'Captain Catholic' - Movie Apologetics for Young Adults

[CaptCatholic]

Hello all – My name’s Tony DeGennaro. I’ve been an active reader of Catholic Answers Tracts and other publications, but I didn’t discover these Forums until today – pleasant surprise 

I’m a college student at the University of Scranton in PA (a Jesuit university) majoring in Theology, and Counseling and Human Services. I have always been extremely interested in Catholic apologetics. So a few months ago, I created an online movie series, called ‘Captain Catholic.’ There are currently two episodes on the internet:

Captain Catholic Episode 1:
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1608156961204540240&q=%22Captain+Catholic%22&hl=en

Captain Catholic Episode 2:
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2322042993064454552&q=%22Captain+Catholic%22&hl=en

The series is intended for teenagers and college students, so keep in mind it certainly have some goofy humor . Also keep in mind that since it is geared towards teens, the information is presented in a different way then it might be otherwise.

The core of the series is that I also set up a message board entitled ‘Captain Catholic Wants You’ on the website www.facebook.com. Facebook is a website at which nearly every college student has an account, so it is a worthy host. The discussion board contains posts by myself on the Church’s teachings on the issue presented in each episode, and welcomes people of all religions to post, hence striving for ecumenism. There are currently 617 members in the discussion, and there have been several exhaustingly long (the equivalent of 2 pages in Microsoft Word) responses posted by college students. The link to the discussion board is here:

scranton.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2218279902

My main intention for the series is to spread the teachings of the Catholic Church to youth in a humorous manner. I do multiple hours of research on the Church’s teaching for each episode, write the script, act in it as Captain Catholic, edit it, and finally promote it on the internet. I think I did a decent job in the first episode. However, episode 2 was a struggle.

Episode 2 was intended to critique the Protestant ‘doctrine’ of Sola Fide/Faith Alone. College students tend to be quite liberal, and thus tend to strongly dislike the stereotypical ‘Southern-you’re-going-to-burn-in-hell-if-you-don’t-agree-with-me’ Fundamentalist type. I thought that the fact that Catholicism teaches against Sola Fide and emphasizes good works would be quite well liked by college students, and so Captain Catholic Episode 2 is the result.

However, I think I went overboard and included some things that might be offensive to Protestants, thus hurting the Church’s teachings of ecumenism. So although episode 2 apparently brought some non-Catholics or fallen Catholics a little closer to the Church, it probably offended some Protestants and moved them further away from the Church. I am now a little confused on where to draw the line between ecumenism and proper apologetics.

ANYWAY, after this very long message, I want to ask for advice from Catholics on this message board who are surely much more knowledgeable in our faith than I personally am. What are your opinions on ‘Captain Catholic?’ Most importantly, what can I do to make future episodes better or more faithful to the Catholic Church’s teachings? I think a form of Catholic apologetics for college students is greatly needed. I’m hoping ‘Captain Catholic’ is a good way to achieve such a medium, and so I can really use all the (name removed by moderator)ut from fellow Catholics as I can get. Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much and God Bless,
Tony DeGennaro

 

[RobNY]

So far, the Evangelical guy… it’s very awkward. I mean, once or twice, maybe, but it’s starting to seem too repetitive, which draws out the awkwardness. Besides, a caricature has to be a consistent caricature, so perhaps the swearing on ‘Evangelical Earl’ is out of place.

Plus, what’s the deal with Evangelical Earl and not feeding the poor? It’s definitely too much of a caricature.

The problem is that this isn’t going to do anything to help Evangelicals… I think it would majorly repulse them.

Second, it’s just too long with no real content. Think of whether most people want to wait until the third part until they get to the actual argument?

Third, the representation of the Evangelical position is overly simplistic. You know in reverse how it is when you get Protestants portraying Catholics as teaching “salvation by works” or “Mary as divine”-- well, saying that Evangelicals don’t like or practice good works is a like thing.

I thought the opening to part IV was funny.

Some other things not to direct to Protestants, “although faith is extremely important.” Faith, as we believe, is the beginning of salvation. No one can please God without faith. Saying ‘although faith is extremely important’ would be regarded as very suspicious by most Protestants. The other thing that (paraphrase) “we as Catholics don’t take the Bible literally” is also overly simplistic-- and in fact, the primary sense of Scripture is the literal sense. The question, as I’m sure you know, is what Sacred Scripture is actually asserting-- i.e., a good point to make against some Evangelical Protestants might be, “we take the Bible literally but not literalistically.”

Sorry if I was a bit harsh on the criticism. I think it’s fantastic that you love the Faith of our Fathers! I’m a freshman in college and I understand how difficult it is to do stuff like this. I too think comedy or humor is often the best way to reach people-- it’s just so hard to do and write! I’ve been thinking of starting an apologetics show on the college radio station. Best of luck!

I’m watching the first video. I’ll get back to you when I finish it.

-Rob

 

[wjp984]

I saw the first video. No offense but I would watch this like I would watch Team America World Police. And yes, I enjoyed that movie which gets me to my point. I know your intentions are good but it seems like it could do more harm than good. In my opinion it does not portray the Catholic Church in a good way. It almost makes a mockery of it as Team America makes a mockery of fighting terrorism. Also, while I laughed at the way you portrayed capitalism, I think you need to be careful in what you claim the Catholic Church supports. Socialism can be equally as bad as capitalism and capitalism is in my opinion a better form of government. I am going to watch your second video now but for entertainment so I can laugh at the way I read you portray Protestants. In conclusion, you probably are not going to get many good reviews on this forum and I can’t give you a good rating for the Catholicism aspect either, but if you take the Catholicism aspect out of it, as in for entertainment purposes only, then it was done well for entertainment and enjoyable. I would recommend it for Catholics who want a good laugh and won’t think it is offensive. However, that is not what you want now is it?

 

[wjp984]

Someone already posted a review of your second video so I don’t need to. I do think you should have had the Batman music for the fight scene since you were showing pows and bams and stuff like the old show. (I’ve seen the repeats so don’t think I am old enough to have watched it) Also, I think it would have been nice if the atheist converted to Catholicism as well as Evangellical Earl. In the end when you say that even atheist can get into Heaven, while this is true, it portrays the message that an atheist does not have to change or convert since they can get into Heaven anyways while maintaining their beliefs even if they are wrong. I don’t think atheist necessarily go to Hell but they still should be encouraged to convert. Again, I apologize for criticizing your efforts so much; I honestly thought it was enjoyable for the most part. I just think it should be for entertainment purposes only.