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How does U [of MN] play ["The Pope & the Witch"] fit with professed prejudice stance?
Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | November 29, 2006 | Katherine Kersten

Posted on 11/30/2006 12:41:58 PM PST by Caleb1411

Next spring, the University of Minnesota will stage "The Pope and the Witch," by Italian radical playwright Dario Fo. The play "features a paranoid, drug-addled pope, a witch in a nun's habit and a chaotic comedy of errors," according to a Star Tribune report. It depicts "the Vatican as corrupt," according to the Pioneer Press.

Apparently the comic genius of it all is lost on Archbishop Harry Flynn of the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He has asked the U to consider withdrawing the play. But earlier this month, university President Robert Bruininks and the regents said the show must go on.

So here's a preview of what we'll see next March, courtesy of Minnesota's flagship institution of higher learning.

"The pope is in crisis," explains the University of Minnesota's website. "100,000 poor, starving orphans from Third World countries are arriving in St. Peter's Square in what he believes is a plot by fanatical birth control activists to embarrass him and the church." Overwrought, the pope has a "crucifixion stroke," which freezes his arms in an outstretched position.

A witch cures the pope using hypnosis and a tractionlike device on which he is mounted as if in flight. The Vatican, we discover, is connected to a vast heroin-smuggling enterprise. As the play ends, the pope issues an encyclical announcing that he, like the witch, now supports drug legalization, and no longer sees "a condom as the devil's raincoat."

In case you missed the point, the U's website spells it out: "[I]t is easy for a rich church to rage against abortion when millions are born into poverty, and become victims of the drug trade, from which people under the Vatican's protection can fill their pockets."

The U often trumpets its rejection of "racism, sexism,

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: academicbias; dariofo; umn

1 posted on 11/30/2006 12:42:03 PM PST by Caleb1411
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To: rhema; BibChr
Will the U follow "The Pope and the Witch" with a principled defense of truly unpopular views -- say, a sequel: "Mohammed and the Witch"?

Don't hold your breath.

2 posted on 11/30/2006 12:43:53 PM PST by Caleb1411 ("These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own." G. K. C)
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To: Caleb1411

Pathetic. No Voltaire Fo.


3 posted on 11/30/2006 12:46:06 PM PST by wideawake ("The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten." - Calvin Coolidge)
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To: Caleb1411

The problem is that people take this fictional junk seriously.


4 posted on 11/30/2006 12:46:18 PM PST by popdonnelly
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To: Caleb1411

If this were set up at the DNC, it would be more likely to be true than as displayed.

Just say no to libel and slander, especially by aging, bitter Italian Marxists.


5 posted on 11/30/2006 12:47:54 PM PST by BelegStrongbow (www.stjosephssanford.org: Ecce Pactum, id cape aut id relinque)
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To: Caleb1411
I saw Dario Fo perform at Harvard many years ago. I had been told that he was outrageously funny.

I came away quite convinced that I had been mis-informed.

6 posted on 11/30/2006 12:51:33 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (The broken wall, the burning roof and tower. And Agamemnon dead.)
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To: BelegStrongbow
"aging, bitter Italian Marxists."

He'll be amongst his like kind in Minneapolis.
7 posted on 11/30/2006 12:51:46 PM PST by Prokopton
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To: Caleb1411

Ain't it funny how anyone can say anything about a Christian today? I mean, anything. And it's just protected speech.

I would advise the folks at this "university" not to try something like this with Muslims.


8 posted on 11/30/2006 12:57:17 PM PST by kjo
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To: Caleb1411

Man they better not show that play...I mean the riots, killing and destruction of property will be outrageous. Those Catholics are crazy!!!/ sarcasm.


9 posted on 11/30/2006 1:13:36 PM PST by Tulane
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To: Prokopton

Actually, they could come on down to Chapel Hill and give the locals yet another frisson thrill. Seems their lives are too bland overall (and I say this having been there).


10 posted on 11/30/2006 1:22:17 PM PST by BelegStrongbow (www.stjosephssanford.org: Ecce Pactum, id cape aut id relinque)
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To: Caleb1411
In case you missed the point, the U's website spells it out

I guess the U feels the need to instruct their students.

Perhaps they can also post some Rosie O'Donnell quotes. She's on TV, she must know what she's talking about.

11 posted on 11/30/2006 1:46:15 PM PST by siunevada (If we learn nothing from history, what's the point of having one? - Peggy Hill)
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To: Caleb1411

Well, this doesn't sound promising, but I loved "Accidental death of an anarchist"...


12 posted on 11/30/2006 1:46:17 PM PST by Androcles (All your typos are belong to us)
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To: Caleb1411
In case you missed the point, the U's website spells it out: "[I]t is easy for a rich church to rage against abortion when millions are born into poverty, and become victims of the drug trade, from which people under the Vatican's protection can fill their pockets."

Liberal politics, nothing more.

Don't ever get between a liberal and their desire to kill babies.

13 posted on 11/30/2006 2:13:40 PM PST by RJL
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To: Caleb1411

I guess this alum has given his last dollar to the U of M.


14 posted on 11/30/2006 10:01:48 PM PST by Campion ("I am so tired of you, liberal church in America" -- Mother Angelica, 1993)
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To: Campion

I suggest you sign this online petition (protest) to the president of the U of Minn. It's very simple. Tell him you won't give a dime to any of his university's fund drives as long as he allows anti-Catholic rubish on campus like the "Pope and the Witch."

http://www.tfp.org/student_action/activities/protests/univ_minnesota_blasphemy.htm


15 posted on 12/03/2006 12:41:47 PM PST by concernedAmerican1 (millstones solve scandals)
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