Third gentleman from the left.
Sorry you missed it. WICKED funny.
Posted on 02/21/2006 8:00:36 PM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (NZ Catholic) – The Catholic Church in New Zealand has described the decision to air the controversial “Bloody Mary” episode of South Park Feb. 22 – 11 weeks ahead of schedule – as “arrogant” and “cynical,” and has urged Catholics opposed to the screening to consider boycotting the station and their advertisers, while a group of concerned Catholics chose to pray during its broadcast.
The airing of the episode has been strongly opposed by New Zealand’s Catholic bishops and other religious leaders. Officials from CanWest – which operates the South Park broadcaster C4 – had defiantly stated they planned to run the episode despite claims it portrays Mary in a “tasteless” and “ugly” fashion.
A group of concerned Catholics scheduled a prayer vigil in front of CanWest headquarters here during the broadcast of the controversial airing Feb. 22. Greg Matheson, who is organizing the vigil, said people will pray the Rosary for the 30 minutes during which the episode is broadcast. The South Park episode depicts a bleeding statue of the Virgin Mary, prompting Pope Benedict XVI to be called in to investigate. He concludes that the statue is menstruating and he and a group of cardinals are sprayed with blood from the statue.
The New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, in conjunction with other religious leaders, asked CanWest to not screen the episode. The letter to CanWest said “the program’s tasteless and ugly depiction of Mary, the mother of Jesus, will give grievous and gratuitous offense to large numbers of your viewers.”
On Feb. 21, New Zealand Catholic Communications director Lyndsay Freer was handed a press release announcing CanWest’s decision to run the episode the next day, even though it had initially responded that it had planned to air the show on May 10. She was then asked to comment for the news report airing an hour later on CanWest’s flagship channel: TV3.
Freer said being ambushed with the press release and asked for immediate comment was “cynical” and “dirty tricks.”
“It was an incredibly arrogant, unethical and inflammatory thing to do,” Freer said. “The program is offensive not only to Catholics, but also to people of other faiths and to women in general.”
"CanWest justifies screening the episode by calling it satirical comment,” she said. “What point is made by associating the virgin Mary with rectal and menstrual bleeding which hits a cardinal and Pope Benedict in the face?”
"Do they not understand that this is demeaning, especially of Mary the mother of Jesus, who is honored by Christians and people of other faiths, and demeaning of women in general?" she asked.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark had earlier told news media that she found the premise of a menstruating statue of the virgin Mary and menstrual blood striking the pope in the face, “quite revolting.”
Rick Friesen of CanWest said by airing the episode, viewers can make that decision for themselves. “I strongly believe once people see this program in the context of the entire episode, many New Zealanders will wonder what all the fuss was about,” Friesen said in the press release.
"We screen the episode confident it meets the requirements of the (New Zealand) Television Code approved by the Broadcasting Standards Authority," he added.
In a Feb. 14 pastoral letter, the bishops said Catholics could contact TV3, CanWest’s leading venture, and announce that they “intend to switch to another channel,” and could boycott products advertised on TV3 and C4 and tell advertisers why they are doing so.
“Making known the extent of our offense might give them pause to consider that press freedom is not a license to incite intolerance or to promote hatred or derision based on religion, race or gender,” the letter said.
The bishops said the show is the latest in a line of insults to the church. “The Catholic Church has long been regarded as fair game for satire and derision. We believe that while most of us have a sense of humor, there are some things that go beyond the bounds,” they said.
South Park Ping List-worthy...?
I am going to do a Voltaire on this one.
Hehehe Kiwi ping!
If this was making fun of Islam it would be a problem.
But since it's not, these big babies should just get over it.
I just want to see how many posters who've been so noisily denouncing "thought crimes" on all of the David Irving-related threads show up here to rail against the "inappropriateness" of a cartoon show. :)
But since it's not, these big babies should just get over it.
Actually, Islam takes much the same attitude towards Mary that we papists do. Perhaps the NZ Catholics should just point out this blasphemy to the local Islamofascists, who seem not too well informed about South Park, and this anti-Catholic bigot will wish he was in Denmark!
Huh? It's their right to complain, just as it would have been the right of the Muslims to complain - peacefully. Nobody gets to threaten or do terrorism, assaults, threats, "fatwas," etc., although Islam has never quite understood that. But peaceful complaint is just fine.
Criticising is fine, but do not get the government involved.
I'm sure the Catholic Bishops and the Christian community in general will issue a death warrant on the makers of this and set fire to some embassies like they always do when they get insulted by the media. (/sarc)
Evil 12 step fanatics behind this
Protest by all means, just don't burn flags, throw rocks, shoot people, destroy buildings, and for good measure threaten to take over the whole world and kill all the non-believers...
Not in this century!
The Bible teaches that it is not our business to kill non-Christians - when Jesus comes again in the end times as He is God Himself it is another matter.
Well, many Muslims think otherwise - and it is the job of the secular governments to stop them.
Third gentleman from the left.
Sorry you missed it. WICKED funny.
This is not as distasteful as Toronto's gay pride march.
This is really proof positive of how low they'll go for ratings. TV continues to scale the heights of desperation to remain in homes.
Then, punch the A-hole in the nose
He has a good point. We all know that context is everything. It might seem that a depiction of a menstruating, blood-spurting statue of the Virgin Mary would be considered sick, twisted and disgusting in and of itself. It might seem that such a concept could even be considered unworthy to be the product of a normal human mind; much less something that someone would put on TV for all the world to see. But, in the right context, I'm sure most people could embrace it as just good old-fashioned fun and, more importantly, another beachhead secured in the ongoing and honorable struggle for human freedom. I bet even the Pope could get on board if he understood it in the right context. Maybe he could even send clips of the program to all the churches to show after Mass.
Hey, I've got an idea for them: how about an excrement-oozing crucifix? That'd be a hoot -- in the right context. I give them the idea free of charge. Maybe an episode including it can be ready by Holy Week next year.
Let Freedom ring! And let it be rung by the perverse!
To those offended: stop purchasing products from New Zealand like New Zealand Beef, etc.
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