Posted on 03/15/2021 5:06:15 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Elton John has criticized the Catholic Church for its staunch stance against blessing homosexual marriages, while simultaneously profiting off of his biopic.
“How can the Vatican refuse to bless gay marriages because they 'are sin’, yet happily make a profit from investing millions in Rocketman - a film which celebrates my finding happiness from my marriage to David?? #hypocrisy,” the iconic musician tweeted.
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The Church recently confirmed its long held stance against same-sex unions, calling them a "choice” that involves “sexual activity outside of marriage.” As such, the Vatican views the unions as sinful, adding that God “does not and cannot bless sin.”
The statement has drawn the ire of John, one of the most vocal members of the LGBTQ community.
In his tweet, Sir Elton displayed a screenshot to a 2019 report from the Daily Beast which detailed some of the Vatican’s financial investments. Among them, $4.5 million towards the production of two films: Men in Black: International and Rocketman.
The John biopic took in nearly $200 million at the box office, earning Golden Globes and an Academy Award along the way. The R rated picture featured scenes of gay sex, which would seemingly be at odds with the Church’s conservative views.
“While investing in mainstream entertainment is hardly sinful, the great contradiction is that the Catholic Church preaches to the devout that homosexuality is a sin,” the Daily Beast report noted.
Further angering - and complicating - matters is the fact that the Vatican seemed to be slowly progressing in the stance on same-sex relationships. Last October, Pope Francis lent his support to civil unions, stating, "Homosexual people have a right to be in a family. They're children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable over it.”
Church officials later declared that the Pope had been taken out of context. While the latest statement on the matter did not come from Pope Francis himself, the pontiff did approve the message.
Point well taken, Reg Dwight.
Has it proven to be a bad financial investment?
The apostate Roman church will moderate and eventually capitulate, like they do so often.
Come out of this harlot.
On that one point, Rocket Buttplug is right.
He gets more attention by attacking the Catholic church.
The Roman Church has come a long way - in the worst way imaginable - from the days of the National Legion of Decency. Films that no doubt would have been condemned by the Church are now funded by the Church.
Don’t ever let anyone tell me this “church” never changes.
The country of Vatican city invested in an independent fund and that fund independently invested in various things. Not “the church”.
It’s similar to if you invest in a mutual fund — note that
1. the country of the Vatican is not the sole investor in that fund.
2. it’s not the manager of the fund, just a passive investor.
Another day in which I do not regret not having seen that movie.
So wouldn’t you think that even as a passive investor, the Vatican would institute some morals clauses in some of their investments. C’mon man, it’s a movie about gay sex.
It’s not like you’re buying $30,000 in a mutual fund with 20,000 other investors.
This is millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Their investment manager had to know. if he doesn’t he’s incompetent.
Yeah, I agree that the Church needs to be more aware of their investments. Personally, I don’t have any problem with a movie being made about Elton John, but I am almost certain there are a great many Catholics that financially support the Church and expect their donations to be spent on more important interests.
I agree with you. I’m not a fan of Elton John but he is an extremely talented songwriter and performer.
As stipulated, I’m not catholic and rarely agree with their doctrine, however, they need to keep singing from the same hymnbook
Elton correctly called them out for their hypocrisy
They should. They didn’t.
Though I ask you - do you track everything your Mutual fund manager does — remember that you’re not the only investor in it
Of course I don’t. I also don’t have billions of dollars invested and don’t have the ability to.
They certainly have in house investment staff and I certainly doubt they are investing in the same mutual funds we can use.
Corriere della Sera reported that some of the many investments made by the Vatican, along with its investment in Rocketman, came from donations made to the Peter's Pence collection offered to the Vatican by members of the Catholic Church.
"The offerings of the faithful are intended to support the activities of the Holy Father for the whole Universal Church," the webpage for Peter's Pence says. The donations help finance acts of service and material assistance by the Vatican.
I didn’t know the details, but I assumed it was something like that.
Yes.
the Vatican state for finance seems pretty bad with investments. They don’t seem to do much research and have lost money!
So, them not checking what the fund invested in seems about par for a secretariat that loses money on investments!
Yup. The Secretariat of State invested in a Mutual fund.
And that Mutual fund had other investors
And that Mutual fund is what invested in movies.
Funny fact — the Secretariat of state of the v is a p poor investor - it’s lost money on these!
I didn’t either - I just did some digging.
My opinion of their secretariat of state is that it’s a bad investor.
They should not be chasing returns but investing it passively in an ETF or money-market fund.
The Church is entrusted with a great deal of financial support from believers around the globe. Surely, they can find ways to invest that furthers their mission of serving the needs of the poor through health care, housing and food programs, or education services; things that improve the lives of Catholics and leads them to a life guided by the teaching of Jesus Christ.
It's astonishing that the Church strays from their mission, but God love Elton John for reminding them!
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