Double Standard for Anti-Catholic Movie?

THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE, Aug. 1 — Catholic League president William Donohue criticized the Scottish movie “The Magdalene Sisters” — and its reception by critics —-in a press release. The film is highly critical of homes for mothers the Church once ran in Ireland.

“Imagine an anti-Semitic director who admits he packed into one movie every anti-Semitic theme he could draw on and then gets an anti-Semitic duo to distribute it,” he said. “Next imagine film critics taking the anti-Semitic propaganda at face value and then offering anti-Semitic remarks in their reviews. Fat chance.”

He continued: “For example, there will never be a movie about Jewish slumlords in Harlem or Jewish managers of black entertainers in the 20th century. If there were, and if it were to present a wholly one-sided portrait of the worst excesses of how some Jews exploited blacks, the ADL would be up in arms. And rightly so. But luckily for Jews, this is not likely to happen. Catholics are not so lucky-they have to endure Catholic-bashing directors like Peter Mullan shopping his anti-Catholic script to anti-Catholic distributors like Harvey and Bob Weinstein, only to have it reviewed by anti-Catholic critics.”

James Ossuary's Dealer Arrested

ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 24 — The ossuary he had for sale might have called the Blessed Mother's perpetual virginity into question, but now Oded Golan's reputation has suffered a serious blow.

The Israeli antiquities dealer was arrested July 22 on suspicion of creating two relics forgeries — including the burial box that purported to be that of Jesus’ brother James.

Golan was picked up in Israel and is also suspected in connection with a tablet inscribed with forged instructions for caring for the Jewish Temple, the wire service reported.

The Israel Antiquities Authority had already declared both artifacts forgeries. The ossuary bore the inscription, “James, the brother of Jesus.” The artifact had been valued at $1 million to $2 million, based on the claimed link with Jesus Christ.

Golan continued to insist the artifacts were authentic.

Europeans to Follow Dinosaurs?

THE ECONOMIST, July 17 — The West is going gray, according to demographers, and the consequences won't be pretty, according to The Economist, a socially liberal free-market British magazine.

It noted that European fertility rates have declined so precipitously that population across the continent is likely to fall by 28 million in the next 50 years.

By the year 2050, Italy is likely to shrink from 57.5 million in 2000 to only 45 million, while Spain may drop from 40 to 37 million; Germany, it warned, will decline from 80 million today to 50 million.

Given generous public retirement pensions, this will prove economically unsustainable, the magazine noted, triggering a “struggle for resources between generations.”

The Economist noted ironically that a recent meeting of the Friends of Europe was chaired by 77-year-old former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and held in the dinosaurs’ hall of the local natural history museum.