No ‘Church’ Reaction From N.Y. Cardinal

In contrast to the public rebuke that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony delivered to KCET Channel 28 for broadcasting “Stop the Church,” a 24-minute film that criticizes Catholic policies toward AIDS and homosexuality, the film’s presentation on WNET here Friday night drew no reaction from Cardinal John O’Connor.

Instead, the public-TV station was blasted by filmmaker Robert Hilferty, who charged that WNET’s decision last Thursday to broadcast the film the following night was an attempt to avoid the controversy that KCET experienced.

KCET’s Sept. 6 broadcast of the film, which documents the 1989 disruption of a service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York by the AIDS activist group ACT UP, prompted Mahony, head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, to say that the station no longer warranted viewer support.

Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the New York Archdiocese, said in an interview that while he personally was “disturbed by the showing of a film that glorifies interfering with the right to worship,” O’Connor had not contacted WNET about the film and that he did not expect the Cardinal to comment in the future.

“It would be inappropriate for each Archdiocese to comment on the other,” Zwilling said of the difference between the way the two Archdioceses responded to the showing of the film. “Cardinal Mahony and Cardinal O’Connor are two different men with two different styles and conclusions.”

Hilferty, meanwhile, criticized WNET for broadcasting “Stop the Church” on such short notice, and at 11:35 p.m., and for choosing to broadcast KCET’s follow-up report on the controversy about the film rather than producing its own.

“I’m angry and disappointed at the cowardice of WNET in the way they showed the film,” Hilferty said. “It appears that they wanted to bury the film. The way they announced it didn’t give people enough time to react or know the film was on. ‘Stop the Church’ deals with a very serious issue and a controversial event that happened in New York. WNET should be leading the way with discussion of the issues raised, not using KCET’s prepackaged panel. That’s a way of distancing themselves from their responsibility.”

“We decided to air the film because it had become a news event,” said Harry Chancy Jr., vice president and director of the WNET program service. “It was no longer strictly a documentary but had become an issue about freedom of expression and the limits of acceptability of freedom. We scheduled the film on such short notice to take advantage of its newsworthiness. We thought KCET had put together a good program, and economic restraints at WNET prevented us from doing our own panel.”

Viewer response here was light. WNET officials said that by late Saturday afternoon the station had received only 136 calls in response to the broadcast--100 against and 36 in favor.