a change in the library mosaic. (Check out his speech here (May 17 entry)).   Really, it was quite pathetic as was the wording of the honorary law degree which formalized the worshipful words of the university president.  A sad day for a once great university.  And Catholics in this nation are now further divided. 

STAR TREK: BOLDLY GOING AGAIN!

 

IT'S HERE.  IT'S GREAT. GO SEE IT.

What a superb way to kick off the summer film season!  I do have a confession to make.  I've seen ever episode of every Star Trek series (with the exception of the animated ones), some many times over.  I've even been to an annual Star Trek Convention (2007 if you must know).  So I guess I've earned the title trekkie or trekker or whatever they're calling us fanatics of the Star Trek Universe.

So I'm actually a good person to review this film.  Why?  Because those of us who grew up on the original show don't like strangers messing with the mythos.  We like our Kirk to be Kirk, and our Spock to think logically.  Be at peace.  If you are like me, you will be amazed, astonished, and very pleased with the new version of our old friends.  J. J. Abrams, the director, has a cast that brings new depth to familiar faces.  What's more, he makes you believe these are younger versions of Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, Takei, Koenig and the rest who made us yearn to go into space ourselves.

Never the less, this is a reboot.  That means things happen that are different than what we expect.  History is altered and that leaves the door wide open for more sequels.  And people are going to want them.  This will be the biggest movie of the summer.  There's no allegory, no hidden meaning, just good clean fun--space opera at its best.  Speaking of which, the soundtrack is a treasure to listen to--even the operatic parts. Take the kids, take grandma and grandpa, but most of all take yourself and beam aboard the new Enterprise for a whole new experience of Space, the Final Frontier. 

ANGELS AND DEMONS: WHERE ARE YOU AUNT BEA AND THE FONZ?

 

RON HOWARD:  THE MAKING OF AN ANTI-CATHOLIC BIGOT

****Check out a newspaper version of this article here.

When Opie did something wrong on the andy griffith show or Richie Cunningham screwed up on happy days, one could always count on Aunt Bea setting the kid straight or the Fonz slapping the teenager around to knock some sense in him.  No more.  Opie's all grown up and Richie's graduated.  Ron Howard is a major movie director now and gives us one more Catholic bashing movie, angels and demons, based on Dan Brown's novel of the same name and starring Tom Hanks in a reprise of his role as symbologist Dr. Robert Langdon.

The movie is about a vengeful group of modern day Illuminati who wish to punish the Church for an old massacre of their members.  Along the way, the secret to life is found which the Church has hidden in order to protect itself--yada, yada, yada.

In an op-ed attacking William Donohue, President of the Catholic League, who has delineated exactly why the movie is anti-Catholic, Howard denies that bias saying, "After all, in angels and demons, Professor Robert Langdon teams up with the Catholic Church to thwart a vicious attack against the Vatican.  What exactly, is anti-Catholic about that?"

Let me count the ways.  First of all, if it is possible to paint the Church in a bad light, Howard does so.  The movie claims Copernicus was killed by the Church--wrong, he died an old man supported by the Church.  The movie claims the Church slaughtered a group of Illuminati around the time of Galileo--that secret society did not exist until one hundred years after the eminent astronomer's death, and the Church never did any action like that against this group  Howard went out of his way not to offend Muslims since in the book a Moslem assassin is the bad guy.  No so in the movie.  How come they get such sensitivity and we get the back of Howard's hand?  As Donohue writes, "If only Hollywood treated Catholics as if they were Moslems."

Howard as been stung by Donohue's criticism.  You can read Howard's piece here.  The Curt Jester has a great satiric piece here using Howard's method to satirize Howard himself.  No one is going to lose their faith watching this slick movie.  But aren't we just a little tired of Catholic bashing?