Abandoned_Altars

Summertime is movie time. So if you’re bored with reruns and the same old stuff on cable, with no new ideas for Netflix, for your convenience, there’s the Fallen Priests Film Festival pages. I got ‘em all; ranging from funny priests to devil worshippers and outright nunsploitation, with dramas and historical epics in the middle. Even clergy abuse documentaries are now included.

Check the nearly 300 shows currently listed starting with Part I: Clerical Comedies.

I’ve left out all the pro-Church syrupy schmaltz that I can. No Sister Act or Going My Way here, folks. Most of this stuff would get you into trouble with the Legion of Decency, which is kinda the point here. ;->

I’ve listed a few new ones, updated several more. Along with the hilarious Father Ted, there’s the movie I saw last night, Goya’s Ghosts, an excellent period drama about the famous painter, a model (Natalie Portman, whose roles are getting even more curious), and Javier Bardem as the creepiest and most vile inquisitor I’ve seen in a long time. And it’s quite “on topic” too…

And as always, if you think of any I should know about that aren’t listed, please let me know. Thanks!

Stay cool and pass the “popecorn”….

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Keys of Heaven, Gates of Hell

I’m bumming today, having ended four long years of research tracking down a clue to the ultimate smoking gun, what I’d hoped would be the crown jewel of all my digging into the Church’s dark and hidden history.

I’ve called this elusive Holy Grail, the “Master Key“. The idea that there could even be such a thing came to me after reading a 19th century academic History of Auricular Confession by an American scholar named Henry C. Lea. He wrote:

“…there was an even higher authority for the violation of the seal, for the confessor in this case was a cardinal, who, under dispensation from Eugenius IV, revealed a confession the knowledge of which was important to the papal policy of the moment.”

A small footnote cryptically referred to a work by a later pope’s very own personal theologian which justified the act. Certainly can’t get much more authoritative than that. But a papal dispensation of the seal of the confessional? That’s something that apologists have said is absolutely impossible! And for damned good reason.

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Father Ted

And now for something completely different… Father Ted.

I didn’t know much about this television series except that it was about 3 priests on some little Irish island. Since one of them’s a disgusting, demented alcoholic lech, I thought they had to be retired and the whole thing seemed like it might be a bit triggering, at best.

But, I knew I had to check it out sooner or later for my list of clerical comedies on my Fallen Priests Film Festival pages, and so last night, needing something to calm me down after LOST, I plopped the first disk in.

The first two episodes set the scene on the dismal patch called Craggy Island, and introduce the whacky trio of rectory mates (if that’s the term) — Father Ted, the most reasonable one; Father Jack, a drooling codger who mainly just shouts “Feck!” at everything; and Father Dougal, a young, amiable halfwit; the annoying housekeeper and assorted eccentric characters. OK, just a wee bit darker than The Vicar of Dilby, maybe. Hardly anything to get excited about, although their priest visitors seem to have a little more bite and probably will add more fun as it goes. [SPOILERS follow]

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