Media Watch

‘Lasermonks’ Make High-Tech Gear Instead of Jam

INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS, Jan. 16 — We've all heard of Benedictine liqueur, even Trappist Ale; but is the world ready for Cistercian laser printers?

A community of monks in Wisconsin thinks so, and it has set up an online company, Lasermonks.com, that makes and sells inkjet print cartridges, according to Independent Catholic News. The company supports the community life and works of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Springfield, which had been struggling financially.

Father Bernard McCoy told the news site he got the idea for the monastic business one day as he looked at the “ridiculously high prices” of printer cartridges and decided he could do better.

The business’ Web site announces to customers: “Yes, we really ARE monks! We really DO pray and help others. Hundreds of years ago, monks survived by baking bread, making wine or copying manuscripts. We survive by selling ink and toner supplies online, at HUGE discounts … and YOU benefit!”

The company is thriving and has permitted the Abbey to support a convent in Hungary and fund vocational training for the needy in Vietnam.

‘Passion’ to Open on 2,000 Screens

REUTERS, Jan. 14 — The controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's upcoming film The Passion of the Christ won't prevent it from “opening widely” — that is, appearing in its first weekend on a large number of screens around the country, Reuters reported.

The news agency noted that at first the film had trouble finding a distributor, in part due to rumors it might turn out to stoke anti-Semitism and also because of Gibson's since-abandoned intention of showing the film without subtitles (dialogue takes place in the original, biblical languages of the period).

Gibson, however, has found a partner, Newmarket Films, which will join with his company, Icon Productions, to distribute the film, now scheduled to appear on some 2,000 screens in February.

That's a prodigiously wide opening for what is essentially an independent film. It guarantees audiences will have a chance to judge the film for themselves and create “word of mouth” about the film, which has been extensively promoted to Christian churches around the country.

Without such a “wide opening,” the film would likely have proved unprofitable.

McDonald's Heiress Leaves $5 Million to School

THE SAN DIEGO DAILY TRANSCRIPT, Jan. 15 — The estate of Joan Kroc, the late wife of Ray Kroc, who founded McDonald's, has left about $5 million to the Diocese of San Diego to help fund the construction of a Mater Dei, a new high school in Chula Vista, according to The San Diego Daily Transcript.

The school, one of three new ones scheduled for the diocese, is expected to open in 2006.

Richard Starrman, an estate trustee, said Mrs. Kroc hoped her donations to the diocese's Secondary Education Initiative fund would encourage others in the community to support the new schools.

The other schools scheduled for construction in the diocese include Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego and Pax Christi Catholic High School in Oceanside.