Church Likely to Condemn ‘Temptation,’ Mahony Says

Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony entered the controversy over planned release of the motion picture “The Last Temptation of Christ” by saying Tuesday that the “initial indication” is that the Roman Catholic Church will declare the film “morally offensive.”

Mahony said he has not seen the movie and that he will not advise local Catholics on it until the U.S. Catholic Conference Department of Communications issues a full review. Two members of the department saw a nearly finished version of the film last week in New York and Mahony said early suggestions are that the department will give the movie an “O” classification. That would classify the film as “morally offensive to everyone and should be avoided,” according to the archdiocese.

“That would hardly be a compliment to the makers of this film, which purports to portray a segment in the life of Jesus Christ, the son of God,” Mahony said.

In the same statement, Mahony pointedly praised Lew Wasserman, chairman of MCA Inc., parent company of Universal Pictures, which is scheduled to release the film this fall. He also objected strongly to what he termed “anti-Semitic implications” in protests by fundamentalist Christians against the film and slurs against Wasserman.

Many evangelical ministers and TV evangelists have objected to scenes in the film with sexual content and an alleged portrayal of Jesus as a “wimp.” The movie is based on a 1955 novel by Nobel Prize-winning Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis.

Mahony, who said he has been in personal contact with Wasserman for several weeks about the proposed release of the movie, stated, “I am confident that he would not allow any film to be released through his studios which would be offensive to a large segment of the American film-going public.”

Their personal relationship, the archbishop said, “will be an important dimension of his decision-making in this matter.”

Mahony called the executive a “man of the highest integrity.” He expressed hope that Wasserman’s role in hosting an event for Pope John Paul II during the pontiff’s visit last September “would diminish any suggestion that this film was produced to be anti-Christian.”

Mahony apparently referred to a demonstration Saturday at Universal led by the Rev. R. L. Hymers Jr., a Los Angeles fundamentalist who once conducted prayers for the death of a liberal U.S. Supreme Court justice. Hymers was quoted as saying, “These Jewish producers with a lot of money are taking a swipe at our religion.” A plane pulling a banner, “Wasserman Fans Jew-Hatred W/’Temptation,” flew over the demonstration site Saturday.

Hymers has said in a press release that the same plane will fly over Wasserman’s Beverly Hills home today during another protest in which a demonstrator dressed as a movie producer will be seen lashing “the Christ figure.”

Wasserman is Jewish, as is Sidney Sheinberg, president of MCA, and Tom Pollock, president of Universal Pictures.

Neil Sandberg, an American Jewish Committee executive in Los Angeles, said Tuesday that remarks such as those of Hymers are outrageous and misplaced. “The man who made the movie (Catholic-raised Scorsese) is not Jewish and the decision of Universal to release the movie would be considered a corporate judgment,” Sandberg said in an interview.

Hymers is suggesting that release of the film could create an anti-Semitic backlash. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, has been quoted as making a similar remark. Sandberg said such speculation itself foments anti-Semitism. He said the American Jewish Committee recently criticized Falwell’s reported remarks.

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