MOVIES - Oct. 25, 1988

French civil and ecumenical authorities are uniting to condemn the weekend fire-bombing of a Paris theater showing the controversial film “The Last Temptation of Christ.” “This recalls the worst days of the Inquisition,” Interior Minister Pierre Joxe said Monday, adding that the act would “lead to more stringent security measures for cinemas.” The fire swept through a cinema in the Latin Quarter shortly after midnight Sunday, leaving 10 people suffering from smoke inhalation. Arsonists ignited a gasoline-soaked theater seat which ad been placed in a stairwell and set ablaze, with the fire spreading rapidly through the theater, police said. A spokesman for Archbishop of Paris Jean-Marie Lustiger expressed the cleric’s “compassion for the wounded” and said: “When you use violence, it is Christ himself you are wounding.”