That's Interesting — Flannery O'Connor Movie, Ulma Family Beatification, Name that Pope, McCarrick Coverage

Ethan Hawke on Deciding to Direct Flannery O’Connor Biopic "Wildcat," Portrait of an "Immensely Complex Human Being" 

Ethan Hawke, prompted by his daughter Maya, directs a movie about Flannery O'Connor. As surprising as that news was to me, I was even more interested in Hawke's own telling of his discovery of the author and his exploration into the criticisms that she was racist. It left me eager to see the film. 

Here's a bit, but do go read his piece in full.

The more I learned, the more clearly Flannery O’Connor grew as a knotty but extremely important subject for exploration. As O’Donnell puts it, “The voices of artists who offer a perspective that seems out of step with our moment are often the very people we should be harkening to. The canceling of a writer who possesses the wisdom and the power of Flannery O’Connor demonstrates our impoverished imaginations, our narrowness, and our inability to embrace complexity.

Ulma Family to be Beatified on Sept. 10

This is the first time that an entire family has been beatified at one time. They lived in Poland during World War II and had the family members of three Jewish families, eight in all, living with them for 2 years before being informed on. 

The most unusual feature of the beatification is that their youngest child, who it is thought was born during the family's martyrdom, is also declared a saint. The Pillar has a good breakdown of the entire situation, including the fact that the family was targeted because they were Christian. 

Read the whole thing here.

In the early hours of March 24, 1944, Nazi police descended on the Ulma family home. They forced all the occupants to line up and shot dead the eight Jewish residents. They then killed Józef and Wiktoria, and their children: Stanisława, aged 7, Barbara, 6, Władysław, 5, Franciszek, 4, Antoni, 2, and Maria, 1.

The house was set on fire, the bodies hastily buried, and the murderers celebrated the massacre with vodka and laughter.

A week later, the bodies were dug up to give them a more dignified burial. The diggers noticed that beside the body of Wiktoria, who had been seven months pregnant, was a newborn child. It was thought that she had entered labor at the time of her execution.

Although the child was never baptized, the Vatican says that the child is eligible for beatification through the time-honored concept of “baptism of blood.”

Let's play, 'Name that pope!' The Pope Francis vs. St. Pope John Paul II edition

You may have read the story about Pope Francis "blasting the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the U.S. Catholic Church, saying they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time. — AP headline."

As with so many things from popes there's a need to place statements in context. GetReligion is an invaluable resource for context since they report on how the media reports on religion. They've got a great piece where they see if you can identify which pope said which seemingly damning quote. It's a long piece but highly informative for helping us keep an open mind instead of simply following sound bytes. Read it all here.

In conclusion, let me say that journalists are not out of bounds when they spotlight clashes between strong supporters of Pope Francis and Catholic leaders who keep quoting John Paul and Benedict. I believe, however, that journalists need to dig deeper before settling for the convenient, highly political, framework of nasty, backward “pelvic issues” Catholics vs. a loving, forward-looking pope seeking social justice.

Mainstream press (again!) fails to put McCarrick's past and victims into proper context

Ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick was judged mentally incompetent to stand trial to stand trial in a sex abuse case. GetReligion, again providing context, shows that the mainstream media didn't give much information to explain the importance of this story and what it meant overall.

In fact, all the coverage was similar when it came to the facts of what happened in the courtroom and in this particular case. Where the coverage differed was the lack of proper background information regarding McCarrick’s past and his powerful influence on the church in this country and Rome, which he had discussed (included claims to have helped elect Pope Francis) in public remarks. The coverage also needed additional background information about the clergy sex-abuse scandal as a whole. ...

It matters because background and context help readers understand stories better. In McCarrick’s case, context matters because the ex-cardinal hasn’t been in the news for some time. It also matters because McCarrick is a complicated figure who needs explaining. ...

That's a good reminder to me because McCarrick's shameful actions still loom large for me. I forget that many regular readers don't have that context. GetReligion shows how well Catholic media, specifically CNA, covered the story. This is another long one but read it all here.