the sound of clashing clichés

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Mar 02, 2004

Having raised the subject of contemporary cinema, Fox New's Chris Wallace asked USCCB President Bishop Wilton Gregory about ... what else? Here is Gregory's reply:

The Catholic Church has worked very, very hard, especially under the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, to make sure that we do not fall victims to anti-Semitism.

Whoops, wrong piece of anodyne episcopal boilerplate! In the conventional terms of discourse, at least, the Semites who are gassed and burned because of their race are the victims of anti-Semitism, and the folks who visit these evils upon them are its perpetrators. Or are we to imagine that anti-Semites themselves are "victims" of the bigotries they embrace, such that the Jews interned at Treblinka were the victims of victims of anti-Semitism? Or does Gregory mean what he actually says, viz., that the Pope is taking precautions to make sure Catholics aren't swept up by mistake in a forthcoming pogrom?

So if there is the hint of anti-Semitism within the movie -- and I don't know because I haven't seen it -- it certainly runs counter to what we as Catholics believe should be our position in the public arena.

Our position in the public arena?