Posted on 04/27/2011 8:10:30 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
(RNS) In its new Sunday night series, The Borgias, Showtime has found the magic combination for ultimate crowd appeal in a scintillating soap opera about a bad-boy pope.
The Borgias follows the quasi-historic story of the Spanish noble family who, with the ascent of Rodrigo Borgia as Pope Alexander VI in 1492, brought a nighttime-television-style era of debauchery to the papacy.
The Borgias were infamous for simony — buying and selling church offices and sacraments. In their case, they bought the papacy through bribery and coercion.
But don’t forget the sexual promiscuity, bribery, double-crossing, incest, blackmail, murder, poisoning and all manner of unabashedly sinful behavior.
The debut episodes of The Borgias on Sunday (April 3) opened with scenes of intrigue and titillation. Called to the death bed of Pope Innocent VII, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (Jeremy Irons) plots to become the next pope by any means necessary.
Meanwhile, his eldest son Cesare (Francois Arnaud) — an 18-year-old bishop of the church — and his fetching paramour engage in an athletic sexual encounter while his adolescent sister Lucretia (Holliday Grainger) watches through an open window.
Some viewers likely went scrambling to Wikipedia to look up the Borgias during those opening scenes, curious about these cardinals (and popes) who had lovers and children. According to the series, Borgia had numerous children by several mistresses; Pope Innocent VIII fathered a dozen offspring as well. In the 15th century, at least according to The Borgias, it was commonplace for Catholic clerics to have mistresses and large families despite their vows of celibacy.
At a time when stories of clergy sex abuse still regularly make international news, naughty popes and Catholic leaders behaving badly might strike a certain resonance with viewers, if fueled by nothing more than a sense of schadenfreude.
As the debut episodes unfold, Rodrigo buys his way to the throne of St. Peter; a cardinal is poisoned at a lavish dinner with other princes of the church; another cardinal is framed for murdering a chambermaid in his bed; and a traitorous assassin is paid to do the Borgia family’s dirty work.
But wait, there’s more: the new pope uses a tunnel from the Vatican to the villa of the murdered cardinal for regular rolls in the hay with his new mistress; his old mistress, meanwhile, promises to remain chaste now that the father of her children occupies the papal throne.
In short, the papacy has rarely looked worse than it does in The Borgias. And maybe that’s part of its appeal.
Not surprisingly, the arrival of the tawdry papal soap opera in the middle of Lent did not go unnoticed by the New York-based Catholic League, the perennial defenders of any and all perceived pop culture assaults directed at the Catholic Church.
In recent statements, Catholic League president Bill Donohue questioned why Vatican officials hadn’t formally protested The Borgias.
“For one thing, Catholics are used to being slammed by Hollywood, so The Borgias hardly shakes them,” Donohue said. “Catholics don’t expect perfection from (their) clergy. This, however, is beside the point. The most immediate issue is why Showtime decided to gift Catholics with this series during the Lenten season.”
An obvious answer is that this is the high season for all things spiritual. During Lent — with its fasting, abstaining, ashes, rituals and holy days — religion is a hot topic.
The Catholic Church is an evergreen for pop culture clashes. There’s something about Catholicism that seems to lend itself so well to film and television and capture the popular imagination with a kind of passion that, say, Presbyterianism or Lutheranism don’t.
“Well, for one thing it’s colorful — literally. All those cassocks and albs and miters and vestments makes for visually arresting television,” said the Rev. James Martin, a Catholic priest and prolific author of titles such as A Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.
“It’s the combination of power, money, religion, sex and sin. That’s almost unbeatable television, even if it’s not altogether historically accurate.”
Catholicism has that certain something that makes it well suited to vivid (and sometimes controversial) media depictions, said Tom Beaudoin, associate professor of theology at Fordham University.
“Catholicism offers an unusually compelling mix of qualities that is well-suited for media culture: its taste for the ritually spectacular, its evident culture of secrecy, its elicitation and denial of erotic and homoerotic experience, its historic enmeshment with secular power,” Beaudoin said.
“As everyone now knows, this is a tradition both beautiful and dangerous and that makes for compelling media today.”
Beyond all the high church hedonism, there seems to be something else that keeps viewers tuning in to a can’t-look-away car crash like The Borgias. Maybe it’s really all about us, and not them.
“There’s a fascination with the sins of the powerful, whether it’s Henry VIII or the Borgias,” Martin said. “It may make viewers feel that our sins aren’t so bad: we sin from time to time, but at least we’re not poisoning our relatives.”
Only if we play by their rules.
Then again.... it shows how the Catholic church and Christianity has survived and flourished, controversy not withstanding!
I mean, was the media expecting riots and noncivilized behavior :D
At least you got part of that right.
We Catholics pray a prayer called the Confeteor in which we ask forgiveness for our sins and cite them as our "thoughts, our words, what we have done and what we have failed to do".
The anti-Ctholics who frequent this forum, in numbers disproportionate to their actual population, obviously spend many tens of thousands of hours digging for dirt and railing against any and all things Catholic. But can anyone explain the complete absence of evidence in their posting histories of any condemnation of abortion? Can anyone explain, within the boundaries of their conscience, how the greater evil is the doctrinal differences held by Catholics in the worship of God than the murder of innocents? I think we all know the answer to those questions.
In their few waking moments away from the Religion Forum have they personally done anything to stop abortion at the local, state, or national level? Have they written to or petitioned politicians and civic leaders? Have they organized to obstruct access to abortion? Have you lobbied for legislation, actively supported platforms or politicians opposed to abortion? Have they put themselves in any physical, legal, or financial risk in support of their beliefs? Or do they simply believe that some children are predestined to be terminated in the womb by mothers predestined to sin?
No doubt the sins of the Borgias Popes and pederast priests are deplorable, but they can be no worse than bloviating on the internet while being tacit accomplices in a modern holocaust of biblical proportion.
There are only a few posters that I find it a total waste of time to respond to, you’ve reminded me you are amongst them.
Thank you for your post.
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
I take it the answers to the questions I posed were not too flattering to you. You will be asked them again at your Judgment. I hope for your sake you have better answers then.
” Donohue cracks me up. The one thing you can say about Romanists, they are predictable. “ .............
Alex Murphy posts cracks me up. The one thing you can say about full time anti-Catholics, they are humorously predictable.
I don't know who these straw-man "anti-Ctholics" are that you talk about, but there's no "complete absence" of threads or conversation condemning and discussing abortion in my posts. On the other hand, I don't find you having posted even a single thread on the subject of abortion in your entire history on FR.
For the record, here's a sampling of mine:
"Let it never be said there was no outcry from the Christians"
God, abortion and gobbledygook
ProLifers: Improper for ProAbortion Obama to Speak at Rick Warren's Church
House Dems repudiate Pope’s abortion remarks
Lightning zaps Giuliani's remarks on abortion, Catholics
John Kerry Laments Loss of Pro-Life Voters in '04 Campaign But Still Pro-Abortion
Suit claims Catholic priest impregnated parishioner then coerced her into abortion
Evangelicals and Abortion
Catholic Bishops Prepare to Finesse Election Issue of Abortion as McCarrick Plays His Hand
Abortion foes using racism to make point at DNC [Randall Terry / Operation Rescue]
Anti-abortion groups to buy ads on Google [search giant accused of breaching equality laws]
Poll: Barack Obama Unable to Win Churchgoing Americans Due to Abortion
Q & A - What is your stand on abortion? [The Orthodox Presbyterian Church on abortion]
Catholic University Association Drops Possible Rift With Bishops Over Abortion
Cardinal Lashes out at Angry Pro-Lifers, Soft-Pedals Criticism of Kennedy Abortion Support
Planned Parenthood Gives Late-Term Abortion Practitioner George Tiller Top Award
Planned Parenthood Director Leaves, Has Change of Heart [after watching ultrasound of abortion]
Pro-abortion Emily's List Endorses Catholic Politicians [eight Catholics endorsed for 2010]
Catholic Professors Cheerleading for Pro-Abortion Obama Pick
Bishop punishes mom for daughter's abortion
Christians Optimistic But Disappointed in Obama [barf alert re stem-cell funding and abortion]
Some Catholics Disappointed in Obama: offended by decisions on abortion and stem cell research
Canadian bishops officially announce investigation of social arm for funding abortion
Bishop Lori bows out of Catholic university dinner honoring pro-abortion Kennedy
Editor of Vatican newspaper says ‘Obama is not pro-abortion’
Religious school grads likelier to have abortions
Letter To Paul Hill [1994 Fla. shooter of abortionist Dr. Britton]
Pro-Abortion New York and Nevada Governors Get Catholic Mass
The best part about Free Republic is how (borrowing a phrase from Rush Limbaugh) I get to live rent-free inside the heads of so many Catholics.
“Neil Jordan’s ‘The Borgias’ gets a second season on Showtime” [SEE VIDEO]
By BUZZ BRADY, IrishCentral.com
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
“Oscar winning Irish director Neil Jordan has a hit on his hands. The Borgias, which he created and filmed in Ireland, has been renewed for a second season with a 10-episode order.
Oscar-winner Irons stars as Rodrigo Borgia, the formidable patriarch of the Borgia family who builds an empire by bribing, buying and muscling his way into the papacy.”
You wrote:
“The one thing you can say about Romanists, they are predictable.”
The two things you can say about anti-Catholics is that they are predictable and bigotted.
Will That person be punished or in some way ostracized by the Catholic church for so doing?
Do self identified Catholics abort at a much lesser rate than Protestants?
While talking the walk it's easy to pretend no one condemns abortion except Catholics and then call them “anti-Catholic” and bigots.
You wrote:
“First comes...”No body’s perfect”
then.....”Everybody was doing it”
next.....”You’re no better”
finally....”Who are you to judge?”
capped off with....”You’re a bigot and a Catholic basher”
If any of that is true, why shouldn’t it be said?
There's a difference from not expecting perfection to tolerating blatant, heinous, sin that is condemned by God and absolutely unacceptable for those in leadership positions.
The Catholic church condemns to hell it's laity for far less than that.
Come to think of it, only the common laity. The rich and famous and politicians get a pass.
I don't need to when my work and that of the Church is boldly, and too often completely alone in defense of Life.
You posted some threads on abortion. BFD (Big Fat Deal) I believe someone recently boasted that you have posted 12,000+ threads. The few abortion threads means obviously isn't a major issue for you. However, when you post everything with Catholic in the title the chances are pretty good that the topic of abortion will come up now and again. How many threads have you posted about the OPC or the PCA in which opposition to abortion has been the subject?
The "sampling" of threads posted by you on abortion are by far more often anti-Obama than pro-life and have only served as arena where, from the comfort of their Lay-Z-Boy recliners, those very same "straw-man' anti-Catholics have new opportunities to use the Church as a pinata for not doing enough and a venue to again bring up every anti-Catholic lie.
You can fool yourself, but you aren't fooling me and I am pretty sure God has a pretty solid opinion on this as well.
***Now Alex, didn’t anyone ever tell you not to get your history lessons from hollywood?***
What? Hollywood would lie? Na! I get ALL my religious training from the man who wrote the Bible, Cecil B. DeMille!
Sarc/0ff
then.....”Everybody was doing it”
next.....”You're no better”
finally....”Who are you to judge?”
capped off with....”You're a bigot and a Catholic basher
It's predictable as the sunrise.
Blatant, pre-meditated sin of the worst kind and it's a non-issue for Catholics.
No wonder the Catholic church hasn't cleaned up its mess in the last thousand years or so.
And of course, the corrupt Catholic clergy gets a pass while Protestants feet are held to the fire.
Does anyone expect perfection? No.
But better than this? Absolutely.
There are non-religious people and others of other religions that lead moral lives that put the Catholic church hierarchy to shame.
Then you need to get off the RF more often and onto wagglebee's pro-life, moral absolutes threads more often, which BTW, I don't ever recall seeing you on.
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