U resists bishops' call to block Vatican satire

Minnesota's Catholic leaders denounce play as offensive

BY PAUL TOSTO

Pioneer Press

The state's top Catholic leaders have taken a rare step in collectively calling on University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks to reconsider the U's plan to stage a controversial play they view as anti-Catholic.

"The Pope and the Witch," a satire depicting the pope as a paranoid, drug-addled idiot and the Vatican as corrupt, drew the ire this fall of a national Catholic group and some local bloggers.

Last week, Archbishop Harry Flynn of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, along with bishops from Crookston to Winona, wrote to Bruininks calling the play offensive to the state's 1.6 million Catholics. They urged Bruininks to rethink its staging this March on the campus of the state's flagship public university.

Dennis McGrath, spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said Thursday that he couldn't recall a time when the state's bishops had made such a combined request.

The bishops "have to stand up for the faith," McGrath said. "They can't be silent in a case like this and won't be."

The U reiterated Thursday there are no plans to stop the play.

Flynn and Bruininks met Wednesday to discuss the play and other issues, said U spokesman Dan Wolter. Bruininks "explained that the university will not reconsider the staging of the play, but underscored that our commitment to academic freedom also includes listening and giving a forum to the views of those who have concern with the play's content," Wolter said. The U, Wolter added, is planning a forum in conjunction with the play.

No one at the university could recall a similar instance where religious leaders have encouraged an event to be canceled, he said.

The bishops' call comes at a time of heightened tension in the Twin Cities and across the world on issues of religion and secular life.

Metro Transit officials recently agreed to let a bus driver avoid driving buses with gay-themed ads to accommodate her religious objections. Transit officials later stepped back from that decision, saying it sent the wrong message about tolerance.

Muslim cabdrivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are refusing for religious reasons to take passengers carrying alcohol. Last winter, Century College in White Bear Lake was caught in controversy after an instructor posted copies of the Danish newspaper cartoons of Mohammed that triggered riots around the world.

"The Pope and the Witch" has been a target for years of the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Scenes include a paranoid pope convinced that thousands of orphans appearing in St. Peter's Square are part of a plot by condom makers to embarrass the church, a witch who favors abortion and drug legalization, and revelations of evil in the church hierarchy, according to a 2000 New York Times review.

Robert Rosen, who'll direct the play at the U, writes on the theater department Web site that, "I chose this play because it is political. It takes a stand on issues in the forefront of our daily lives. It is funny, irreverent and to the point."

The key question: Is it satire or sacrilege?

The U in September said campus must be a place for even very unpopular views. That drew a rebuke from Flynn. "One wonders how 'The Pope and the Witch' could possibly enhance intellectual life when that kind of hatred and prejudice is tolerated by the University of Minnesota," he wrote in a column for the Catholic Spirit newspaper. "It is even funded by the University of Minnesota. And, who is paying for this? You and I — the Catholics in Minnesota, among others, through our taxes."

McGrath on Thursday called "The Pope and the Witch" a "direct mockery of the holy father" and completely different from plays like "Nunsense" that poke fun at Catholic traditions in a light-hearted way.

At this point, the U has received a few hundred e-mails and letters on the issue, with a substantial number coming from outside Minnesota, a typical volume for organized e-mail campaigns, Wolter said. The play, he added, has been staged at Yale University, University of New Mexico and the University of Denver and is planned for Tulane University next year.

However it turns out, McGrath said the archdiocese has no plans to organize protests or call Catholics to action against the U. "We have a great deal of admiration for the university, its arts and activities," he said. "There's not going to be any continued rancor that grows out of this."

Paul Tosto covers higher education and can be reached at ptosto@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2119