During my time in seminary in Rome I had the privilege of spending a couple of hours speaking with Fr Dick Mulcahy, a priest of Opus Dei. Fr Dick would have been well known in Ireland because his father was the famous General Mulcahy who played an important role in the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War. Fr Dick was a friend and confrere of St Josemaria Escriva, and he was over for the canonisation of his founder and friend. In his kindness he had time to talk to this poor seminarian as was about St Josemaria and the priesthood.
I think of that encounter and the conversation as we await the release of a new movie about St Josemaria, There Be Dragons. It is a welcome addition to the list of Christians films and stars a young movie star, Charlie Cox. The director, Roland Joffe, interestingly is an agnostic, or, as he describes himself, a "wobbly agnostic". Due to be released in the Spring, I hope it comes to Ireland. While not expected to be a hagiographical piece - thankfully - such movies tend to irksome and too sentimental, Joffe intends it to address more human issues: things people do to find meaning in life, and is set against the background of the Spanish Civil War. It seeks to reveal the saints and heroes in ordinary human life - that's good. So much bad news today we need to hear about the good.
I hope it will also help promote devotion to St Josemaria who has been a figure of controversy for some in the Church. After my talk with a priest who knew him personally and lived with him for many years, St Josemaria emerged as a very human and loving man who was dedicated to Christ and preaching the Gospel in the age in which he found himself. He saw how important the laity were in the Church's mission, and he sought to inspire them to take up the apostolate. He was also a priest who recognised the tremendous privilege of being a priest - that is an important example for all of us priests today.
Trailer:
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Sadly, the whole journey of this project from concept to promotion has been riddled with lapses in ethics and professionalism. Joffe has been sidelined in Hollywood for decades because of his ego and non-collaborative temperament. When a group of clueless Catholics came along, he was only too happy to take their forty million dollars for one more shot at big budget movie-making. Joffe, who is not a writer, insisted on doing his own rewrite of the original writer's screenplay - and the general consensus is that the product is a mess. Joffe, as a non-believer and even an aggressive agnostic, had no understanding of the roots of Escriva's sanctity, or how Opus Dei was a gift to the Church. He ended up turning a story about the persecution of the Church into a leftist love story. The movie has been described by industry insiders as confusing, plodding, unnecessarily brutal, and basically a mess in terms of character and story.
ReplyDeleteIt's all very sad, but one more good lesson about how people of faith should not go about engaging culture. That is, we can never surrender all the reins to people who don't get us, and who think our faith is what is wrong with the world.
Anonymous - We shall have to see the movie to see if what you say is true. If it is, it will be another wasted opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI am interested in what you say about how people of faith should not go about engaging culture. I do agree with you when you say we should never surrender all the reins to people who do not get us, because a religious project can be secularised, and that will defeat the purpose. However, the opposite is true also: religious people may not have the professional skills nor "eye" to make a good movie - hence the many disasters which grace the Christian Film shelf. That is why we must try and encourage people of faith to become professional and to develop that critical eye.
In this, we can learn from politicians (of all people) - when asked a question they do not want to answer, they do not accept it as it is framed, but rather they reframe it on their own terms to answer it on their own terms - perhaps that is what we need to do as people of faith in the arts. This means we must make a real effort to make a place for ourselves in culture, not as amateurs or pious enthusiasts, but as artists.
Thank you for your comment.