Controversial documentary troubles Mumbai Catholic group [Cameron's "Jesus Tomb" in India, again]

Controversial documentary troubles Mumbai Catholic group [Cameron's "Jesus Tomb" in India, again]
The Indian Catholic ^ | March 13,2007

Posted on 03/13/2007 8:50:08 AM PDT by Alex Murphy

MUMBAI, India (UCAN): A Catholic group's claim that its protest forced a television channel from broadcasting a controversial documentary on Jesus' tomb has resulted in the channel threatening to take legal action.

Catholic Secular Forum (CSF), a Catholic group based in Bombay archdiocese in western India, said in a March 2 press release that following its protests, the Discovery Channel had agreed not to broadcast the documentary. Bombay is the old name for Mumbai.

The Discovery Channel on March 4 broadcast the documentary internationally, but not in India. However, it said the protest was not the reason for the non-broadcast, the documentary simply was not scheduled for broadcast in India.

The documentary, entitled The Lost Tomb of Jesus, suggests that a 2,000-year-old Jerusalem tomb could have once held the remains of Jesus Christ and his alleged family. It also suggests Jesus and Mary Magdalene might have had a son named Judah.

The channel's Indian affiliate on March 6 sent a legal notice to the forum asking it to desist from giving "false and misleading statements" aimed at gaining "undeserved mileage for ulterior motives."

The legal notice, circulated among media people in New Delhi, said the documentary "has not been broadcast or scheduled for broadcast" in India. Discovery Communications India, on whose behalf the legal notice was sent, does not control the channel's programming for the rest of the world, the notice clarified.

Forum general secretary Joseph Dias told UCA News March 8 that they "have not gotten any legal notice," and that he learned about it from the media. "I don't know what the notice is all about," he said.

The legal notice is marked as having been sent by special postal delivery, private courier and electronic mail.

In a March 8 press release, the Catholic organization named two officers of the channel with whom Dias spoke. According to the press release, the officers told him that following the protest, the channel had decided not to broadcast the documentary. "We stand by our statement," the Catholic group said.

The text of the legal notice claimed that the channel people had not responded to a letter Dias wrote, nor had any of its officers made any statement. "They in fact refused to talk to you" and "said they would revert (get back) to you later," it said.

The notice asked the forum to "forthwith cease and desist from making false and misleading statements," failing which it would face legal action.

Dias told UCA News that the documentary, at best, "can be described as a hodgepodge, concocting archaeological adventure, Biblical history, forensic science and theological controversy to produce a potboiler to confuse and confound the masses."

"We did not want The Lost Tomb of Jesus to be aired as it is presented as fact, making false claims on issues sacred to Christian fundamental beliefs," Dias said. The "gullible" would easily take it as real and we "did not want that to happen," he added. Several Catholics in Bombay archdiocese, a Catholic stronghold, said they support the CSF stand.

"Doctrine or religion is not something that appeals to the mind," said Magline D'Souza of Victoria Church. She said that the Catholic faith is based on several doctrines that cannot be proven scientifically.

"The Holy Trinity, the Resurrection of Christ or Christ's presence in bread and wine are beyond human logic," she said. "An investigative film on any of the foundations of Christianity will be beset with controversies. This documentary on the tomb of Jesus cannot be an exception," she concluded.

Simone Fernandes, of Immaculate Conception Church in Borivli, told UCA News that based on what she read, "the documentary did not have documents to substantiate its findings." Aside from that, she continued, "it hinges on some kind of inscription on the tomb, which does not back their claims."

Sebastian Joseph of Andheri Church echoes the same opinion. "Why air something that is completely baseless?" he asked, asserting that he and family are against films that "concoct their own facts to attract viewers' attention."

Other Catholics view the issue differently. Salil Austin from Goregaon feels that "there is a lot of hue and cry over an issue that can be ignored. There are other things to fight for. We know that if our faith is strong, no film or documentary can shake it."

Rachael Varghese agrees. "If these channels resort to such gimmicks to get viewer attention, let them. We should not be wasting time protesting over this if we know what we believe in."

TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Religion & Culture; Theology
KEYWORDS: epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; india; jamescameron; jesustomb; letshavejerusalem; simchajacobovici; talpiot

1 posted on 03/13/2007 8:50:12 AM PDT by Alex Murphy

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2 posted on 03/14/2007 8:56:29 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on Sunday, March 11, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)

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Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

3 posted on 03/14/2007 8:57:35 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on Sunday, March 11, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)

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To: Alex Murphy

We minority have only few days to ask our people to be bold and vote for good candidate.We will then be free from taking Morca for burial ground.Agitate for religious building permission,we will be free to run our school,we will be heard by GOVT without discrimination.It is the sacred duty of minority association to visit each house and tell them to vote for good and clean candidate

4 posted on 02/10/2012 1:03:21 AM PST by corruption

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