By David DiCerto Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) — From Hollywood’s silent era to today’s summer blockbusters, Catholic priests have been a staple of the silver screen.
Jeremy Irons and Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan appear in a scene from the 1986 movie "The Mission." Catholic priests have been a staple of the silver screen over the years. (CNS photo/Warner Bros.)
In 1915, D.W. Griffith followed up his controversial silent classic “Birth of a Nation” with the ambitious epic “Intolerance,” which prominently featured a Catholic priest administering last rites to a condemned man. Five years later, Bert Bracken would direct “The Confession,” about a priest bound by the seal of confession to keep secret information that could save an innocent man from the gallows. A similar plot device would be employed by Alfred Hitchcock in “I Confess” (1953), starring Montgomery Clift.
From Bing Crosby’s crooning curate in “Going My Way” (1944) to Karl Malden’s dockyard preacher in “On the Waterfront” (1954) to Max Von Sydow’s demon-battling Jesuit in “The Exorcist” (1973), men of the cloth have provided some memorable moments in the history of cinema. The same goes for foreign films. Just think of Don Pietro martyred by the Gestapo in Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist masterpiece “Open City” (1941).
What makes Catholic priests such compelling character studies? Perhaps part of it has to do with the nature of movies themselves. Film is an inherently visual art form, telling stories and conveying meaning through images rather than words. A Roman collar is one of those archetypal wardrobe pieces that communicate volumes before the character wearing it ever utters a line of dialogue. Just as the cowboy hat signals grit, or the detective’s fedora hard-boiled toughness, so the priest’s collar serves as visual shorthand for morality, albeit at times flawed or distorted. (more…)
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Vatican has given its “recognitio,” or statement of acceptance, of the proposed U.S. version of the new edition of the Roman Missal. In a statement today the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops acknowledged they had received word from the Vatican. The USCCB now must decide when to authorize its use in dioceses and parishes in the United States.
