TORONTO ON April 13, 2012 – The movie “The Three Stooges”, an updated take on one of the best-known slapstick trios, opened today across North America. The Stooges are depicted seeking to raise money to save an orphanage run by traditionally-dressed nuns. After seeing the film, CCRL Executive Director Joanne McGarry had these comments.
 
“This movie is clearly not meant to be taken seriously, and there are many corners of the media that take worse liberties with religious imagery, especially that pertaining to Catholicism. In this case, it’s unfortunate that a generally positive impression of nuns operating an orphanage was marred by a brief scene of a character wearing a “nun bikini,” complete with a rosary around her neck. Another nun, the authoritarian “Sister Mary-Mengele”, is presumably named after the Nazi war criminal.

“Again, this is slapstick, and as with the original Stooges, some people will enjoy the humour and some won’t. But the cheapening depiction of a nun, however brief, is yet another example of the liberties Hollywood and the media in general will take with Catholicism that are rarely if ever taken with other religions.”