Mmm... back-to-back Pope Movies

So, I watched ABC's "Have No Fear" and a little over half of CBS's "Pope John Paul II," and had a good time doing it - they're both way better than most of what is on network television these days.

ABC tried to cram too much into too short a time, but they did a rather admirable job covering Karol Wojtyla's youth. The rest of the movie was mostly a string of vignettes with little or no explanation of their context, but having already known something about the pontificate of John Paul II, this didn't bother me as much, and I did enjoy the chance them portrayed on television.

The consensus seems to be that CBS did a better job than ABC, and from what I have seen, I would tend to agree - it didn't have the same stitched-together feel that ABC's offering did. It showed up a better picture, I think, of "John Paul II, the man," and it did a much better job introducing some of the key players in his pontificate (Cardinal Ratzinger!)

I'm amused by the comments of numerous Pope-Haters about how the movies didn't give a fair treatment to Catholic positions on homosexuality, women's rights, abortion, and so on. I don't know why this should bother them, though, since they don't treat the Catholic positions on them fairly, either.

(To read more about this, check the Wikipedia entry for "sign of contradiction.")

Here's hoping to more quality, Christian-friendly programming. Thank you, ABC and CBS, for treating our late Holy Father with respect.