I just wanted to inform all interested bystanders about an exciting development with my new play, THE SCRUTINY PASSION, set to make its national premiere on March 29th & 30th, 2007 in downtown Minneapolis.

Popular Catholic speaker/author/Bible study guy, Jeff Cavins, is serving as the Biblical/Historical advisor for this new 3-person drama.  Jeff has gratiously been advising me on deeper layers of Biblical symbolism and history in the play and has also provided valuable advise on costumes and props for the play.  He even let me intrude into his home and borrow an authentic little oil lamp to be used toward the end of the play, which he brought back from the Holy Land.  So when you see the oil lamp used in the play, you'll know where it came from!

I am truly grateful to Jeff Cavins for generously serving Epiphany Studio Productions in this fashion.  This is just one more reason to come see the play itself, THE SCRUTINY PASSION, at St. Olaf church in downtown Minneapolis on March 29th & 30th, 2007!!

PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS PROJECT AND SPREAD THE WORD!

It is way past my bedtime and I don't particularly like spending long hours blogging, so I will make these comments brief.  I must also apologize that there doesn't seem to be any way to post your own comments on this blog.  This blog is a new thing that's provided by my webhosting company, which I decided to try out.  I may eventually need to get a "real" blog.

Anyhow...

Tonight I attended the not-so subtly anti-Catholic play, "The Pope & the Witch," at the University of Minnesota in order to participate in the "talkback" session afterwards.  I don't feel that there is a whole lot that I can say about the play itself since it is a vile piece of work that promotes unbelievable amounts of prejudice and bigotry towards the Catholic Church and devout Catholics.  But I do have a few brief remarks before turning my attention to the talk back session...

The play is very "preachy" with the liberal social agenda - a true propaganda piece that accuses the Catholic Church of being the root of all the world's problems (what's new, right?) while completely ridiculing and mocking the Church and our faith without any basis in reality.  This play makes it disgustingly clear that playwright Dario Fo (and I suppose all supporters & defenders of the play) firmly believe as an all encompassing principle that it would be better for poor people and orphans to be dead, or at least to never have been born, rather than to be poor or orphaned.  Very compassionate, eh?  Let me see...wasn't it also the Nazi's that promoted the idea of being able to subjectively determine who is better off dead than alive, and who should be born and who should not be born?  Apparently we haven't learned our lessons yet from recent history.  The play also beats us over the head with the idea that artificial contraception is the answer to all the world's problems and that illegal drugs should be legal because people need them and will do them anyway.  The play also preaches that doing drugs is better than having to deal with any real problems in life.  I guess this all makes sense from a God-less, secular, relativistic, amoral perspective.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the blatantly hateful line in the play that basically says that the only good Pope is a dead Pope.  But, NOOOO, this play doesn't promote prejudice, hatred or bigotry towards Catholics!  In the end, it is faithful Catholics who are demonized by firing bullets and doing everything they can to assasinate the Pope and any Church official in sight (eventually succeeding) after the Pope "sees the light" and changes the Church's teachings on abortion, contraception and illegal drugs.  How any halfway intelligent person can defend this piece of garbage and call it "art" is beyond me.

The "talkback" session after the play began just as I thought it would...as a "talk-at" session by the "expert" panel.  I didn't realize that this whole thing was only allotted 40 minutes until about halfway through, when the panel finally finished being introduced (all of their many credentials and books they've written, blah, blah, blah...) and then introducing themselves (!) with their own prepared statements, all about how great this play is and how stupid and intolerant the Catholic Church is.  It felt quite simply like another act was just tagged on to the end of the play.

I was there with Luke Bauman and Pat Shannon.  When the floor was finally opened up to the rest of us lowly serfs a riot nearly broke out as a demoralized Catholic lost his temper and began to lash out at the panel.  The hostile crowd nearly hung him from the lighting grid.  That was difficult to follow.  Luke and I eventually had to stand up, wave our arms and essentially walk up to the front of the stage and request the microphone in order to have our remarks heard before the short amount of time ran out.  We both tried to bring a little humor to the tense situation in order to diffuse some of the hostility in the theater and thanks be to God we were able to say what we wanted to say before the session was cut off, because our points of view would not have been heard otherwise.

I remarked that this play was like watching a "black face" comedy, which of course was once a bigoted form of entertainment that mocked and ridiculed African Americans and mostly served to belittle and spread prejudice against them.  This play is the modern day Catholic form of "black face" entertainment.  I also posed the question:  "If this play is really free from every shread of prejudice or bigotry (as was claimed by the panel of experts), then what exactly are your definitions of prejudice and bigotry?"  Of course, there was no time to get any answers.

Luke made some great points about love coupled with responsibility and a professor emeritus of the University of Minnesota asked a very poignant question:  "What are the limits of 'Academic Freedom?'"  Again, no answer from the "expert" panel.

Afterward, we all had the chance to talk more one-on-one with both opponents of our views as well as proponents.  A black non-Catholic in attendance told me that he agreed 100% with my comparison of this play to the reprehensible "black face" entertainment.  I really appreciated his affirmation and wished that he could have spoken during the session.

Overall I was pleased with how things turned out after the play.  We were at least able to be a light of Christ in the darkness and I experienced some small shreads of hope.  One of the panelists made the effort to walk over to me at the end and thank me for my comments, as did a handful of other people leaving the theater.  One of the actor's in the play actually apologized during the session, saying that she was very disappointed with how the "talkback" was structured, because it did not provide much of an opportunity for us to actually talk back.  I thought that was admirable.

What came to mind in the end was one of Fr. John Corapi's sayings, quoting from Scripture, "If your light is the darkness, then how very deep will your darkness be!  I do not hate the hostile anti-Catholic crowd that I confronted tonight, in fact I am striving to love them with the Charity of Christ and to pray for them with all sincerity.  For Jesus tells us to "pray for those who persecute you...bless and do not curse them."  Help me, O Lord, to do just that, and to be a better witness to your Truth, Beauty and Goodness in all I do and say.  Amen.

In the style of Cathy_of_Alex from The Recovering Dissident Catholic blog, I will proceed to insert my various responses within the text of an email I received recently from a University of Minnesota alumnus.  The person did not reveal their identity or gender, in which case it must have taken an incredible amount of courage for this person to send off the following email to me.  But, in light of the fact that Anonymous is a UofM grad, I must congratulate him/her for at least attempting to make a reasoned, intelligent argument, even if the effort was a miserable failure.  Most of the following email is disjointed and incoherent, which makes an honest and sincere response difficult.  But, keep trying, Anonymous!  All you need to do is connect some of your points in a way that actually makes sense and then we may have a real dialogue on our hands.  In the meantime, I shall dignify your very un-dignified email with the following responses...

*  *  *

"As a U of M Student-alumni, I find your anti-intellectual stance [notice the emailer never qualifies this baseless statement with any examples] against the play at Minnesota to be quite funny [I'm glad I could humor you. Thanks for the compliment]. You complain about our university [that statement is true], yet in milwaukee your schools [huh? "My" schools?] are on the public dole without so much as oversight - and you don't even have to take LD kids [I don't? First of all, I wasn't aware that I owned and operated any schools in Milwaukee, or anywhere for that matter. If you have problems with the schools in your area then you're complaining to the wrong person. Do something about it. That's a matter for the local Church, school district or government to handle.]  If I wanted to bitch about that I really could [correction, you really ARE] - it violates federal law [alright, then report them. Why are you "b-------" to me?]. Your complaint is merely one of taste [you haven't even cited what complaints of mine you are referring to...I have several] - and like my choice not to goto a certain mass ["Mass," when referring to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is supposed to be capitalized] because I like one parish better, you also have the choice not to goto a certain play [Wow! Really? Such a powerful argument! You're right, if everyone just turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to prejudice everywhere, then the world would be a much better place. Kumbaya].

Who is oppressing who? [What!? Where did that come from? I have never made any claims of "oppression"].  This oppression chic is kinda funny coming from artists, it's the weakest artistic stance if you know anything about acting [Please, if anyone knows where this guy/gal is going with this point, PLEASE email me and help me out. I get lost at this point] - after a while the audience will get sick of you [kinda like how I'm feeling at this point in your email?], especially if the person pleading oppression has actually been oppressing others as has been documented when Siegfried F. Widera fled to Mexico with the full knowlege and support of the church having been a known molester in california and wisconsin [huh?]. I have no sympathy for your artistic position [you clearly have no idea what my "artistic position" really is], it is without artistic merit [what!?] and so much as you quetion the validity of others [other's] art your statements call into question your own artisitic credibility [how so? Is it because I don't subscribe to your own "religion" of moral relativism? Or because I don't believe that art is purely subjective? Or because I don't believe that artists are above everyone else, beholden as you seem to think artists are to some sort of special "right" to spew all kinds of riduculous prejudice and hatred simply because they call it "art?"], not because you are catholic [uh huh], or conservative [uh huh], but because you have no respect for your audience [what a completely inane statement! Once again, not backed up by any substantial reasoning]. Whereas I have read your materials [oh yeah? which materials?] and examined your history [well, how very scholarly of you. So, you read my brief bio on this website, huh?] you cast blame and accustation without so much a clue [please elaborate! Without so much a clue about what?]. What kind of dramaturgy is that? [Well, I'm not quite sure because I have no idea what in the world you are talking about]

Examine your own faults before finding yourself above reproach [how do you gather that I find myself above reproach? You're shooting from the hip here, Anonymous, and thus rendering yourself useless to your cause], beyond criticism and beyond critique. Either choose to be a part of the culture or become irrelevent [and which culture is that, exactly? The "culture of death" that John Paul II spoke of?  No thanks.  In case you haven't noticed, the motto and mission of my theater company is to help RENEW our troubled secular culture, not assimilate to it. And I thought you read my materials! You weren't pulling my leg, were you, Anonymous?]. The church is no longer the sacred source of all information [so you admit that it once was? Now we're getting somewhere]. That ended when the sacred became profane [which is exactly what "The Pope & the Witch" serves to accomplish], children became objects of priestly desires [even priests are human and can fail us - Christ founded his Church for sinners and on sinners, which is not to excuse the sins of priests but is simply my effort to insert some reality and proper context into your comments. Here's another small taste of reality for you: the single largest % group of child molesters are married men, and the small % of priest abusers is no greater than that of any other religion or segment of the population, except of course married men, who have a much higher % of child abuse cases than priests. Most of the priest abuse cases also come from the '60s & '70s, when your liberal buddies were pushing the "sexual revolution" and thought that homosexual men should be admitted to the priesthood. We are now reaping the rotten rewards of this so-called "sexual revolution." But please don't bother yourself with such useless facts. Just keep blaming the Catholic Church for every single problem in the world - that seems to be the popular thing to do these days. It's sure a lot easier than actually having to think] and the church schools became just another place where kids with disabilities were excluded [you apparently are not aware that the Catholic Church engages in more social justice outreach than any other institution in the world. Have you ever heard of Mother Teresa? If the schools in your area are doing something wrong and are violating federal law then report them for goodness sake]. I may not be perfect but then again, I'm not the one writing a harpy column [nope, just a harpy email] asking for a stupid play to be banned [YES! You agree that it's a stupid play! Good job, Anonymous!]. Next time find a less Mel Gibson-esque publicity stunt. [let's see...wasn't Mel Gibson the one that was relentlessly attacked by the media months and months before his historically accurate movie about the Passion of Christ was ever released? Many Orthodox Jews came to Mel Gibson's defense after actually having seen the film first, emphatically stating that it was NOT anti-Semitic. And how exactly have I pulled a "Mel Gibson-esque" stunt? You never explain yourself very well, Anonymous. I would recommend working on that.]

In his critique of "The Pope & the Witch" at the University of Minnesota on Sunday, March 4th, I was pleased that Mr. Papatola represented himself as someone who is open minded and enthusiastic about engaging his faith and reason.  In that case, I would recommend he read Pope John Paul II's encyclical on that very subject, "Fides et Ratio" (Faith and Reason).  Or he could at least attempt to make one ounce of effort to familiarize himself with how the Catholic Church and faithful Catholics, clergy and yes, even Popes, have led the way in areas of both faith and reason over the past two thousand years, before so rashly accusing faithful Catholics of not being able, or willing, to engage their faith and reason.

Mr. Papatola states in the title of his critique that the play is more about justice than about the Church.  How can he talk about justice with regards to such a play when the Catholic Church is treated so unjustly in it?

I am familiar with the script by Dario Fo and I will be attending the play and "talk back" session at the University of Minnesota this Thursday, March 8th.  Because of my familiarity with the script, I was surprised when Mr. Papatola made the bold assertion that this play is not about "religion."  But then he immediately backtracked and stated, "or at least not exactly."  Mr. Papatola sounds a bit confused.

Let me attempt to clarify his confusion.  The Catholic Church is not a political body.  The Catholic Church is not even primarily a social outreach institution, even though the Catholic Church engages in more social justice by far than any other institution in the world.  The Catholic Church is primarily a religious body, which proclaims various moral teachings based on well developed theology and philosophy.  Therefore, when the Catholic Church is ridiculed or attacked, so are the Catholic faith and all faithful Catholics by association.  Fo's play is not about "the world" turning a blind eye to social problems as Mr. Papatola claims, it is about the Catholic Church being the root of the world's social problems and turning a blind eye, which is a completely baseless, uneducated and bigoted point of view.

There is one description in Mr. Papatola's critique of the play that I do agree with:

"She (the Witch) believes that birth control and abortion are preferable to crushing poverty and that providing regulated, rationed heroin to her Third World clientele is better than having them resort to theft or prostitution to pay for it."

That pretty much sums up Fo's unbending liberal agenda in the play: that we should throw away personal moral responsibility, that it's best to simply kill off all those who are inconvenient to society (how compassionate!), and that we should legalize illegal drugs because, well, people will do them anyway.  Wow, such intelligent ideas for solving the world's problems!  No wonder Fo is a Nobel Prize winner.

Mr. Papatola ends his critique by stating that "those who find it (the play) offensive wont be convinced otherwise."  And, unfortunately, those who defend this sort of blatant prejudice and hateful disdain for the Catholic Church will likely not be convinced of their own blind hypocrisy and anti-Catholic bigotry.

I encourage Mr. Papatola and all those like him who are so concerned about social justice, to please have the decency and sincerity to extend that justice to all people, not just those that Mr. Papatola or the University of Minnesota subjectively deem worthy of it.  Fo's play may be a form of art, but that doesn't mean that it is a good form of art.  He did not receive the Nobel Prize for this play, which is hardly ever produced, and for good reason. 

I have heard people argue that Fo's play encourages and stimulates dialogue on important issues.  Unfortunately it is mostly a one-sided dialogue.  If a person is truly interested in honest and sincere dialogue then they don't begin by ridiculing and attacking the person they disagree with.  Fo's approach does not help the cause of honest dialogue, it only hinders it, and serves to reveal the true colors of the anti-Catholic liberals.

Last night I participated in an awesome prayerful protest in reparation for the blatantly and unapologetically sacriligious and blasphemous play, THE POPE AND THE WITCH, currently underway at the tax-payer funded University of Minnesota.

The average age was late twenties among the 100+ who were there praying the rosary and singing beautiful Catholic hymns, giving witness to the truth and beauty of our Catholic faith!  We were led by a large group of seminarians from St. John Vianney seminary in St. Paul, MN, with a handful of them only wearing cassock & surplus as the bitterly cold winds made our sacrificial offering all the more powerful!

I thought I would post some information about this anti-Catholic outrage at the UofM so that you can be aware of the garbage that's out there and what I'm up against in the theater world.  Also, please make your voices heard and let University officials, newspapers and Legislators know that this sort of anti-Catholic bigotry is unacceptable.

A wonderful Catholic analysis of the script, "The Pope & the Witch"

St. Paul Pioneer Press critique of play

My response to the St. Paul Pioneer Press critique

My letter to University of MN officials

Contact:

Prof. Robert Rosen (director of the play)
robert.rosen@jeunelune.org
(612) 625-6699
580 Rarig Center, 330 21st Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55455.

Robert H. Bruininks
University of Minnesota President
bruin001@umn.edu
(612) 626-1616
202 Morrill Hall, 100 Church St SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

If you live in Minnesota, contact your state senator and state representative. (The legislature provides state (taxpayer) funding to the
University.)