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To: Hieronymus

I have to ask, with you knowledge and background, have you seen the film “The Name of the Rose” (1986) and if so, how do you feel about it?


50 posted on 12/28/2013 10:01:03 PM PST by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken!)
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To: higgmeister

I haven’t seen it (with the possible exception of a scene or two a good 20 years ago) and recall hearing it discussed only vaguely. I am an ignoramus when it comes to film culture, living largely by a clever statement made by a pontificating classmate many years ago: there are two sorts of films, films starring John Wayne [who was baptized on his death bed and has a grandson who is a priest] and some of the worst films ever made.

That said, I have four stock observations that usually suffice to cover popular historical portrayals of Catholicism:

When an institution has had several billion members, pretty well every heinous thing that you can think of has been done by at least one person at some time.

With two notable exceptions, every Catholic has problems. As Solzhenitsyn noted, the line dividing good and evil runs through every human heart. The Church is there to help one apply the medicine that God gives to help resolve the problems, but this is a life long process even for those who embrace the medicine, and not all Catholics are exemplary in this department (major understatement).

This includes Catholic clergy, so much so that it is miraculous that the Church has survived those entrusted with managing temporal things on earth. Pius VI said a great deal when he told Napoleon “You silly little man. If we and our priests could not destroy the Church in 1800 years, what makes you think that you can do it.”

But given all of these things, popular culture tends to exaggerate and unhistorically concentrate the flaws of the Church, probably in part out of a desire to make the Church look bad, in part to make ourselves look good, and in part because it makes for a more interesting plot line.

If there is something specific in the film, I might be able to address it—but the above is usually a good start.


75 posted on 12/29/2013 7:21:33 PM PST by Hieronymus ( (It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged. --G.K. Chesterton))
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