Washington D.C., Jun 16, 2004 / 22:00 pm
A review of a new documentary on chastity states that the film is “unbalanced,” “full of unsubstantiated, anecdotal assertions” and falsely links abstinence to the Church’s sexual abuse scandal.
"Celibacy," a new documentary by Antony Thomas, will be aired on HBO June 28. The Office of Film and Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reviewed the documentary in advance.
The review states that the documentary starts “on a seemingly unbiased note” with a comparative study of the practice of celibacy in Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.
However, it “quickly becomes a polemic against the Catholic Church's entire sexual ethos, which attempts to claim that a repeat of the recent sex scandal could be avoided if the Vatican lifted its ban on a married clergy," the review says.