"The Nativity Story", 26% freshness rating from Rotten Tomatoes.Com.

RottenTomatoes.com ^ | 12/1/06 | Sybeck1

[dcnd9]

You are a little sad jumping to conclusions.

[Dajjal]

A rather eye-opening exerpt from an email from a friend of mine (note: all the "..."s are my friend's way of writing -- nothing is being excluded from this excerpt):

New Channel 8 has a segment called "The Entertainment Forecast" - I love the title - It is just like the weather forecast, but it is the entertainment forecast.

The Entertainment Forecaster was interviewing the director of "TNS" and the best part was when he asked her if there were any challenges making a religious movie ... The EF used religious in the normal way in which we use the word, but in all of her responses, the director keep using her fingers to make quotes whenever she said the words "religion" or "religious" ...

In addition to everything else that's wrong with her doing that, she should know that that is soooo 1980s ... Hey baby, the "Irony Decade" ended when Spy Magazine folded ... Like for real !!!

[Dajjal]

By the way, is the USCCB a recognized body of the Catholic Church? Do they speak for the Catholic Church?

Yes and no. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops technically has no real authority in a spiritual sense. Technically there's the Pope, assisted by the many individual bishops bringing the sacraments and dogmas to the world.

The USCCB is a national "club" which the American bishops belong to, which hires a bunch of mostly lefty bureaucrats and "experts" to act not on behalf of individual bishops, but on behalf of the conglomerate of American bishops for solely national purposes.

National bishops' associations have NO official standing in the eyes of the Vatican. Only individual bishops have teaching and liturgical authority, when acting in union with the Pope. If and when a national association says or does something that agrees with the Vatican, then "by coincidence" it speaks "for the Catholic Church."

The modern world being what it is, many bishops are happy to abrogate authority to the bureaucrats at the USCCB and allow the "experts" to make decisions for them and act on their behalf.

Well, until people notice and protest, as happened in the "Brokeback" case.

[unspun]

Wait and see what the Catholic Register has to say about it.

Why don't you read the Bible and see how well it complies? ;-)

[G Larry]

I know what Bible says, thank you.

I haven't seen the movie and wanted to see a Catholic review of the movie BEFORE I see the movie.

Your snideness isn't helpful.

[unspun]

Your snideness isn't helpful.

I don't mean to offend. I just keep hoping that more Christians would place the Logos of God above all else and become skeptial of what the one with that title in His lament calls "traditions taught by men."

[Dajjal]

many bishops are happy to abrogate authority to the bureaucrats at the USCCB

I was up late at that point. Should be "happy to delegate authority."

[Yardstick]

Thanks for the clarification.

National bishops' associations have NO official standing in the eyes of the Vatican.

If true, it's pretty bold of the USCCB to publish a Vatican Top 45 movies list. As you indicate, this group seem to operate in a grey area in terms of church authority.

[Dajjal]

>National bishops' associations have NO official standing in the eyes of the Vatican.
If true, it's pretty bold of the USCCB to publish a Vatican Top 45 movies list.

The "Top 45" list was done by the Vatican. The film descriptions and comments are done by the USCCB bureaucrats.
http://www.ourcatholicfaith.org/moviereviews.html
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of cinema in 1995, the Vatican compiled this list of "great films." The 45 movies are divided into three categories: "Religion," "Values" and "Art." The USCC classification for each film follows its description

And, of course, the Vatican has its own army of bureaucrats. This list was not done by the Pope himself, but would have been drawn up by some Vatican "experts" on the "Pontifical Commission for Social Communications" and then approved by the Pope somewhere down the line.