Article: Criteria for Awarding ExcellenceThe New Ethos organization is rooted in Catholic principles: So should New Ethos Excellence only be awarded to Catholics?by Fr. Don Woznicki - July 25, 2008The answer to the question is quite simple for how New Ethos. considers its criteria of judgment. No. An artist or producer of entertainment need not be "Catholic" in order for New Ethos to recognize it for excellence. Does truth, beauty, and goodness come only to humanity through Catholics? Of course not. How about this one? Can God use a depraved and obstinate sinner to convey truth, beauty, and goodness? OF COURSE HE CAN! For one, art is greater than the artists, that is why it is so awesome and humbling when we encounter those transcendent qualities of truth, beauty, and goodness in such art. secondly, God uses broken and sinful instruments to do His work. Doesn't he use you too (and me) for some form of His work in the world? Example? "A Man for All Seasons." this film is considered one the most "Catholic" films within any Catholic circle of people. Did you know that Robert Bolt (screenplay of film) was not Catholic. In fact, he was not even Christian. Further, he was known to be an agnostic. In case you Catholics out there may be thinking, "This priest is quacked!" Consider a quote from a Church document, "Toward a Pastoral Approach To Culture." [Pontifical Council for Culture - May 23, 1999, n. 17]: "The Church shows profound respect to all artists, irrespective of their religious convictions, since works of art bear an imprint of the invisible, as it were. Art, like every other human activity, looks beyond itself for its absolute goal: its nobility comes from being directed to the ultimate goal of the human person." And in case you artists get too big of a head, that ultimate goal is, as the "Church Lady would say, "Jeeesus!" (not Satan) and the eternal Kingdom of God the Father, whose Church of His Son, Jesus Christ, is a temporal sign of His presence, and of which Thomas Moore goes to his death to defend her integrity. Can I have an AMEN?!  A Man for All Seasons - Winner of 6 Oscars (including Best Screenplay)
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