The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced it was withdrawing a review of The Golden Compass prepared by its Office for Film & Broadcasting and originally posted on the USCCB and Catholic News Service web sites Nov. 29. The Catholic Register ran the review in its Dec. 23 issue.

The USCCB gave no reason for its decision, although the review itself had received a considerable amount of criticism among people distrustful of the anti-religionist bent of both the novels and their author.

The movie, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, debuted in theatres Dec. 7. It is based on the first book of British author Philip Pullman’s trilogy titled His Dark Materials.The other two volumes are The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

His Dark Materials recounts the adventures of Lyra Belacqua, a 12-year-old girl in an alternate universe that resembles our own. With the assistance of several other characters, she sets out to overthrow the Authority, which is God in Pullman’s work. The novels depict him as a weak, false god and, in the final book in the trilogy, he actually dies.

Australian Sacred Heart Father Peter Malone, a film critic, author and former head of Signis, the worldwide association of Catholic communicators, said in a Nov. 25 statement on the movie: “The Golden Compass is well-made, with a lot of intelligent dialogue, including the word ‘metaphysics’ a couple of times. Much of the film requires attention as well as some developed vocabulary.”

Malone acknowledged, “There are some aspects of the film that may raise a religious eyebrow.” One is how The Golden Compass treats its parallel world.

“In our world, our souls are within us. In the parallel world, the soul is outside us, in the form of a symbolic animal called a daemon — not a devil but a ‘spirit’ according to the origins of the word,” he said. Another aspect is its use of “Magisterium” to describe “the all-powerful ruling body which is authoritarian and intent on eradicating free will,” he said. The Catholic Church uses the term magisterium to describe its teaching authority.

He added, “As with all controversies and campaigns, attack without the benefit of viewing a film undermines the credibility of a crusade whether it is justified or not.”

In a joint review by Harry Forbes, director of the U.S. bishops’ Office for Film & Broadcasting, and John Mulderig, a staff critic for the office, The Golden Compass was classified A-II — adults and adolescents — for “intense but bloodless fantasy violence, anti-clerical subtext, standard genre occult elements, a character born out of wedlock and a whiskey-guzzling bear.”

The now-withdrawn USCCB review rankled some in the blogosphere with its more positive than negative tone. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, headed by Bill Donohue, had earlier called for a boycott of the movie, and it maintained its position in a Dec. 3 statement.

“The Catholic League wants Christians to stay away from this movie precisely because it knows that the film is bait for the books: Unsuspecting parents who take their children to see the movie may be impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present,” it said. “And no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part of these books.”

Jesuit Father James Martin, associate editor of Jesuit-run America magazine, quoted an article by religion journalist and author Hanna Rosin saying that Christians were offended by the portrayal of religion in the books.

“In this case, I agree with Donohue,” Martin said in a Nov. 27 posting on the magazine’s blog. “Rosin’s article seems to warn that when parents buy their kids something they expect to mirror The Chronicles of Narnia, they might be surprised — or appalled — when they learn that it’s less like (Narnia author) C.S. Lewis than Christopher Hitchens,” a high-profile anti-religionist who made the best-seller list this year with God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

In his column in the Nov. 24 issue of the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the archdiocese of New Orleans, New Orleans Archbishop Alfred Hughes alluded to the film in his column, “The Lure of Atheism.” “I do understand that the film is less blatant than the books but may serve as an inducement to the purchase of the books. Atheism is alive and well!” he said.