Unfortunately, I have not been able to see it. I do not have HBO. 😦 I was just curious what Catholics in general felt about TV shows and movies about their Church and the Pope.
Well that really depends on how the Church and pope are portrayed. 😄 If the Church isn’t being made fun of, then it’s totally fine. Representing the pope as less than perfect isn’t bad either, since the pope is human, but the fact that a pope is selected mainly for his holiness and suitability for dealing with present-day situations means that it’s a bit offensive when he’s demonized (unless, of course, it’s a movie about one of the bad Renaissance or Medieval popes…).
Why do you object to the idea of “conservative vs liberal” Catholicism. I thought in real life there were arguments within your church between the liberal and conservative minded.
The Church has a single, unified body of doctrine, with some room for personal interpretation in some areas. For this reason, speaking of it as if it were divided into two different camps with competing doctrine is harmful to the Faith, as it tends to polarize Catholics and pit them against each other instead of us all being united in our faith. There should be no “liberal” or “conservative” or “moderate” or whatever Catholics, we should simply be Catholic. If we start breaking off into factions, or talk about the Church as if it was made up of different political parties, we are violating the prayer Jesus prayed at the Last Supper, “that they may be one” (John 15 or something like that).
“Liberal” or “conservative” in this context usually refers to political views, which should only be secondary to religious ones. The truth is that the middle ground is the best road to take. If you’re too conservative, chances are you don’t have the same concern for the poor or social outcasts that you should and that you favour doctrine over charity. If you’re too liberal, chances are that you are less appreciative of the Church’s traditions as well as being willing to accept some degree of moral relativism, thinking of doctrine as less important than being “nice.”
Neither of those is healthy, since we are called to love and we are also called to uphold the truth. These are both of equal importance. Leaning one way or the other is usually what gets someone pegged as conservative/traditionalist or libera/modernist, which detracts from our main goal and vocation of living Christlike lives.
Hopefully that makes sense, and I’m happy to ramble on some more if you want me to expand on anything. 😉