Hopelessly devout is a powerful comedic movie created by up and coming Spanish Director, Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz. Díaz’s film pairs exaggerated circumstances to extremely real gender-based bias and discrimination within the Catholic churches and communities. The film does a fantastic job in portraying the various forms of sexism, discrimination and struggle for equality…
Facing the Church, Not the Demon: Exploring Why the So-Called Scariest Movie of All Time is Inherently Catholic
“The leaders of the Catholic Church endorsed The Exorcist; virtually promoted it as much as they could. The Cardinals of New York and Los Angeles and Chicago and the other big cities, all over the world, they endorsed it because it represents a literal depiction of the Roman ritual of exorcism which still exists in…
Revival! This is the gospel.
What’s different about Revival! Revival imagines the gospel of John in a contemporary context with Black actors. Jesus is Black. Mary is Black. Only one of Jesus’ disciples are White. Is this the gospel reimagined? Or is this the gospel as it was intended? The Black experience is different – especially in contemporary America. Black…
Romero: Martyrdom, Justice and Unity Through the Eucharist
by Emma Schneider Sounds of helicopter blades whirring and people chanting begins the film Romero. The camera pans out as we see a crowd of people in the public square participating in a protest about election fraud that marks El Salvador’s political history. The camera continues to move back and forth between the crowd, the…
Female Sexual Oppression and Gender Roles in Catholicism as Highlighted in Yes, God, Yes
The film Yes, God, Yes (2020) centers around a teenage girl, Alice, in a Catholic high school discovering her sexuality and how it connects to her relationship with religion. This is a coming of age film and very much highlights the turmoils that teenagers experience during the height of adolescence. The central themes of the…
Your Family Could Never: What Coco Teaches You About Why Catholic Families Are Closer Than Yours
Written by Olivia Anderson Catholicism and Its Values As Seen in Catholic Celebrations Catholicism and its values are closely associated in strengthening relationships. Their traditions and socialization is consistency linked within making their everyday relationships stronger. They want to be closer to God, their community, and their families. In class we have seen how Catholics…
Yes, God, Yes: Navigating Female Sexuality In A Catholic World
Introduction High school is hard enough as it is, let alone with the constant weight of Jesus Christ watching your every move on your shoulders. Yes, God, Yes (2020) follows teenage Alice as she navigates exploring sexuality within her Catholic upbringing. The idea was first produced as an 11-minute-long short film back in 2017, but it was…
Is This Nun Really Catholic?
A priest, a nun, and a French-Canadian walk into a catacomb. It sounds like the beginning of a terrible joke, but it’s actually what happens in the 2018 horror film The Nun. The film is set in 1952 and takes place primarily at an abbey in Romania where a nun has committed suicide under mysterious…
Sister Act: Not your Typical Nun Movie
Introduction: The comedy, Sister Act takes viewers into a musically filled action-packed journey full of singing nuns, unexpected friendships, habits, and close runnings from the mob. Writer, Paul Rudnick envisioned the movie Sister Act “to be a satire of sugary family perennials like “The Sound of Music,” “The Singing Nun,” “The Flying Nun,” and such…
Song of Bernadette and Marian Apparitions
The Song of Bernadette was released in 1943, and was a box office hit, winning four Oscars and being nominated for an additional eight. It tells the story of a French peasant, Bernadette Soubirous (Jennifer Jones), who in 1858 goes out to gather wood one day with her sister and friend when she stumbles upon…
Catholics in the Americas 