Hollywood Hypocrite

From "The Black Biretta" blog hosted by Padre Giovanni Trigilio

Director Roland Emmerich admitted that he has no time for organized religion. His latest movie 2012 is based on a pagan Mayan prophecy that the world ends that calendar year (December 21). Bad enough he gives credence to ancient folklore, worse yet he trashes Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism, while leaving Islam unscathed. One scene has Saint Peter's Basilica rolling onto the multitude of clergy and laity praying for divine assistance. Every national monument and religious icon is destroyed EXCEPT the the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure located in the center of Mecca, the site of the Hajj. Why? Is the director a Muslim? No. But he fears offending Muslims and incurring a fatwa. So, no Islamic symbol is pulverized in the movie but Christian ones fall like dominoes. PATHETIC. Would a threat of excommunication saved the Vatican? I doubt it. Today, the atheists, agnostics and secular progressives and politically correct FEAR offending anyone of the Muslim faith. How about offending NO ONE, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or Muslim? How about not offending any religion? Either all are exempt or all are fair game. If the bishops and clergy called for a boycott of the movie, some Catholics would go just to be defiant; others out of pure curiosity. REMEMBER LOT'S WIFE !!! One thing you will NEVER see Hollywood ever depict: an apparition of the Virgin Mary calling all men and women on earth to pray the rosary to avert the great chastisement. Why? Just too Catholic. You can show the Devil and the Anti-Christ and aliens and now pagan mythologies but not anything too Christian and certainly not too Catholic.

Growing up, me and my younger brother Joe (who was killed at the age of 33 by a 19 year old underage drunk driver) used to watch the old Hammer Studios horror movies every Friday night. They were all B movies, no gore but plenty of scare (from your own imagination). Greats like Vincent Price (who died a Catholic), Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, et al., would always have a battle between good and evil. Good always won and whenever Satan was being fought, the hero always turned to the local parish PRIEST (not the minister) since he needed Holy Water, or silver blessed in Latin (to make bullets), etc. Even Dracula was defeated by the town's Monsignor who knew that anything holy could destroy vampires or calling out the baptismal name could cure the werewolf. Crosses were good, but crucifixes were better and more efficient. Sure, all fantasy, sci-fi, horror film but the church and the clergy came off as competent authorities on how to defeat evil. That lasted through the gore of the Exorcist and the Omen but then Hollywood decided to make the priest and the Catholic Church the idiotic fools who no longer believe in the devil and diabolical evil OR who have no faith in the supernatural. The heroes now turn to the Evangelical pastor for wisdom and guidance. Then the university professor who is either agnostic or atheist becomes the next expert. He can help translate pagan languages and interpret the pagan rituals of pre-Christian cultures which now Hollywood portrays as the real saviors. Pagans or aliens or technology are held up as sources of hope in the battle between good and evil. Organized religion is seen as part of the problem, not part of the cure. So, movies now have Christians, particularly Catholic clergy being the first to die or mess up or be the token zealot, while the new college scholar or scientist or pagan shaman saves the day. Of course, never cast a shadow on anyone or anything of Islam lest you get a fatwa. But trash the Vatican, Opus Dei, priesthood, sacraments, etc. That is what is shown today on the silver screen. And I think the Devil quite enjoys it.