Catholic leaders, art, freedom (report)
Chris Roth
FORWARDED FROM: /news/wi/general/articles(#18260) From:croth(Chris Roth)
Opinion & Analysis
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D O S S I E R
ON CATHOLIC LEADERS AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
____________________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS
Professor Richard Randall
WI: Joel McNally
WI: Rembert Weakland on Alan Parker & Madonna Ciccone
WI: A Catholic women's club, Madison
France: Milos Forman, poster
WI: Marilyn Manson, La Crosse
Dario Fo wins
Australia: Andres Serrano's photo
John Heidenry on film censorship
ABC's "Nothing Sacred"
WI: Sex, laws, and the Badger State
Frank Miller on "Caligula"
____________________________________________________________________________
PROFESSOR RICHARD RANDALL ON CATHOLIC LEADERS AND FILMMAKERS
Here's an excerpt from Professor Richard S. Randall's
_Censorship of the Movies_, a 1968 survey.
(begin excerpt)
The Roman Catholic Church probably ranks as the most
important single group in the control of movies in this
country at any level: production, distribution, or
exhibition. As censorial pressure, Catholic strength
rests on numbers, a potential for militancy, and a
programmatic development which includes a moral evaluation
and a systematic rating of all leading commercial films
shown in the country.
(end excerpt)
* * *
JOEL McNALLY ON REMBERT WEAKLAND
Ms. Mary Jo Meisner is the former editor of the _Milwaukee Journal_.
Here is an excerpt from Joel McNally's column from the 16 January
1997 issue of _Shepherd Express_, a Milwaukee-based weekly newspaper.
McNally's use of the word _Post_ (see below) was a reference to
the _Washington Post_, where Ms. Meisner served as the city editor.
McNally's _Shepherd Express_ opinion column touched on an ongoing
social problem: the special treatment given to theologians and
religious organizations by powerful print and electronic media
outlets in the United States.
(begin excerpt)
Still, for a brief moment, it appeared Meisner might bring
journalistic integrity to the job. Shortly after her arrival,
Archbishop Rembert Weakland and other heavies from the Catholic
archdiocese met with the editors to try to pressure the newspaper
not to publish a major series being prepared by Religion Editor
Marie Rohde about sexual abuse of young males by priests.
Meisner listened patiently and thanked their holiness for
expressing their concerns. Then she told them she'd been in
charge of coverage of a similar sex scandal while at the _Post_.
She said she didn't expect them to agree with the coverage,
but that the newspaper had to do its job. She expressed con-
fidence in Rohde as a fair and responsible reporter.
Rohde was impressed. Word got around that the staff had an
editor who would stand behind reporters against pressures from
powerful forces in the community.
No one ever satisfactorily explained what happened next.
Rohde's series never ran. And when the newspapers were merged,
Rohde, an award-winning investigative reporter, was reassigned
to beginning reporter duties covering suburban village board
meetings.
(content deleted)
There are still a lot of outstanding reporters left at the
_Journal Sentinel_ who deserve to have their talents put to
some productive use. That won't happen, though, as long
as Journal Communications continues to be afraid to stir
up the community for fear of losing circulation.
(end excerpt)
* * *
REMBERT WEAKLAND ON MADONNA CICCONE
AND ALAN PARKER'S "EVITA"
If you were asked to name a controversial issue of public
importance, then how would you respond? Many educated minors
and adults would talk about pollution, resource depletion,
nuclear proliferation, overreliance on centralized non-
renewable resources, attacks on civil liberties, or poverty.
But how would Wisconsin's most famous Catholic leader respond?
Below, an excerpt from Catharine Ann Velasco's report in the
31 January 1997 issue of _The Journal Times__, Racine's daily
newspaper. Here's Ms. Velasco's opening paragraph:
(begin excerpt)
Carrying a message of virtues and values, Milwaukee Archbishop
Rembert Weakland told a Racine audience Thursday that if he was
pressed to name one issue to speak out against today it would
be pornography.
"I find that is so degrading to women. I couldn't get myself to
see the movie, "Evita," he told an audience of 200 at the
Golden Rondelle Thursday afternoon.
"I find Madonna so negative. I just couldn't do it," he said.
"We let (pornography) pass legally because we can't define it
and then we say it's because so many people want it. We should
speak out against it by not buying it," he said.
But there are other things Weakland would speak out against,
too, such as exploitation of children in sexual material,
abortion, euthanasia, and violence, he said as he answered
questions during a Wingspread briefing.
(end excerpt)
That briefing was sponsored by the Johnson Foundation.
According to _Everybody's Business: An Almanac_, S.C.
Johnson manufactures Raid, Off!, Kit, Sprint, Supreme,
Car-Plate, Glade, Glory, Agree shampoo, Pledge, Johnson's
Paste Wax, and other products.
* * *
CATHOLIC WOMEN'S CLUB REQUESTS CENSORSHIP
Here's an excerpt from a Winter 1997 newsletter produced by
the Wisconsin Research Center, a Milwaukee-based organization.
(begin excerpt)
Censorship at Madison School Makes the News
A Madison East High School student received national press and
a lesson on free speech--or lack of it--due to her painting in
the school art gallery. The painting, which shows the Madonna
suckling a rat, was removed by school authorities after complaints
by Morality in Media, a committee of the Catholic Women's Club,
and other members of the community. "I just don't want a rat
nursing on a woman," explained Morality in Media chairwoman
Helen Nicholson. "If that artist wanted to do that, that's
her business. But I just don't like it."
Despite the best efforts of school officials and Morality in
Media to suppress the story, it was carried by the Wisconsin
State Journal (which lauded the school's decision), USA Today,
and Newsweek, as well as being featured in a segment on
Saturday Night Live (The Progressive 12/96).
(end excerpt)
* * *
CATHOLIC PRIESTS REQUEST CENSORSHIP, LOSE
During mid-February of 1997, Catholic priests asked a Paris court
to censor a poster for Milos Forman's "The People vs. Larry Flynt."
Later that same month, the court said that the Columbia TriStar
poster would not be banned.
On 24 February 1997, Milos Forman's anticensorship film
won the Golden Bear for best film at the 47th Berlin Film Festival.
During the same month, Forman's film won two Oscar nominations.
* * *
ROCK BAND, PETITION, BADGER STATE
On 12 March 1997, a newspaper journalist guested on Kathleen
Dunn's afternoon program carried by the 11-station Ideas
Network of Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR).
The interviewee, a reporter for the _La Crosse Tribune_, said that
members of a local Catholic church had apparently circulated a petition
intended to prevent Marilyn Manson, a rock band, from performing
La Crosse.
* * *
DARIO FO WINS, VATICAN NEWSPAPER BLASTS DECISION
On 9 October 1997, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded
to Dario Fo, a brilliant writer-performer from Italy.
Here's an excerpt from the 10 October 1997 issue of _The
New York Times_:
(begin excerpt)
The Roman Catholic Church has been a frequent target of Mr.
Fo's satire, and the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano
said it was flabbergasted by his selection. "Giving the prize
to someone who is also the author of questionable works
is beyond all imagination," the paper said.
(end excerpt)
Fo's performances were profiled in Ron Jenkins' _Subversive
Laughter: The Liberating Power of Comedy_, a 1994 Free Press
hardcover.
* * *
CENSORSHIP DEMAND FAILS IN AUSTRALIA
The 13 October 1997 issue of the _Milwaukee Journal Sentinel_
included an Associated Press report from Australia about
Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ." That photograph was physically
attacked twice during a two-day period.
The famous photograph
(begin excerpt)
sparked an unsuccessful bid by the Roman Catholic Church
in Australia to have the work banned.
(end excerpt) * * *
JOHN HEIDENRY ON CATHOLIC LEADERS
AND GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP
Opposition to artists' rights is not a new phenomenon. Here
is an excerpt from page 51 of John Heidenry's _What Wild
Ecstasy_, a 1997 Simon & Schuster hardcover.
(begin excerpt)
Hollywood still strictly adhered to the Hollywood Morality
Code, popularly known as the Hays Code after Postmaster General
Will H. Hays, a list of anathemas drawn up in 1930 by the Reverend
Daniel Lord, a Jesuit, and Martin Quigley, the Catholic publisher
of a movie trade paper. According to the Hays Code, movies
could not show two people living together who were not married,
use the word "abortion," display nudity in any form, show lustful
behavior, or capitalize on "impure love" as the subject for
comedy or farce.
(end excerpt) * * *
BOYCOTT LAUNCHED, BIG ADVERTISER SUBMITS TO
CENSORIAL PRESSURE
According to a 16 October 1997 report in _USA TODAY_, a Catholic
organization is trying to eliminate advertising support for
"Nothing Sacred," a fictional television program aired by ABC
affiliates. Here's a sentence from that article:
(begin excerpt)
The Catholic League, created to defend the church's faith and
image in U.S. society, initiated a boycott of the show's sponsors
that has already scared off more than one corporation.
(end excerpt)
* * *
SEX, LAWS, AND THE BADGER STATE
This letter (see below) was published in a 1996 issue of _The Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel_, Wisconsin's largest-circulation daily newspaper.
It's about a let's-change-the-state's-definition-of-obscenity proposal
backed by a former State Senator and the Wisconsin Catholic Conference.
(begin excerpt)
A new all-media arts censorship law has surfaced. State Sen.
George Petak (R-Racine) and Catholic lobbyists (the Wisconsin
Catholic Conference) in Madison have been peddling it.
Under Petak's proposal, Wisconsinites would not be able to choose,
for example, which films to rent. Sadly, Petak is for government
censorship.
If we side with the First Amendment, then everybody wins. You
are allowed to read, view and listen to what you want. Citizens
who choose not to look at something don't have to. That's how
things should remain.
But Senate Bill 254 attacks freedom of expression. It would
unleash intrusive meddling. Petak's thought police should stay
out of your private library. He has a right to decide what he
wants to read. But it is arrogant of Petak and Catholic bishops
to ask the government to interfere with your right to review
constitutionally protected content.
Ironically, the same Catholic leaders who condemn sensual art
also claim to support quality education. In fact, pro-censorship
sentiment cannot be reconciled with modern psychology or
constitutional law.
Chris Roth
Milwaukee
(end excerpt)
* * *
FRANK MILLER ON M.I.M. & GUCCIONE'S FILM
Here's an excerpt from page 231 of Frank Miller's _Censored
Hollywood: Sex, Sin & Violence on Screen_, a 1994 Turner
hardcover. 791.43 is the call number that was assigned by
the Milwaukee Public Library.
This excerpt (see below) is about "Caligula," a 1980
major motion picture that Miller described as a controversial
epic.
(begin excerpt)
Customs officials tried to block the Italian-made film, but
members of the Justice Department's Criminal Division declined
to prosecute.
When the film opened in New York, Morality in Media filed
a class-action suit in the name of three thousand Catholic
priests, charging that the Justice Department had been derelict
in not prosecuting the film. After both trial and appeals courts
threw out the suit, Morality in Media organized local action
against the film, leading to prosecution in Boston. The
Boston judge cleared it on the testimony of a political science
professor who argued that it constituted a serious indictment
of unbridled political power.
Caligula's reputation led to a threat of prosecution in Atlanta.
(end excerpt)
A C C E S S
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