NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

    NEW YORK (CWNews.com) - Hundreds of Catholics protested a new film starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck that attacks Jesus and the Catholic Church at the New York Film Festival on Monday.

    The movie "Dogma" features Alanis Morrisette as God, Chris Rock as a "wisecracking 13th apostle," Damon and Affleck as fallen angels trying to get back into Heaven on a technicality, and Linda Fiorentino as a descendant of Jesus who works at an abortion clinic.

    The film was originally owned by controversial Miramax Films, but when the Walt Disney Co., which holds exclusive distribution rights for Miramax, told the company it would not distribute it, Miramax's owners Bob and Harvey Weinstein bought it, paid for its production, and found an independent distributor.

    The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, which joined the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights 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!"

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