[Alex Murphy]

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

[Carpe Cerevisi]

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

[the_conscience]

Donohue cracks me up.

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

[Dr. Scarpetta]

[Unam Sanctam]

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...

[Natural Law]

"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.

[Clock King]

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

[Clock King]

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

[GOP_Party_Animal]

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.

[Celtic Cross]

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

[count-your-change]

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

[wardaddy]

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.

[Campion]

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.)

[metmom]

“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.

There's a difference from not expecting perfection to tolerating blatant, heinous, sin that is condemned by God and absolutely unacceptable for those in leadership positions.

The Catholic church condemns to hell it's laity for far less than that.

Come to think of it, only the common laity. The rich and famous and politicians get a pass.

[boatbums]

I'm not ashamed to say I am enjoying the Borgias series on Showtime. I also loved The Tudors. They both taught me lessons about those times and sent me on numerous occasions to online historical information sources. Granted, the producers and writers take "creative" license with many characters and incidents, but it's surprising how much really did happen in the way it is and was portrayed.

Obviously, they cannot produce a drama they claim is based on reality and then make up everything. What I am finding a touch humorous reading on this thread is all the ways in which the "adherents" minimize the debauchery done by those in the highest echelons of their institution. It is also surprising how all the claims of motivations of hate for critical posts during Lent are still being tossed even when the season is passed. I guess there never is a good time to read criticism of our sacred cows yet I see that even Jesus never let an opportunity pass to bring down idols of men's souls.

[x]

I saw it the first time it was on ...

... back when it was called The Tudors ...