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.