Pope Benedict XVI is taking the Church back into the medieval dark ages. Calling on his congregation to boycott the books and the film is one thing... but berating the distributors and asking them not to promote the film is counterproductive! This is exactly the type of heavyweight promotional hype they have been hoping for to buoy their fortunes. After all "The Golden Compass" lead the box office in it's opening week ($26.1m) and continues to entertain, grossing US$100 million (worldwide) and counting.
-quote- Nothing makes any subject, book or film more enticing to children than to be told it is off limits – not to be viewed or even discussed. So no doubt many students in the Halton Catholic District School Board will be clamouring for a copy of the children's fantasy book The Golden Compass for Christmas after the board's trustees voted this week to ban it from school library shelves.-endquote- http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/287579 The local public (Halton District Catholic) school board which had chosen to review the book has now censored it and had it removed from their shelves against their own committee's advice -quote- "The Golden Compass" and two other books in the "His Dark Materials" trilogy have been banned indefinitely by the Halton Catholic District School Board despite a committee's recommendation that the titles remain on library shelves. Board chair Alice Anne LeMay told CTV.ca that the committee found the books suitable for students in Grades 7 and up, but the majority of board members voted against the committee's report Tuesday night. -endquote- http://tinyurl.com/2nlsh2 Fortunately, not all Catholic boards are as orthodox as seen by the comments of the neighbouring Waterloo board -quote- The Cambridge Times reports that Waterloo Catholic District School Board Chair Wayne Buchholtz ranked the Pullman novels as a classic in league with the offerings of C.S. Lewis. "How can you pull a book like that?" he said to the Times. "I'm pleased that our board is not even considering it." -endquote- http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/dec/07122102.html Public criticism to this groundbreaking move by an educational institution has brought the discrepancy of the public funding of religious education into the limelight. ( http://www.thestar.com/article/288049 ) Kevin Saldanha Mississauga, ON. VP, Halton Peel Humanist Community Chair, Coalition for a Unified Public School System on www.OneSSN.org ===================== Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:57:27 -0800 (PST) From: Alfred de Tavares <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Goanet] 'The Golden Compass' is anti-Christian: Vatican 'The Golden Compass' is anti-Christian: Vatican Indo-Asian News Service London, Dec 21 (IANS) The Vatican has slammed the new movie "The Golden Compass" and asked New Line film studio not to distribute it. The film, based on a novel of the same name by Philip Pullman, has topped the box office in Britain but the Catholic church called it anti-Christian and cold. The Vatican has issued a statement saying it hoped New Line would abandon the idea of filming the sequels, reports contactmusic.com. The statement said: "In Pullman's world, hope simply does not exist because there is no salvation but only personal, individualistic capacity to control the situation and dominate events." It further called the movie the "most anti-Christian film possible". The film portrays the church as an orthodox dictatorship, which conducts cruel experiments on children and tries to suppress free will. -- Putting Christ back into the Winter Solstice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spread the Christmas Cheer, even when you're not here! Send classic greetings to your loved ones in Goa. EXPRESSIONS - 2007 Christmas Hamper Visit http://www.goa-world.com/expressions/xmas/ Or e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
