Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Skeletons in the Catholic Church’s Closet [review of Showtime's "The Borgias"]
Beliefnet ^ | April 8, 2011 | CATHLEEN FALSANI

Posted on 04/27/2011 8:10:30 AM PDT by Alex Murphy

(RNS) In its new Sunday night series, The Borgias, Showtime has found the magic combination for ultimate crowd appeal in a scintillating soap opera about a bad-boy pope.

The Borgias follows the quasi-historic story of the Spanish noble family who, with the ascent of Rodrigo Borgia as Pope Alexander VI in 1492, brought a nighttime-television-style era of debauchery to the papacy.

The Borgias were infamous for simony — buying and selling church offices and sacraments. In their case, they bought the papacy through bribery and coercion.

But don’t forget the sexual promiscuity, bribery, double-crossing, incest, blackmail, murder, poisoning and all manner of unabashedly sinful behavior.

The debut episodes of The Borgias on Sunday (April 3) opened with scenes of intrigue and titillation. Called to the death bed of Pope Innocent VII, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (Jeremy Irons) plots to become the next pope by any means necessary.

Meanwhile, his eldest son Cesare (Francois Arnaud) — an 18-year-old bishop of the church — and his fetching paramour engage in an athletic sexual encounter while his adolescent sister Lucretia (Holliday Grainger) watches through an open window.

Some viewers likely went scrambling to Wikipedia to look up the Borgias during those opening scenes, curious about these cardinals (and popes) who had lovers and children. According to the series, Borgia had numerous children by several mistresses; Pope Innocent VIII fathered a dozen offspring as well. In the 15th century, at least according to The Borgias, it was commonplace for Catholic clerics to have mistresses and large families despite their vows of celibacy.

At a time when stories of clergy sex abuse still regularly make international news, naughty popes and Catholic leaders behaving badly might strike a certain resonance with viewers, if fueled by nothing more than a sense of schadenfreude.

As the debut episodes unfold, Rodrigo buys his way to the throne of St. Peter; a cardinal is poisoned at a lavish dinner with other princes of the church; another cardinal is framed for murdering a chambermaid in his bed; and a traitorous assassin is paid to do the Borgia family’s dirty work.

But wait, there’s more: the new pope uses a tunnel from the Vatican to the villa of the murdered cardinal for regular rolls in the hay with his new mistress; his old mistress, meanwhile, promises to remain chaste now that the father of her children occupies the papal throne.

In short, the papacy has rarely looked worse than it does in The Borgias. And maybe that’s part of its appeal.

Not surprisingly, the arrival of the tawdry papal soap opera in the middle of Lent did not go unnoticed by the New York-based Catholic League, the perennial defenders of any and all perceived pop culture assaults directed at the Catholic Church.

In recent statements, Catholic League president Bill Donohue questioned why Vatican officials hadn’t formally protested The Borgias.

“For one thing, Catholics are used to being slammed by Hollywood, so The Borgias hardly shakes them,” Donohue said. “Catholics don’t expect perfection from (their) clergy. This, however, is beside the point. The most immediate issue is why Showtime decided to gift Catholics with this series during the Lenten season.”

An obvious answer is that this is the high season for all things spiritual. During Lent — with its fasting, abstaining, ashes, rituals and holy days — religion is a hot topic.

The Catholic Church is an evergreen for pop culture clashes. There’s something about Catholicism that seems to lend itself so well to film and television and capture the popular imagination with a kind of passion that, say, Presbyterianism or Lutheranism don’t.

“Well, for one thing it’s colorful — literally. All those cassocks and albs and miters and vestments makes for visually arresting television,” said the Rev. James Martin, a Catholic priest and prolific author of titles such as A Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.

“It’s the combination of power, money, religion, sex and sin. That’s almost unbeatable television, even if it’s not altogether historically accurate.”

Catholicism has that certain something that makes it well suited to vivid (and sometimes controversial) media depictions, said Tom Beaudoin, associate professor of theology at Fordham University.

“Catholicism offers an unusually compelling mix of qualities that is well-suited for media culture: its taste for the ritually spectacular, its evident culture of secrecy, its elicitation and denial of erotic and homoerotic experience, its historic enmeshment with secular power,” Beaudoin said.

“As everyone now knows, this is a tradition both beautiful and dangerous and that makes for compelling media today.”

Beyond all the high church hedonism, there seems to be something else that keeps viewers tuning in to a can’t-look-away car crash like The Borgias. Maybe it’s really all about us, and not them.

“There’s a fascination with the sins of the powerful, whether it’s Henry VIII or the Borgias,” Martin said. “It may make viewers feel that our sins aren’t so bad: we sin from time to time, but at least we’re not poisoning our relatives.”


TOPICS: Catholic; History; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-156 next last
Some viewers likely went scrambling to Wikipedia to look up the Borgias during those opening scenes, curious about these cardinals (and popes) who had lovers and children. According to the series, Borgia had numerous children by several mistresses; Pope Innocent VIII fathered a dozen offspring as well. In the 15th century, at least according to The Borgias, it was commonplace for Catholic clerics to have mistresses and large families despite their vows of celibacy....

....In recent statements, Catholic League president Bill Donohue questioned why Vatican officials hadn’t formally protested The Borgias....

....The Catholic Church is an evergreen for pop culture clashes. There’s something about Catholicism that seems to lend itself so well to film and television and capture the popular imagination with a kind of passion that, say, Presbyterianism or Lutheranism don’t.

Related threads:
Know your popes: Historian Thomas W. Worcester traces dramatic changes in the papacy over 500 years
Follies of Roman Catholicism: How the Catholic Church failed to save itself from the Reformation
How the Renaissance Papacy contributed to the Reformation
God doesn’t create junk: Identifying a God worth serving

1 posted on 04/27/2011 8:10:34 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy

OMG...the Catholic Church has sinners in it!


2 posted on 04/27/2011 8:16:47 AM PDT by Carpe Cerevisi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Carpe Cerevisi

Once again infallible in matters of teaching faith and morals does not mean impeccable.


3 posted on 04/27/2011 8:20:24 AM PDT by lastchance ("Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis" St. Augustine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy

Donohue cracks me up.

The one thing you can say about Romanists, they are predictable.


4 posted on 04/27/2011 8:21:27 AM PDT by the_conscience (We ought to obey God, rather than men. (Acts 5:29b))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy

5 posted on 04/27/2011 8:23:52 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy

It must be nice for you Protestants to be entirely sinless and spotless. I suppose you don’t really need Jesus’ salvation in that case...


6 posted on 04/27/2011 8:24:24 AM PDT by Unam Sanctam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lastchance
Once again infallible in matters of teaching faith and morals does not mean impeccable.

What sort of faith and morals do you believe that the popes taught, through their behavior?

7 posted on 04/27/2011 8:24:24 AM PDT by Alex Murphy (Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG...thank you. Thank you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy
"Not surprisingly, the arrival of the tawdry papal soap opera in the middle of Lent did not go unnoticed....."

And not surprisingly, the propagation of a hit piece on the Church by the usual suspects on FR does not go unnoticed either.

8 posted on 04/27/2011 8:25:01 AM PDT by Natural Law
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy

It’s an entertaining show. And as Pope Alexander said, maybe even God can use flawed people to do Good on His world.


9 posted on 04/27/2011 8:27:34 AM PDT by Clock King (Ellisworth Toohey was right: My head's gonna explode.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy
What sort of faith and morals do you believe that the popes taught, through their behavior?

You seem to have set yourself up as your own Pope (by virtue of your own flavor of Protestantism) with your continuous stream of invectives against the Catholic Church. What sort of faith and morals are you teaching your fellow Christian brothers and sisters by your OWN behavior?
10 posted on 04/27/2011 8:31:20 AM PDT by Carpe Cerevisi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy

Of course, we’d never see a similar show about Islam during Ramadan.


11 posted on 04/27/2011 8:35:12 AM PDT by Clock King (Ellisworth Toohey was right: My head's gonna explode.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy
The Catholic Church is an evergreen for pop culture clashes. There’s something about Catholicism that seems to lend itself so well to film and television and capture the popular imagination with a kind of passion that, say, Presbyterianism or Lutheranism don’t.

Yeah, it's called "standards"; unwavering notions of right and wrong regardless of time and whatever sinners may occupy clerical offices. Relax those standards (as the Presbyterians and Lutherans have) and maybe pop culture will leave you alone.

Extortion, pure and simple.

12 posted on 04/27/2011 8:37:29 AM PDT by GOP_Party_Animal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

The Borgias Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxw-ofWIzEE


13 posted on 04/27/2011 8:45:52 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy

Now Alex, didn’t anyone ever tell you not to get your history lessons from hollywood?


14 posted on 04/27/2011 8:58:05 AM PDT by Celtic Cross (Some minds are like cement; thoroughly mixed up and permanently set...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy

Oh you think we have a religion of follow their example? I’m amazed once again at the inability of the anti Catholics to grasp this very simple fact. The Truth of the Catholic faith is not made less because it has at times been protected by knaves of the worste order. The beauty of Truth is that it does not depend on the messenger. Remember that next time somebody assails against Christianity because a preacher or lay person or even yourself or myself fell and committed a sin.

The Truth of Catholic faith is not protected by fallen, sinful men. It is protected by the Holy Spirit as promised by Christ Himself.

Just as sinful men inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote the infallible Scripture so it is with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Mind too that of course a Showtime series is the best source for in depth non prejudicial scholarship on matters of religion.


15 posted on 04/27/2011 9:01:27 AM PDT by lastchance ("Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis" St. Augustine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Unam Sanctam

It does explain their ‘tude quite a bit.


16 posted on 04/27/2011 9:03:38 AM PDT by lastchance ("Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis" St. Augustine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy
First comes...”No body's perfect”
then.....”Everybody was doing it”
next.....”You're no better”
finally....”Who are you to judge?”
capped off with....”You're a bigot and a Catholic basher
17 posted on 04/27/2011 9:04:14 AM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy; Travis McGee
I'm not Catholic but this notion of holding medieval church behavior under a microscopic from today's falsely felt sense of moral superiority is just wrong and feeds the enemies of Christendom.

Besides, however corrupted I bet the average monk or parishioner had more faith then than we do now in our decadent opulence and age of bloated self import.

18 posted on 04/27/2011 9:10:14 AM PDT by wardaddy (ok...Trump beating on Obama---Sarah----Michelle.....any of them are ok for now---tain't picky)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Carpe Cerevisi

I am shocked at what this sinful corrupt Pope wrote

” Hence, heartily commending in the Lord this your holy and praiseworthy purpose, and desirous that it be duly accomplished, and that the name of our Savior be carried into those regions, we exhort you very earnestly in the Lord and by your reception of holy baptism, whereby you are bound to our apostolic commands, and by the bowels of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, enjoy strictly, that inasmuch as with eager zeal for the true faith you design to equip and despatch this expedition, you purpose also, as is your duty, to lead the peoples dwelling in those islands and countries to embrace the Christian religion; nor at any time let dangers or hardships deter you therefrom, with the stout hope and trust in your hearts that Almighty God will further your undertakings.”

Let us see if these geniuses can figure out how this Pope matters to American history or the history of Western Civilization as a whole.


19 posted on 04/27/2011 9:14:38 AM PDT by lastchance ("Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis" St. Augustine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy
The fact that Alexander VI was a sleazeball isn't exactly news. It wasn't even news to his contemporaries; when he died, the rector of St. Peter's forbade Masses to be sung for his soul on the grounds that "it is blasphemous to pray for the souls of the damned".

Despite being a high-magnitude creep, he never attempted to solemnly teach heresy as truth. (Because he never attempted to solemnly teach anything, of course.)

20 posted on 04/27/2011 9:17:15 AM PDT by Campion ("Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies when they become fashions." -- GKC)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-156 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson