Abandoned Altars

The summer movie season is in full swing, and so far two films have gained my notice for their clerical characters: The Da Vinci Code, where prelates plot with murderous monks to conceal juicy secrets about Jesus, and Nacho Libre, a light-hearted comedy about a monk who becomes a Mexican wrestler.

Not much reason for the cardinals to go to the matinees these days. Long gone indeed are the days when the film industry catered to the Catholic crowd with safe and morally uplifting propaganda like Going My Way.

For the last several years, I’ve been working on a list of movies, which I call The Fallen Priests Film Festival. Every feature film or TV mini-series I could find that had priests or nuns or indeed, any kind of Christian minister in trouble is included there. I’m sure there’s many more, but I think I’ve found the most important ones by now. I’ve found quite a surprising amount.

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It’s fairly obvious to any objective observer that the Roman Church has lost its way. It often seems like a medieval anachronism here in the cyberpunk reality of the twenty-first century, and its solemn pronouncements sound from an age gone past.

Is it the stunning advances of science that are to blame? The deepening corruption of the surrounding society, perhaps? Or might it have anything to do with the headlong retreat from reform the Vatican has engaged in since John Paul II took office?

A surprisingly prophetic insight comes from, of all places, Madison Avenue.

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The film version of The Da Vinci Code is upon us at last. Moral outrage being apparently insufficient, some critics have resorted to casting stones unjustly with bad reviews as well. Anything to keep the sheeple safe from ideas, I guess. However, from the media coverage in general, one would be tempted to think this is the greatest threat against the Christian faith since Muhammad chatted with Gabriel.

It’s a fun read, a good movie, but it’s not the greatest story ever told. Why should people be so shocked? It’s a NOVEL, a thriller; which is why one should not take any claims of fact seriously. Is there any reason to be alarmed?

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An interesting list of my fellow excommunicants from the Associated Press is quoted below. It is a little incomplete. It fails to mention notables such as St. Hippolytus, an early bishop of Rome and the first antipope, although he was reconciled to the current pope after both had been busted by the Romans.

It should be noted that not a single priestly perpetrator or criminal has ever been excommunicated. Most have been willingly laicized at their own request. Even those who have been defrocked against their will, still remain, in essence, priests and Roman Catholics.

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