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Movie Reviewer for Catholic Bishops' Conference Praises Homosexualist Film - Again

Despite movie's scenes of males kissing each other, nudity, and promotion of gay "lifestyle", movie not rated "Morally Offensive"

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Harry Forbes, the head movie and television reviewer for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has issued a review praising the movie "Milk." (See text of the review at http://www.usccb.org/movies/m/milk.shtml)

The movie, which exalts the first openly homosexual man elected to public office in U.S. history, Harvey Milk, contains scenes of "male kissing and nongraphic encounters, rear male nudity, murder, suicide, and some rough language, crude expressions and profanity" by Forbes' own admission.

Despite such material, and despite the movie's blatant glorification of the homosexual rights agenda, it is not rated "Morally Offensive" (O), but only receives a rating of "L", for "Limited Adult Audience." Furthermore, in his review Forbes in no way objects to or cautions viewers about the content of the film, instead offering nothing but words of praise.

Harvey Milk, a homosexual rights activist who ran a camera shop with his male lover in San Francisco's Castro District, was elected to San Francisco's city council as a supervisor in 1977.  He was assassinated shortly thereafter, along with the city's mayor, by another supervisor who was enraged that several supervisors were blocking his reappointment by the mayor.  The murders had no apparent relationship with Milk's homosexual proclivities.

Milk soon became a folk hero among the Castro District's growing population of sodomites and a symbol of San Francisco’s successful homosexualist movement. A little over thirty years later, San Francisco is the scene of public nudity and sex acts in the open air during its annual "gay pride" parade, one of the largest such parades in the world.

Forbes, who heads the USCCB's Office for Film and Broadcasting, calls the movie "a solid biographical drama about San Francisco supervisor and gay rights activist Harvey Milk."

He also speaks approvingly of the movie's strong emphasis on the Catholic faith of Milk's assassin, Dan White. "Penn is especially fine, and Brolin is scarily intense as the Catholic White. (We're shown a lengthy baptism of White's baby, with Milk ironically the only invited outsider.)," writes Forbes.

Forbes has written other reviews praising films that promote and glorify homosexual behavior and attack the Catholic faith, including "Brokeback Mountain," which is about a sodomite relationship between two cowboys, and "The Golden Compass," which is atheistic and vilifies Christianity.

The official website of the USCCB Office of Film and Broadcasting  (http://www.usccb.org/movies/current.shtml) contains numerous reviews praising movies that portray sexual immorality, nudity, and dirty jokes, and rarely deems such films "Morally Offensive" or cautions viewers about the content. 

Despite repeated protests from Catholic laity, the USCCB continues to allow Forbes to write reviews on the organization's behalf.

In a written statement to LifeSiteNews, Human Life International President Fr. Thomas Euteneuer angrily denounced Forbes' latest pro-homosexualist review.

"Moral outrage is the only response to someone like Harry Forbes who consistently trashes Catholic values in his movie reviews and gets away with it," wrote Euteneuer. "We are accustomed to pagans celebrating their values and letting lots of immorality slide with a wink and a nod, but when the official movie reviewer for the US Catholic Bishops Conference does it time and time again with no consequences, we have no credible moral compass with which to evaluate the content of movies any more."

"In his recent review of the homosexual promo flick, Milk, Forbes seems to think that 'male kissing…rear male nudity, murder, suicide, some rough language, crude expressions and profanity' merit something less than total condemnation from our Catholic point of view. Let’s face it: Forbes is simply an icon of the false Catholics in America who are accelerating the degradation of our civilization because they refuse to be 'salt and light' to preserve us from this very same darkness."

Contact Information:

William Cardinal Levada
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Piazza del S. Uffizio, 11, 00193 Roma, Italy
Fax: 06.69.88.34.09

E-mail:

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street, N.E.
Washington DC 20017-1194
(202) 541-3000

Cardinal Francis George, President of the USCCB
Archdiocese of Chicago
155 East Superior Street
Chicago, Illinois, 60611
312-751-5382
Fax: 312-751-5381

USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting
1011 First Avenue, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10022
(212) 644-1880

Related Links:

USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting -- Recent Movie Reviews
http://www.usccb.org/movies/current.shtml

Previous LifeSiteNews Coverage:

Editorial: Why Harry Forbes, USCCB Film Reviewer, Must be Replaced
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08020401.html

Once Again: USCCB Movie Reviewers Praise Sex-Laden, Extremely Violent Films as "Morally Grounded"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08020111.html

USCCB Reviewer Caught Okaying Another Film Celebrating Homosexual Immorality
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121804.html

Archbishop Burke Calls USCCB Film Office Review of 'Golden Compass' "Most Defective"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121405.html

US Bishops asked to Fire Chief Film Critic over Glowing Reviews for "Brokeback" and "Compass"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07120304.html

US Bishops' Organization Gives Glowing Review of Homosexual-Sex Propaganda Film
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/dec/05121503.html

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