NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      LOS ANGELES (CWNews.com) - Two executives of Miramax Films said on Thursday that they would form a separate company to distribute a film that the Walt Disney Company, that owns the rights to distribute Miramax products, refuses to release because they are afraid it would offend Catholics.

      The movie "Dogma," by director Kevin Smith, stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as angels who try to return to heaven after they are exiled, Chris Rock as a foul-mouthed 13th apostle, and rock singer Alanis Morissette as God. The film also features a descendant of Jesus who works in abortion clinics and a decidedly less-than-pure Mary, mother of Jesus.

      Bob and Harvey Weinstein, co-chairmen of Miramax, said they will buy the film rights and sell domestic distribution rights to a third party. "Disney is a target that's too vulnerable in a situation like this," Harvey Weinstein says in Thursday's Los Angeles Times. "They make family movies and a protest could hurt them unnecessarily. (Disney Chairman) Michael Eisner and (studio chief) Joe Roth have been so good to Bob and myself -- they give us so much latitude -- that we said, 'If this is a corporate problem for Burbank, let's solve it for them.'"

      Miramax and Disney have come under fire in recent years for releasing "Priest," a film about a homosexual Catholic priest that demeaned Church teachings, and "Kids," a movie that received an NC-17 rating and portrayed high school boys who prey on girls, racking up sexual conquests as if they were a game.

      Smith, who directed "Clerks" and "Chasing Amy," has described himself as a practicing Catholic and said, "'Dogma' is in no way blasphemous or worthy of the mild controversy that seems to be brewing around it."