Following weekend demonstrations
against a Brooklyn Museum art exhibition, hundreds of Catholic
protesters staged a rally Monday at another venerable arts
institution, where a controversial film about fallen angels
premiered.
Mike Segar/Reuters |
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| A protester holds up a sign and a portrait of the Virgin Mary outside New York's Lincoln Center
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Singing, praying and holding aloft placards that read "Stop
blasphemy," the demonstrators gathered outside the Lincoln
Center for the Performing Arts, where the movie Dogma was
shown as part of the prestigious New York Film Festival.
In Dogma, Academy Award-winning actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck play two fallen angels who are scheming to get back into heaven.
The film, directed by Chasing Amy director Kevin Smith,
also stars Linda Fiorentino and Selma Hayek, as well as comedian
Chris Rock as a hitherto unknown 13th apostle.
"We are here to tell people that we're looking for more
respect and love, and less criticizing of each other's faith,"
said Bev Santini of Garden City, New York. "We're praying for
Michael Eisner and Disney and Miramax so that they stop
ridiculing Christians and Catholics in the world," she said.
Mike Segar/Reuters |
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| 'Dogma' star Salma Hayek was on hand for the premiere
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Disney is Miramax's parent company, but the film is being
released by Lion's Gate which distributed last year's
Oscar-winning film Gods and Monsters. Miramax Films' Bob and
Harvey Weinstein bought Dogma from Miramax, which backed the
film's production, and Lion's Gate agreed to distribute it.
Officials at Disney, Miramax, Lion's Gate and the film
festival could not be reached for comment.
The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family
and Property, which joined the Catholic League and others at
Monday's rally, said in fliers that Dogma, "mocks
everything we hold sacred — God, the Church, the Mass and
Mary's virginity. It condones what we condemn — murder,
obscenity, violence, profanity, drugs, drunkenness and
rebellion!"
Monday's rally follows weekend demonstrations against the
Brooklyn Museum exhibit Sensation, which opened Saturday to
record crowds.
The exhibit, which runs through Jan. 9, features works using
pickled cow parts, human blood and a melding of live maggots and
a cow's head. But it is Chris Ofili's "Holy Virgin Mary,"
stained with elephant dung and pasted with cutouts from
pornographic magazines, that has enraged some Roman Catholic
groups that accuse Ofili and the museum of Catholic-bashing.
