MOVIES: "Doubt" (contains spoilers)

[CaptFun]

CaptFun responds in RED

I haven’t read the whole thread, so please forgive me if I raise points that have already been discussed. This movie has just been shown in the U.K. via the BBC’s iPlayer. For British readers/ viewers, it can be seen here: bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01bbv34/Doubt/

I’m surprised and shocked that some on CAF see this as an anti-Catholic movie.

Even after reading your excellent analysis below … I’m still one of these mentioned above - not per the deliberate INTENT of the filmmakers (that I don’t know) - but more per the effect on those predisposed to be anti-Catholic or anti-Christian. Some of which I’ll point out … while at the same time not believing it myself.

As a convert Catholic, this film seems to me to be full of love for Catholic culture as well as raising serious questions about our Church. Did anyone else pick up on the theme of open windows and storms? First of all, the classroom window in Sr James’ classroom is open and Sr Aloysius (Meryl Streep) is suspicious. Next, Sr James wakes up in the middle of the night because a storm is lashing through her window. There is also another scene between Fr Flynn (the allegedly abusive priest) and Sr Aloysius involving an open window, Does this image not make anyone think of Blessed John XXIII’s comment about Vatican II opening the windows of the Church to let in some air? It does NOW that you mention that insight. On a more sombre note, a few years after, Pope Paul VI mentioned that “the smoke of Satan has entered the sanctuary …”. Both images are evocative and instructional in my opinion. Particularly when coupled with your insight about that film’s subtheme.

The film is set, I think, during 1964, the year in which the Third Period of the Council was held. This was the session in which the decree on the Church in the world, Lumen Gentium, was promulgated. Don’t worry, this post is not going to turn into an anti-Vatican II diatribe. Rather, the film made me question, what if the Church opened the windows just at the time when a toxic, damaging zeitgeist was in the air? The priest at the center of the allegations, Fr Flynn, is a model of progressive priest. He seeks a more informal relationship with the laity and is shown to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh (alcohol, roast meat, cigarettes and sugar) rather than being overly ascetic, like Sr Aloysius. She represents the pre- / anti-Vatican II church (at one point she encourages Sr James to hang a picture of Pius XII over her blackboard as a ‘rear-view mirror’). Fr Flynn represents one face of the post-Vatican II Church. Sr James represents us, caught in the middle between the two, facing one way and then the other. Enjoyed your interp here. There are other not so religiously based conflicts in that mix too. Optimist vs. Pessimist swing things one way. Vigilant vs. Careless another. Male vs. Female. A non-romantic loyalty triangle. A rookie nun with contrasting mentors/superiors at odds with each other. Change vs.Tradition (what should change, what should not). Wisdom vs. Gullibility. Mercy vs. Justice. Such things make for a good intellectual movie one will think about and see again.

Some I think will see the film and have their prejudices affirmed though. Stereotypical “phony worldly priest”, “bitter, old, suspicious, loveless, power mad nun,” “silly, indecisive, easily influenced by stronger personalities nun,” and on and on. Not that I agree with those dismissive epithets, but that I expect some will think those things. Particularly in our present culture that has innoculated us with a pavlovian, knee jerk “hypocrite!” response - whenever someone labelled Christian, Catholic, or clergy appears in a movie now. In the time of “The Bells of St. Mary’s” the sterotype was more … “A Catholic priest! They sure love God … and people! Cool!”

(continued … next post or soon thereafter)

 

[CaptFun]

(continued from post 181 - CaptFun responds in RED)

Tybourne posts in black

To some extent, the film echoes the John Jay report on abuse in the U.S. Church. The fault was not in modernisers themselves but in the culture of secrecy and cover-up that pervaded the Church. That can be misunderstood too. Secrecy and cover up when dealing with someone else’s sins is what the seal of the confessional is all about. Like mercy and justice - doing the right thing in the right amount without violating the other virtue is a knotty problem - or would be if we didn’t have the Holy Spirit as counsel.

Sr Aloysius cannot denounce the priest openly because she doesn’t have sufficient evidence. In the end, she is partly implicated in putting him in a position where he may be able to abuse more children with impunity. This leads her to have devastating doubts. I thought that was good character development that made her more human. She’d adopted a role per her job that was fairly appropriate in most circumstances for the results she was getting - but people who are so “confident” as to never question their own motives or choices (while at the same time being deeply suspicious of others’) - may need to listen to their guardian angels during examination of conscience time. She says that one has to move away from God in order to pursue wrongdoing. Whatever she meant by that … it was a bad way to put it. ***Except ***for the drama it brings to the film. Then, as she clutches her crucifix, we see that the corpus is no longer visible. Her breakdown and tears are like Jesus calling out “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me”. As we hear the children singing Christmas carols in the background, we are left in no doubt as to the cost of following the Babe of Bethlehem. Christmas and Easter are linked palpably in our lives. This is a deeply Catholic film.

Like Sr. James I am one of those in the middle. Now that the “new culture” has won out. I miss much of what I took for granted. Like reverence for God. Knowing where the tabernacle was. Worshipful genuflections. Altar rails and kneeling before receiving communion. The slight mystery of Latin … though I knew what the prayers meant in English per my missal … and how it united the Catholic WORLD (the mass was the same - but for readings and homilies in the vernacular).

I loved the new things when they came too though. Some of the new “folk mass” songs were quite inspirational (and still are to me when I hear them … many of these too are gone now); I sang some with all my heart from the choir loft with other enthusiastic young Catholics, and sometimes older people turned and frowned at us - quite offended! I understood them better, later, when the music changed so much, so often, and was done in so few verses as to NEVER let me as a willing layman join IN before they were over.

I digress. I may see this again now thanks to you.

In a similar way I recommend “The Christmas Candle” which dealt with great changes in a church due to culture and a changing surrounding world. It’s about an Episcopal Church in England at the time of the coming of Electric Lights – but close enough to a Catholic feeling that I enjoyed it very much.