Posted on 12/18/2007 12:52:02 PM PST by GratianGasparri
USCCB Reviewer Caught Okaying Another Film Celebrating Homosexual Immorality
Special to LifeSiteNews.com by Pete Vere
NEW YORK, December 18, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Harry Forbes, director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Office of Film and Broadcasting, has given a positive review to the homosexually-themed "Rent".
Forbes, whose initial positive review of "Brokeback Mountain" two years' ago was subsequently modified by the USCCB, became the center of controversy earlier this month after the USCCB withdrew his positive review of "The Golden Compass".
The 2005 movie "Rent" is based upon a musical of the same name.
The movie's plot follows the relationships between a group of friends who come together through New York City's East Village fine arts community.
Three of the eight main characters are HIV-positive, while a fourth named Angel is a transvestite street musician with full-blown AIDS.
One of these HIV-positive characters is Mimi, a heroin addict who earns a living as a stripper and a prostitute. The movie portrays some scenes of her performing in the club.
A second HIV-positive character is Tom, a philosophy professor who finds himself in a homosexual relationship with Angel.
Two of the other main characters include Maureen, a bisexual performance artist, who breaks her engagement to aspiring film-maker Mark in order to enter into a sexual relationship with Joanne, a lesbian lawyer. Maureen and Joanne will hold a commitment ceremony part way through the movie.
The only one of the eight friends to settle down and marry is Benjamin, who is often portrayed as the antagonist for "selling out" the fine arts community. In fact, the name "Rent" comes from Benjamin's attempt to fulfill his family obligations by collecting rent from the other seven characters.
Although Forbes admits in his 2005 review that the "film's subject matter may turn off many viewers," he nevertheless describes it as "a snapshot of a piece of cultural history -- both the era depicted and the musical itself," calling it "an impressive achievement."
"The cast is superb," writes Forbes. "The original cast members wear the years lightly, while newcomers Dawson and Thoms fit in beautifully with the ensemble. [...] The dissolute, countercultural lifestyles of some of the characters take second place to the overriding themes of love, connection, dealing with loss and appreciation of life."
Sample lyrics to "La Vie Boheme", one of the musical's main songs, include the following:
"Bisexuals, trisexuals, Homo Sapiens, Carcinogens, hallucinogens, men, Pee Wee Herman German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein"
As well as:
"To sodomy It's between God and me To S & M"
See Forbes' Review of Rent published by the Catholic News Service: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/movies/05mv673.htm
To express concerns contact:
USCCB President Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. Archdiocese of Chicago 155 E. Superior Street Chicago, IL 60611 312-751- 8200 mfox@archchicago.org
Pete Vere is a canon lawyer and co-author of "Pied Piper of Atheism: Philip Pullman and Children's Fantasy" available at http://www.atheismforchildren.com As well as Surprised by Canon Law II (St. Anthony Messenger Press)
ping!
Whoever wrote the screenplay for “Rent” should have his (or her) head examined - whoever heard of this sort of nonsense?
Ping for later
Wouldn’t it be nice if their views actually reflected Catholicism?
Talk about bringing the lowest elements society has to offer all in one package. Wow. That took a lot of skill. /s
We’re talking about the USCCB, right?
Shamefull.
When will they disband the USCCB?
I think the Pope would love to disband all the national bishops’ conferences. They’re non-canonical organizations that simply exist to extend and enforce the modernist agenda, on the one hand, and exempt the bishops from taking any individual response, on the other.
Don’t worry, no one will ever watch it.
Domestic Total Gross: $29,077,547
OK, Mama’s got a brand new tagline.
Bizarre.
“I think the Pope would love to disband all the national bishops’ conferences.”
He did make a somewhat passive-aggressive gesture to the Italian Council of Bishops. It had been traditional for the Pope to appoint the head of the Italian Council. Benedict XVI when asked to appoint the next head told them to just go and select their own head!
Sounds good to me! And since the good bishops have forgotten their Latin, they won’t even know what it means!
My wife and I went to New York (from Newport, RI) the weekend after 9/11 because they were having discounts on everything to get people back to visit. Well we decided to grab a bite and see a broadway show. Yieks! What did we see? Rent!!! It was ghastly!! Horrible! We still tell people how stupid we were and what we thought the show was going to be about was New York City but more in line with Phantom of the Opera which we did see and we saw the Lion King at another time so we thought why not. We have not seen a show since. We may never again!!! lol.
That’s a start. All the “respect” they receive from the Pope and the rest of the heirarchy is based on absolutely nothing. They have no canonical status, and in fact I don’t believe that bishops in a given country can even be required to be members of that country’s council. Naturally, most of them don’t have enough backbone not to join, of course.
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