Posted on 12/04/2006 7:52:47 PM PST by Pyro7480
'The Nativity Story' Movie Problematic for Catholics, "Unsuitable" for Young Children
By John-Henry Westen
NEW YORK, December 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A review of New Line Cinema's The Nativity story by Fr. Angelo Mary Geiger of the Franciscans of the Immaculate in the United States, points out that the film, which opened December 1, misinterprets scripture from a Catholic perspective.
While Fr. Geiger admits that he found the film is "in general, to be a pious and reverential presentation of the Christmas mystery." He adds however, that "not only does the movie get the Virgin Birth wrong, it thoroughly Protestantizes its portrayal of Our Lady."
In Isaiah 7:14 the Bible predicts the coming of the Messiah saying: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel." Fr. Geiger, in an video blog post, explains that the Catholic Church has taught for over 2000 years that the referenced Scripture showed that Mary would not only conceive the child miraculously, but would give birth to the child miraculously - keeping her physical virginity intact during the birth.
The film, he suggests, in portraying a natural, painful birth of Christ, thus denies the truth of the virginal and miraculous birth of Christ, which, he notes, the Fathers of the Church compared to light passing through glass without breaking it. Fr. Geiger quoted the fourth century St. Augustine on the matter saying. "That same power which brought the body of the young man through closed doors, brought the body of the infant forth from the inviolate womb of the mother."
Fr. Geiger contrasts The Nativity Story with The Passion of the Christ, noting that with the latter, Catholics and Protestants could agree to support it. He suggests, however, that the latter is "a virtual coup against Catholic Mariology".
The characterization of Mary further debases her as Fr. Geiger relates in his review. "Mary in The Nativity lacks depth and stature, and becomes the subject of a treatment on teenage psychology."
Beyond the non-miraculous birth, the biggest let-down for Catholics comes from Director Catherine Hardwicke's own words. Hardwicke explains her rationale in an interview: "We wanted her [Mary] to feel accessible to a young teenager, so she wouldn't seem so far away from their life that it had no meaning for them. I wanted them to see Mary as a girl, as a teenager at first, not perfectly pious from the very first moment. So you see Mary going through stuff with her parents where they say, 'You're going to marry this guy, and these are the rules you have to follow.' Her father is telling her that she's not to have sex with Joseph for a year-and Joseph is standing right there."
Comments Fr. Geiger, "it is rather disconcerting to see Our Blessed Mother portrayed with 'attitude;' asserting herself in a rather anachronistic rebellion against an arranged marriage, choosing her words carefully with her parents, and posing meaningful silences toward those who do not understand her."
Fr. Geiger adds that the film also contains "an overly graphic scene of St. Elizabeth giving birth," which is "just not suitable, in my opinion, for young children to view."
Despite its flaws Fr. Geiger, after viewing the film, also has some good things to say about it. "Today, one must commend any sincere attempt to put Christ back into Christmas, and this film is certainly one of them," he says. "The Nativity Story in no way compares to the masterpiece which is The Passion of the Christ, but it is at least sincere, untainted by cynicism, and a worthy effort by Hollywood to end the prejudice against Christianity in the public square."
And, in addition to a good portrait of St. Joseph, the film offers "at least one cinematic and spiritual triumph" in portraying the Visitation of Mary to St. Elizabeth. "Although the Magnificat is relegated to a kind of epilogue at the movie's end, the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth is otherwise faithful to the scriptures and quite poignant. In a separate scene, the two women experience the concurrent movement of their children in utero and share deeply in each other's joy. I can't think of another piece of celluloid that illustrates the dignity of the unborn child better than this."
See Fr. Geiger's full review here:
http://airmaria.com/
Ahhhhhhh,
so,
RATIONALIZATION IS A CARDINAL DOCTRINE OF RC & ORTHY FAITH
but is disallowed for Protties.
I get it.
LOL
ROTFLOL
GTTM
I'm not sure which is sadder . . . that you believe it or that you expect me to believe it.
its not a matter of rationalization:
the complete body of scripture, and the authority of the Body of Christ (the church) stand behind both.
prots are lost children with no church, rambling through individual lines of scripture with individual papal authrotiy over it, leading impressionalables of all ages to nonsensical conclusions, i'd never call them rational.
so,
I get it.
LOL
ROTFLOL
GTTM
I'm not sure which is sadder . . . that you believe it or that you expect me to believe it.
Such perceptiveness.
LOL
ROTFLOL,
But nice try.
protestants were mangling their bibles by themselves long before Rome said anything about the matter.
keep in mind these were mostly illiterate peasants suggesting that they alone had individually infailable authority.
and folks are suprised that 'faiths' like the Shakers manifested themselves; it all started the same way. a bunch of angry west europeon peasants, with poor reading skills and poorer reasoning skills.
Oh, riiiiggggghhhhhht.
"OUR artifacts are sacred and yours are phoney."
I'm sure God is very impressed. /sar
Great basis for theology, that.
ROTFLOL.
prots are lost children with no church, rambling through individual lines of scripture with individual papal authrotiy over it, leading impressionalables of all ages to nonsensical conclusions, i'd never call them rational.
= = =
What hideous assertions from . . .
I assume your Bibles have the verse about having to give an account for every idle word?
They have the verses by St Paul clearly calling wolves who steal the sheep away fro what they are.
Really?
So, NOW, PROTTIES
Were always the lowest, most ignorant, most uneducated, most lobotomized serfs hardly worth a Pope's fingernail clipping.
I'm sure God is very impressed with that assessment.
Not very historically accurate but that doesn't seem to matter to some RC's and Orthy's.
We have
AT LEAST
as much justification, solid justification for applying those verses to the RC edifice and folks.
Protestants have tons of justifications, rationalizations, misinformations, rumors, and outright lies.
They're all based on a single origin however and that is clearly the only force that would want to separate the one Church Christ established and turn it into 20,000 sects, all of whom preach militant secularism, which enables the Muslim hordes to come in and clean up.
That unmitigated HOGWASH is not a very admirable assertion, imho.
Prots themselves whine that the Catholic church supposedly stopped them from being able to read, especially Scripture but like most protestant claims it's a lie.
It was their own governments who did it to them, even when the Pope gave blessing to missionaries to make localized translations of scripture West Europeon governments railed at the idea and the illiterate peasants even rallied them to lock the missionaries up!
Well I defer to your knowledge of hogwash.
What percentage of Orthy's and RC's live with such curious distortions and constructions on reality?
Any who actually study history and not silly rumors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saints_Cyril_and_Methodius
"A History of Christianity" by Paul Johnson
It was recommended by a FRiend and is very illuminating.
Harley crabby?
Nawwwwwwww. It's against his religion."
HD, Q, is a Protestant gentleman and scholar. I, the Orthodoxer, can attest to that! :)
What a marvelous story, Quix. You should be very proud and thankful for both your son and that grandson. Like you in your profession, I in mine see everyday the wreckage of young lives because their parents were too self absorbed, to intent on satisfying their own worldly desires for pleasure or success to bother inculcating in the children God gave them The Faith and the desire, no, the drive, to imitate Christ.
My Greek great grandmother used to say that you have your children until they are 12. You have 12 short years to teach them everything that's really important in life. After that, the world has its shot at them. My grandparents, my parents and my wife and I took those words to heart. Our boys have thusfar turned out fine. Both have been in church virtually from the fortieth day after their birth. They are still there every Sunday. The 26 year old lawyer because he wants and needs to be, the 24 year old with Down Syndrome because he wants to "go see Jesus" and "get bread from the papas". Someday, God willing, the oldest will start in with his own children, down a path the family has tried to follow, with some success, for 1800 years.
We're blessed. It costs nothing for us to pray for those kids who didn't have what we and ours have had.
THANKS FOR YOUR KIND WORDS.
I HAVE NO OFFSPRING.
The story is from a friend via email. I thought I put at the top of the story that I just received it by email! LOL.
I have dozens if not 100's of emotional sons and daughters--some who call me GAN BABA [Dry Dad in Chinese because blood offspring are generated by . . . a wet process].
Anyway--I think it's a very touching story that happens to also be true. Actually, it's a friend of JockoManning's.
I'm AS DEEPLY BLESSED, KOLO by your story of your sons. Praise God. I agree about the 12 years, BTW. Sometimes I think it's 8 or 10 before external pressures seem to count for more IF the parental bond has been weaker than wise.
Thanks tons for your kind comments. And for your affirmations of Harley. I think I've had a unique capacity to get under his skin but I greatly respect him anyway. LOL.
LUB
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