[Stephen Colbert's wikipedia bio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert#Personal_life) states: > **Colbert is a practicing Roman Catholic** and a Sunday school teacher **and an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church Monastery**. These two (bolded) things, according to various media reports and the blogsite of the Universal Life Church Monastery are factually correct, so I'm not asking if they are possible, but whether according to official Catholic doctrine the two are reconcileable? By way of background information: > The Universal Life Church Monastery (ULC) is a non-denominational, non-profit religious organization famous worldwide for its provision of free, legal ordinations to its vast membership over the internet. The ULC, recognizing the importance of maintaining open hearts and minds, embraces any individual, no matter his or her spiritual background, who wishes to become a member of this family of faith. Since its founding, the Universal Life Church has ordained more than 20 million ministers. - [www.themonastery.org/aboutUs](http://www.themonastery.org/aboutUs) The Picture is of Colbert officiating at the wedding of Mike Cassesso and MaiLien Le using a licence granted to him in the state of New York on the basis of his ULC credential. Clearly Colbert was not officiating as a priest in the Catholic sacrament of marriage, but do his actions in conducting a non-Catholic wedding violate any particular Church teachings? If so, would it be regarded as a venial sin or a mortal one?

I was going to play through the God of War series, and as a Christian, violence and even gore doesn't really bother me, nor does magic stuff as long as it doesn't resemble anything real, like from the occult, but the one thing that does bug me about ***God of War*** (aside from the nudity) is the **human sacrifice** needed to progress in the first game! I'm very bugged about this. I really want to play the whole series, but as a Christian, the whole idea of sacrificing something, especially a person, even if it's just a game, doesn't sit well with me at all. I need fellow non-denominational Protestants to help me with this. Does the Bible say such a thing would be an abomination even in fiction, even if you would never, ever even consider actually doing such a thing? I understand that if such a thing, even if it weren't a human sacrifice if attempted, would be beyond vile and repugnant before God and I would never do such a thing. Does He see it being done in the game the same way, according to Scripture?

Where can I view the oldest filmed recording of a mass?

There are tons of movies about St. Francis and St. Clare, is there a complete list of movies that, I don't know, rank by historicity and orthodoxy? I've seen a few movies about them but can't remember which, I know _The Flowers of St. Francis_ is good, but it's not necessarily based on anything particularly historical. So, what I'd like to see is a complete list, with a relative rating (maybe on a scale of 1-10) for historicity and orthodoxy. I'm trying to find some movies for a curriculum I'm putting together for my daughter's homeschool.

**Question:** Is it sinful to watch TV series The Young Pope ? Why? I did not watch the TV series, but from what I saw it seems morally corruptible. I am interested in an answer from a Catholic viewpoint.

A lot of episodes from the Law and Order franchise seem to draw inspiration from real life events, however, with a recent episode (*Law & Order: SVU Season 18 Episode 19: Conversion *), I'm wondering whether the writers "jumped the shark": they portrayed a weird "Christian" sect that actually believe in something they call "curative intercourse" - in the words of the character Rollins, they believe "you can rape the gay out of someone". It seems a little far-fetched to me that this would actually be taught by any group that claims to be Christian, but with groups like Westboro , I suppose anything is possible - is there any group that identifies as Christian that actually teaches any doctrine that resembles this?

[Stephen Colbert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert) is a high profile entertainer and an out-an-proud Roman Catholic. As reported by the Daily Beast , prior to taking on his new role as host of the The Late Show , he sat down in an interview with Father Thomas Rosica, "media attaché to the Holy See Press Office and CEO of Salt and Light Television based in Toronto, Canada", and amongst other things: > When Rosica asked him about making fun of the church, Colbert said he wouldn’t stop just because he has a bigger platform. “I mean I’ll still make jokes about the church, I’ll make jokes about anything… as long as you’re not being malicious, I don’t think you can leave anything off the table,” Colbert told Rosica, but **he would stop short of making jokes about the sacraments.** “It wouldn’t feel right for me, it wouldn’t feel good for me, **it wouldn’t be obeying my own conscience, I suppose, to make jokes about the sacraments**, or specifically the Eucharist… a nacho cheese Eucharist joke… not. I mean, the church is an important part of my life, I would be crazy if I didn’t make jokes about it.” The first part of this question is not about probing Colbert's (or anyone else's) conscience, but to ask: **are there any official teachings of the Catholic Church that would discourage Catholics from making jokes about the sacraments?** Colbert has been including in some of his more recent shows a segment called "Stephen Colbert's Midnight Confessions", which contains a series of running jokes using a mock confessional with Stephen in the role of penitent and the audience in the role of confessor. In show 149, which originally aired May 24th 2016, after Colbert's stint in the confessional, the segment featured a cartoonish representation of God putting himself behind a confessional screen and confessing his own sins to the audience. Putting aside any issue of whether Colbert has acted against his own conscience in this matter (by making jokes about the sacrament of Penance), **is there anything in this behaviour that would be transgressive of Church doctrine?** If so, would it just be a matter to be dealt with privately between Colbert (or any other practicing Catholic in the same position) and his priest at his next (real) confession? Or given the public nature of such an offense, would his priest or bishop have grounds to bring discipline in a more proactive manner (*eg*, by withholding the sacrament of the Eucharist)?

In cases where a leisure, entertainment, play activity is questioned for its morality, the moral analysis tends to hinge on at least one *evil* aspect of the activity—one that either glorifies an evil (e.g., violence in video games) or is evil in and of itself (e.g., pornography or stealing lunch money from sissies). However, if we agree that *evil is an absence of good*, and if we agree that leisure, games, and entertainment in general are *not evil*, we must be able to recognize some *inherent good* in those activities, or in the active participation thereof, for the activity to be **not evil**—and therefore *good.* For the leisurely challenged, examples of "leisure and play" include things like: * Sporting events (either participating or watching) * Dancing * Video games * Board/Table-top games * Building unnecessary things out of: * Legos * Popsicle sticks * JavaScript * *And other activities not done with a practical purpose in mind.* **From a Catholic perspective, what is it about these types of activities that is *explicitly and specifically good?*** Furthermore, should we (and can we) as Catholics be able to attribute some specific good to each particular form of leisure, entertainment, or play? Or, are there an overarching "leisurely good" that applies to any and all activities that are not explicitly evil in some facet?