The BBC News reports that ABC reporter Elizabeth Vargas concedes her network’s one-hour “exploration” of whether Jesus Christ had a wife is going to offend people. However, this will not stop the November 3 screening.
The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) and its American Needs Fatima campaign want ABC to know that such attacks on the Faith and the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ are considered insulting and blasphemous. The TFP is organizing demonstrations in front of ABC offices in New York and Burbank and mounting a weeklong e-mail protest.
The ABC program, “Jesus, Mary and DaVinci,” is partially based on the best-selling novel, The DaVinci Code, which fantasizes that St. Mary Magdalene was married to Christ and fled Jerusalem with His child following His crucifixion.
The pseudo-intellectual program adds further injury by dressing up its story with commentary from liberal theologians like Richard McBrien. Elizabeth Vargas admitted that ABC found no proof as to whether Jesus had a wife or not.
In Burbank, the American TFP and its America Needs Fatima campaign staged a lunch hour protest in front of ABC-Disney studios. Some members drove more than two hours to manifest reparation to Our Lord and indignation at ABC’s program.
American TFP vice president, Thomas McKenna, led prayers, hymns and addressed the people. Large banners reading “Blasphemy Provokes God” or “Stop Catholic Bashing” were displayed for cars to see as they passed. A similar demonstration took place in front of ABC offices in New York City.
“The special like the book is fiction,” said America Needs Fatima director Robert Ritchie. “I don’t understand how ABC can air such preposterous theories that fly in the face of Catholic teaching and tradition, and have zero historical evidence. Vargas is reported to have said the program will offend. It will!”