January 22, 2004

Chutzpah Squared III

Well, the Vatican has spoken. In Chutzpah Squared I chided Frank Rich for raising the ludicrous idea that the Vatican was incapable of correcting the record itself if the Pope did not say those words. In Chutzpah Squared II I was incredibly ticked off about a CNS item that claimed the words were not uttered. I declared "Unless this story has more twists left to play out, all enthusiasm I had about this movie has drained clean away."

One final twist does seem to be in the cards. The news story linked above has both the full Vatican statement in translated english and the original italian. This can be confirmed at the official website so this is likely to be the final posting in the series.

The end result is that the Vatican's official policy is that film makers should not be submitting their art for papal blessings. Don't do it. The Pope is not an art critic even if the physical man that holds the office used to be in the theater. However, it does seem to be a gospel based historical film.

I, once again, will be enthusiastic and looking forward to seeing the film in the theater.

Villains in the piece: Frank Rich, CNS
Heroes: Gibson, official Vatican Channels, the nameless heroes who champion the Vatican website

HT: National Review Online

Technology does matter and can cure a lot of the vile manipulations that have plagued the Vatican historically. This is a nice case study on a minor point.

Posted by TMLutas at January 22, 2004 02:05 PM