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?   

Comments

[Kristy]

I haven't seen or read "Angels & Demons" yet, but I can't think that Ron Howard is a "bigot" because he made this movie. I have heard him interviewed and he seems like a pretty wholesome guy. He is still married to his high school sweetheart, his daughter seems like a sweetie too!

I did read "The DaVinci Code" and I thought it was a pretty good book! The movie was kinda silly lame, but the book was exciting and entertaining. I guess I don't see how a book or a movie, intended as entertainment, can get anyone so cranked up!

When Mel Gibson put out "The Passion of the Christ," there was a contingent of people who were incredibly offended and felt it was anti-Semetic. In that case there is a history of so-called "Passion plays" being put on to incite anti Jewish sentiment. Hitler did it, for example. However, if you don't want to go see Jim Caviezel get beaten and crucified for upwards of THREE HOURS, don't go see it! I haven't seen it and don't want to. I have been to Good Friday mass plenty of times, thank you very much.

By the same token, it is no secret what these Dan Brown books are about . . . He writes thrillers involving vast Catholic conspiracies. They are fiction - with just enough archaeology tossed in to make some people nervous. I just don't see Ron Howard's involvement in the films as evidence of bigotry. He has simply made a movie with the goofy conspiracy theories that are out there already. These stories of Copernicus and Galileo are probably right out of Dan Brown's book.

I am more disturbed by the attitude of Evangelical Christian America that Catholicism is somehow NOT Christianity. They suffer from the delusion that we worship saints and don't really know God. A man in West MI was court ordered to a rehab (apparently run by a religious organization), when they told the patients to pray, he got out his rosary . . . He was told that he couldn't use that for prayer that it was "witchcraft." To me THAT is worse than any ridiculous film OR novel could ever be.

[Michael Wirth]

Kristy,

I am a convert from "Evangelical Christian America" and I can state with confidence that one reason there is so much anti-Catholic bigotry and ignorance of the Catholic Church is because of movies, television shows and literature like 'Angels & Demons'.

The incredible power of audio-visual media to form (directly and indirectly) the worldview of a society is one of Satan's most effective tools.

If someone believes that praying the Rosary is witchcraft, do you think that going to this movie will help him change his mind or confirm him in his error?

[Carla]

Unfortunately, we as Catholics actually support these anti-Catholic books and movies by purchasing them....it appears we are actually feeding the beast that wishes to devour us. Entertaining or not, a faith-buster or not...we should not give our money to these people to go on and produce more. Curiosity killed the cat.