Group Condemns Stage Play as Anti-Catholic Blasphemy
by Ed Thomas
October 31, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The University of Minnesota's theater arts department has scheduled a controversial play for next spring -- a work that's being labeled blasphemous and anti-Catholic by students on that campus. Titled The Pope and the Witch, it features a heroin-addicted pontiff who suffers a "crucifixion stroke" and is treated by, among others, a witch dressed in a nun's habit, who acts as an assisting nurse. A nationwide call censuring the play has gone out from the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP). According to that grassroots Catholic movement, which has already held an initial protest against the production, more than 900 students and parents contacted the university president's office by phone or e-mail within a 24-hour span, all objecting to the play.
The Pope and the Witch was written by Dario Fo, the well-known author of a previous, allegedly anti-Catholic drama. TFP Student Action Director John Ritchie says press reports and reviews portray the clearly anti-Catholic nature of the newer play.
"You know, even the New York Times acknowledges that it's offensive in a review that they did," Ritchie asserts. "So it's very clear that we have a case here of anti-Catholic bigotry and a case of open blasphemy," he says.
"I do not agree with this being a valid expression of academic freedom, by any stretch of the imagination," the TFP official continues. "To the contrary, it is something that undermines the faith" he contends, "and ridicules and slanders the Catholic faith and Christianity in general."
Ritchie says TFP has initiated an online petition, asking the University of Minnesota to cancel the production of The Pope and the Witch. University officials have not responded to an interview request.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
