By CHRISTIE APPELHANZ
The Capital-Journal

An army of Catholics who are waging a holy war against the release of Kevin Smith's movie "Dogma" have claimed victory in Topeka.

"The protest is off," Jan Dohrman, a member of St. Joseph's Church, 227 S.W. Van Buren, said Wednesday. "We've been successful as far as stopping it from coming for now."

Dohrman said a group of Catholics had planned to protest the movie's Topeka opening, which they had expected to occur this weekend.

But Hal McClure, a film buyer for Wallace Theatres, which owns all of the Topeka movie screens, warned they haven't won the war.

"The movie may come to Topeka and it may not," he said Wednesday in an interview from his Portland, Ore., office.

McClure, who was reluctant to discuss his plans for the movie in Topeka, said he will decide "sometime in my lifetime" whether to show the movie in Topeka., but currently he "doesn't have to and doesn't want to."

"Dogma" was released across the country, including in theaters in Lawrence and Manhattan, on Nov. 12.

The manager of the West Ridge theaters confirmed the movie won't be available in Topeka before Dec. 9.

"It's a very anti-Catholic blasphemous movie that mocks God, the church's teachings, Mary's virginity and the Mass," said Dohrman, who "put on the armor of God" to read the script on the Internet. "They're attacking God, and they're attacking the church."

The U.S. Catholic Conference classified "Dogma" as morally offensive for its "anti-religious buffoonery, intense violence, sexual references, substance abuse, assorted vulgarities, profanity and recurring rough language."

"It is supposed to be a satire, but we think there are some things in life that you shouldn't make fun of," said Francis Slobodnik, American Needs Fatima office manager in Silver Lake.

In the film, two exiled angels find a loophole in Catholic Church dogma that will allow them to return to heaven. The problem is that if they succeed, they will prove God is fallible and eradicate the whole of existence.

"I think the producers of that film should go down on their knees in gratitude because of the controversy surrounding the film," said John Tibbetts, assistant professor of film studies at the University of Kansas. "If it hadn't been for all the hype, I would have just regarded it as a second-rate film."

The Silver Lake American Needs Fatima office has coordinated events against "Dogma" across the nation, where protesters passed out literature, sing and pray. Earlier this month, about 130 people in Lawrence and 120 people in Manhattan protested the opening night of the movie.

"By protesting, we are giving publicity, but it is negative publicity," Slobodnik said. "I don't know of any institution that likes negative publicity."

Although the Topeka protest was canceled, Dohrman said there will be a holy hour to pray about the movie at 7 p.m. Friday at St. Joseph Church. She said the public is encouraged to attend.

"We don't want them to get their catechism lessons through the movie 'Dogma,' " she said. "We'd prefer they come to the Catholic Church."