Leading Catholic Church officials have given James Cameron‘s Avatar the thumbs-down — because the blockbuster promotes the worship of nature.
The Vatican’s newspaper has dubbed the sci-fi epic “simplistic” after editors spoke to bishops and cardinals after a screening.
In an article in L’Osservatore Romano, one Vatican critic writes that the movie “gets bogged down by a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature,” adding that there are “few genuine emotions” in the film.
And Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi reveals that the criticism reflects Pope Benedict XVI’s views on the dangers of turning nature into a “new divinity.”
The film, which has already become the second-highest-grossing of all time, will be released in Italy on Friday.
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