Many decades ago, the Catholic Church banned Franco Zeffirelli’s film of Romeo & Juliet because the director showed the couple in bed after they had been married by Friar Lawrence and because audiences got a brief glimpse of Romeo’s rear end and split-second glimpse of Juliet’s breast. The ban was essentially toothless since it was more of a signal of displeasure from the Holy See but otherwise something that couldn’t prevent Catholics from seeing the film. My late father, a huge fan of the film, who was fluent in Italian, quite knowledgeable about Catholic theology and who converted to the faith during WWII, was incensed by the Church’s pronouncement. The film has stood the test of time and is a classic not merely for Shakespeare’s insightful and beautiful rhyming couplets but for the way in which Zeffirelli handled the material and his choice of actors, locations (in Verona, Italy where the legendary story of the star-crossed lovers is actually set), costumes, music (Nino Rota) and cinematography.

Fast-forward 50 years to the Catholic Church of What’s Happening Now where predatory homosexual priests, bishops, and cardinals who have raped children, sexually groomed seminarians, and engaged in drug-fueled orgies are protected and promoted and very rarely punished or defrocked; and where a militant gay clergy continues to aggressively push the Church (with a nod and a wink from Francis) to openly embrace an active gay lifestyle that runs counter to almost two thousand years of Church teaching.