Ahead of the weekend's blockbuster opening for the teen vampire fantasy Twilight: New Moon, a Vatican official condemned the movie as a "deviant moral vacuum." The comments from Monsignor Franco Perazzelo, of the pontifical council of culture, came just weeks after the Vatican warned parents that Halloween has an "undercurrent of occultism" and is "absolutely anti-Christian." Should parents be concerned, or is the Catholic Church going overboard? (Watch an ABC report about New Moon's lessons in chastity)
The Vatican is making itself look silly: "The good Monsignor" surely has the best intentions, says Will Heaven in Britain's Telegraph, but he's not helping the Catholic Church. Censoring "childish fiction" like Twilight: New Moon makes the Vatican look out of touch and humorless, which alienates "far more young believers than made-up wizards or vampires ever would."
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