{"id":96316,"date":"2012-11-01T10:23:20","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T14:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=96316"},"modified":"2012-11-01T11:37:57","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T15:37:57","slug":"calm-down-about-the-vatican-and-james-bond-skyfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/11\/calm-down-about-the-vatican-and-james-bond-skyfall\/","title":{"rendered":"Calm down about the Vatican and James Bond Skyfall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was three years ago that I read a really interesting story in the Christian Science Monitor<\/em><\/a> about why the Vatican\u2019s \u201cfamously staid semi-official mouthpiece\u201d was suddenly doing movie reviews. The reporter explained that Pope Benedict XVI encouraged the paper to discuss cultural issues.<\/p>\n

The big error in how the media covers this Vatican newspaper is by giving the impression that it\u2019s the official mouthpiece of the Vatican. So we see stories with headlines such as this one from The Telegraph<\/em><\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vatican lauds \u2018human\u2019 James Bond, \u2018licence to cry\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

James Bond\u2019s licence to thrill has been sanctioned by no lesser an authority than the Vatican, through its official newspaper.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Um, no. Now, the headline is completely in error. But the story itself is fine. This is what we\u2019re talking about when we discuss how headlines aren\u2019t necessarily written by reporters.<\/p>\n

It is not true that the Roman Catholic Church has officially approved this film or anything. L\u2019Osservatore Romano, the newspaper based in the Vatican State, wrote about the film. Its review didn\u2019t go through doctrinal review and there is significant editorial independence.<\/p>\n

So if L\u2019Osservatore Romano gave a thumbs up to the film, that\u2019s all it means. It doesn\u2019t mean Pope Benedict XVI has given a thumbs up. Sometimes there doesn\u2019t seem to be much daylight between a given newspaper and the head of state (please, no jokes about any particular American paper) but it\u2019s an error to interpret the actual words published in L\u2019Osservatore Romano as if they came from Pope Benedict XVI himself or the church\u2019s broad teaching authority.<\/p>\n

But the story itself doesn\u2019t overstate nearly as much as the headline:<\/p>\n

As the mouthpiece of the Holy See, L\u2019Osservatore Romano, which was founded 151 years ago, used to run only turgid editorials on Catholic saints, articles on theology and notices of the Pope\u2019s official engagements.<\/p>\n

But since a new editor was appointed in 2007 and urged by Pope Benedict XVI to make the publication more relevant, it has ventured into popular culture, commenting on everything from Harry Potter to The Blues Brothers.<\/p>\n

Under the headline \u201c007 \u2013 license to cry\u201d, the broadsheet said Skyfall contained all the classic ingredients of a Bond film, from \u201cadrenalin-pumped action to exotic locations, beautiful Bond girls, and the inevitable vodka Martini \u2013 shaken, not stirred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam Mendes, the director, had taken all the familiar components of a Bond movie \u2013 \u201cthe legendary British Secret Service, MI6\u201d, Miss Moneypenny and an Aston Martin DB5 \u2013 and given them a contemporary twist, L\u2019Osservatore Romano said.<\/p>\n

The paper said that for his third outing as Bond, Daniel Craig was \u201ceven more convincing\u201d than in the first two films, Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale.<\/p>\n

Craig\u2019s Bond was \u201cless clich\u00e9d, less attracted by the pleasures of life, more introspective and more vulnerable physically and psychologically\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s still interesting that the Vatican newspaper devoted so much space and thought to the latest James Bond film. There\u2019s just no need to overstate what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 It was three years ago that I read a really interesting story in the Christian Science Monitor about why the Vatican\u2019s \u201cfamously staid semi-official mouthpiece\u201d was suddenly doing movie reviews. The reporter explained that Pope Benedict XVI encouraged the paper to discuss cultural issues. The big error in how the media covers this Vatican […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":605,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,7,11,1,24],"tags":[277,279,278,15474],"class_list":["post-96316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholicism","category-journalism","category-pop-culture","category-uncategorized","category-world","tag-james-bond","tag-losservatore-romano","tag-skyfall","tag-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\nCalm down about the Vatican and James Bond Skyfall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  It was three years ago that I read a really interesting story in the Christian Science Monitor about why the Vatican's "famously staid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/11\/calm-down-about-the-vatican-and-james-bond-skyfall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Calm down about the Vatican and James Bond Skyfall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  It was three years ago that I read a really interesting story in the Christian Science Monitor about why the Vatican's "famously staid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/11\/calm-down-about-the-vatican-and-james-bond-skyfall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GetReligion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-01T14:23:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-11-01T15:37:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/files\/2012\/10\/Skyfall_62-202x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mollie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mollie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/11\/calm-down-about-the-vatican-and-james-bond-skyfall\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/11\/calm-down-about-the-vatican-and-james-bond-skyfall\/\",\"name\":\"Calm down about the Vatican and James Bond Skyfall\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-01T14:23:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-11-01T15:37:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/74ed2f03f6e3aa3c3c4c3ce885b10255\"},\"description\":\"  It was three years ago that I read a really interesting story in the Christian Science Monitor about why the Vatican's \\\"famously staid\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/11\/calm-down-about-the-vatican-and-james-bond-skyfall\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/11\/calm-down-about-the-vatican-and-james-bond-skyfall\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2012\/11\/calm-down-about-the-vatican-and-james-bond-skyfall\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Calm down about the Vatican and James Bond Skyfall\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\",\"name\":\"GetReligion\",\"description\":\""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - 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