On Sunday, September 12, the Catholic League exposed the hypocrites behind the movie, “Dogma,” by taking out an op-ed page ad in the New York Times. The ad, which is featured on page 2, published excerpts from the threatening letter sent to the league by L.A. attorney Dan Petrocelli, as well as a quote from the film’s writer/director Kevin Smith. Both men tried to stifle the speech of William Donohue by holding him accountable for any violence that might occur during the protest over the movie.
The protest continued on another front as well: demand for the Catholic League’s booklet on “Dogma” took off like a rocket. Literally thousands of requests were made, keeping the league’s staff busy round the clock. In some cases, like that of the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois (Bishop Thomas G. Doran), well over 400 copies were sent to one source.
The booklet is designed to give those who have not seen the movie a good idea of what’s in store. Most film critics, while not objecting to the bigotry in “Dogma,” nonetheless provided graphic descriptions of its offensive elements, thus buttressing the league’s case.
Since the booklet has been published, Kevin Smith has been more than forthcoming. While claiming that he has no intent to offend Catholics, he repeatedly boasts that “Dogma” is a “spiritually uplifting d… and fart-joke movie.” And bigoted, to boot.
