Despite boycott, Sacred draws
Catholic applause
By JOHN
ALLEN NCR Staff
The richly diverse American Catholic church rarely speaks with a
single voice, and its pluralism is again in evidence in the debate over the new
ABC television show Nothing Sacred.
The hourlong drama has drawn re from the Catholic League for
Religious and Civil Rights, a New York-based group that monitors anti-Catholic
defamation, and from a handful of bishops. Other Catholic leaders, however,
have hailed the show as compelling drama and have even suggested that its
positive depiction of an urban parish could boost vocations and church
attendance.
Meanwhile, the controversy may be hurting the show where it counts
-- with advertisers and in the ratings. So far, eleven sponsors have announced
their intention not to appear on Nothing Sacred, and the show
nished fourth in its time slot in its second week.
Theres a political message here [on Nothing
Sacred] Im tired of, said William Donohue, president of the
Catholic League. Its propaganda. The show suggests that everyone
who is loyal to the church is a terrible, coldhearted bastard, while all the
good, caring Catholics disregard the churchs teaching. The league
has been joined in its campaign by 29 mostly conservative Christian, Jewish and
Muslim groups. A few bishops, including Washingtons Cardinal James Hickey
and Camdens Bishop James McHugh, have also published negative reactions
to the show in their diocesan papers.
Many Catholics, however, have welcomed Nothing Sacred.
I like it a lot, said Paulist Fr. Ellwood Kieser, head
of Paulist Pictures and coproducer of the lms Romero and
Entertaining Angels.
It portrays honest conict, Kieser said. It
certainly pulls you into a God-centered universe, and makes you think about
questions of faith. The writing is terric.
Kieser even predicted that Fr. Ray -- the smart, caring and
pastorally effective lead character, played by Kevin Anderson -- might draw
more young men to consider vocations, in the same way, he said, that the
popular show E.R. has apparently helped increase applications for
trauma specialties in medical schools.
Mary Ann Glendon of the Harvard Law School said, I
havent seen the show, but Catholics I know and trust do not have a
problem with it. Glendon is a high-prole Catholic who was chosen by the
Vatican to head its delegation to the 1995 United Nations Womens
Conference in Beijing.
She also serves on the board of advisers for the Catholic League
and suggested that the groups sensitivity to anti-Catholic bias may
predispose it occasionally to overreact. Im glad the Catholic
League exists, Glendon said, because there really is
Catholic-bashing out there. But sometimes such groups can be a little overly
sensitive, she said. This may be a case in point.
In the season premiere, the shows central character, Fr.
Ray, encouraged a woman to follow her own conscience on abortion. The second
episode revolved around the parishs efforts to keep its soup kitchen
open, despite city council opposition. Coming story lines include a priest
suffering from AIDS who is considering leaving the priesthood. Critical
reaction to Nothing Sacred has been generally positive, with
Time calling it by far the best of the new shows and
Entertainment Weekly saying the show is clearheaded and
beautifully conceived.
Still, the Catholic League senses an implicit anti-Catholic agenda
at work. The average Catholic is not Fr. Ray, Donohue said.
Some blacks blow each other up on the streets and some gays go to
bathhouses, he said, but on television you see Cosby and Ellen. But
Catholics have to put up with Fr. Ray? Catholics want priests who accept the
teachings of the church, he said.
Its not that clear-cut, said Henry Herx,
director of the Ofce of Film and Broadcast -- the successor to the Legion of
Decency -- for the U.S. Catholic Conference. There is a wide variety of
Catholic views about the show, so its not accurate that the Catholic
League speaks for the Catholic perspective, Herx said. He
emphasized that the Catholic League is not an ofcial agency of the church.
Donohue wants a Bing Crosby kind of priest, said
Kieser, but thats just not the real world of 1997 -- if indeed it
ever was the real world at all.
ABC has worked to head off Catholic opposition, even editing the
series premiere to satisfy concerns expressed by church ofcials who had viewed
it at the networks request. In the pilot, dialogue took place that could
have suggested a bishops approval for tape-recording a confession; by the
time the episode aired, the conversation was edited to make it clear that the
bishop would not approve.
Despite those efforts, Catholic observers of the show still point
to some ecclesiological gaffes. Kieser said he doubts that a priest would tell
his congregation not to confess any more sexual sins, as Fr. Ray does in the
rst episode. Herx said many Catholics would not nd edifying the
suggestion in the second episode that the parishs youth minister was
involved in a sexual relationship before marriage.
Donohue sees the show as fundamentally awed and has vowed to
kill it. He says the Catholic League will continue to use
aggressive, high-prole tactics to bring it down, including urging Catholics to
boycott the shows sponsors. We play hardball, he said.
The opening salvo in this campaign was red in the Sept. 8 issue of
Advertising Age, where the league spent $13,000 to run a full-page ad
warning sponsors that there would be reprisals for advertising on Nothing
Sacred. The league has given out the phone numbers and E-mail addresses
of Nothing Sacred sponsors to its members, encouraging them to
complain. Donohue has also expressed gratitude for the help of the conservative
television outlet EWTN, where Mother Angelica encourages viewers to protest to
Nothing Sacred advertisers during her nightly television program.
Some evidence exists that the leagues efforts are bearing
fruit. Two sponsors -- Weight Watchers and Isuzu -- that had advertised on the
rst show have withdrawn, while several others who had either inked agreements
for future episodes or were considering doing so have asked ABC to switch them
to other programs.
Weight Watchers conrmed that it had received a number of
complaints about its sponsorship of Nothing Sacred on the
companys 800 number. An Isuzu spokesperson also acknowledged receiving
complaints.
One archdiocesan ofcial who initially signed on to the
leagues campaign has since backed away. Fr. James Barker, director of
vocations for the Baltimore archdiocese, was a signatory to the leagues
petition protesting the show. After seeing the rst episode, however, Barker
said Im kind of sorry for lending his name to the effort.
[Nothing Sacred] really was quite good and much better than
what I had expected or feared based on what some people -- like the Catholic
League -- were saying, he told Catholic News Service.
While ABC claims that Nothing Sacred is fully
sponsored for the rest of the season, a network spokesperson admitted that the
defections are of serious concern. On the other hand, shows such as NYPD
Blue suffered through the withdrawal of several sponsors, only to reclaim
them once it became a ratings hit.
The ratings for Nothing Sacred have so far been
unimpressive; the show claimed a 7.6 household rating, which translates into
just under 9.9 million viewers, for its debut Sept. 18. On Sept. 25, it
garnered only a 4.4 share, meaning 6.1 million viewers. Network ofcials noted
that in its second week, Nothing Sacred was up against NBCs
highly popular Thursday night lineup, including Friends in the same
time slot.
If the show does fail, it will disappoint many Catholics who see
potential in it. Its a very eloquent picture of what the church can
be, said Atonement Fr. James Gardiner, head of the Tri-State Catholic
Committee on Radio and Television, an association of the communications
directors of the seven dioceses and archdioceses in the New York media market.
Gardiner likes the show so much hes written letters to sponsors to thank
them in an effort to balance the Catholic Leagues opposition.
I hope the show continues, Gardiner said. We
need to work with creative types, not punish them. He said colleagues
have told him of people calling chanceries and parishes after watching
Nothing Sacred, expressing an interest in coming back to
Catholicism or considering it for the rst time.
Gardiner would like to see Catholics friendly to Nothing
Sacred speak more forcefully on the subject. So many people whisper
to me, good job and keep it up, he said, in
reference to his own comments, including a positive column about Nothing
Sacred published recently in the New York Daily News. I tell
them to speak out, to say it openly, so that people know most Catholics
arent condemning the show.
For Donohue, the ght over Nothing Sacred is about much
more than the show itself. Its ultimately about what kind of face
American Catholicism will project to the broader society -- dialectical and
accommodating or militant in defense of its own interests. Donohue clearly
prefers the latter. I dont have much use for the wimps in the
Catholic church, on either the left or the right, he said.
Donohue said that while the generally low-key remarks from the
American hierarchy about the show had created some confusion, he
predicted its failure to speak out against Nothing Sacred would
ultimately help his cause. The more average Catholics get enraged, the
more likely they are to join our side, he said.
Donohue indicated that Catholic League membership was climbing as
a result of all the publicity. Ive had to pull staff just to answer
the phones, he said. In just one day, Donohue claimed, the league had 700
requests for membership information.
The Catholic Leagues campaign irks those who argue for a
more open, less deant approach to popular culture. I dont think the
Catholic League speaks for the Catholic church, said Kieser. I
dont think the bulk of American Catholics are upset about this [`Nothing
Sacred].
Still, this is prime-time network television, and some skepticism
is probably in order. I just hope it stays good, Kieser said.
I hope they dont succumb to temptation and get tired or
trendy.
National Catholic Reporter, October 10,
1997
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