A Movie You Might Have Missed #90 - Father Stu

GOD WANTED A FIGHTER. AND HE FOUND ONE.

The true-life story of boxer-turned-priest. When an injury ends his amateur boxing career, Stuart Long moves to Los Angeles to find money and fame. While scraping by as a supermarket clerk, he meets Carmen, a Sunday school teacher who seems immune to his bad-boy charm. Determined to win her over, the longtime agnostic starts going to church to impress her. However, a motorcycle accident leaves him wondering if he can use his second chance to help others, leading to the surprising realization that he’s meant to be a Catholic priest.

This is that rare find, a well done Christian movie. Usually we avoid faith based films like the plague because they are terribly schmaltzy, poorly acted and produced, and painfully obvious. We gave this a chance because we were intrigued not only by the basic story but by Mark Wahlberg's dedication to getting it produced.

It definitely is made for a specific audience which includes our family and it has the familiar beats of such a story. However, they were done in so well that it hit the mark in a big way. We were all pleasantly surprised by the high quality of acting and production which accompanied this inspiring story.

Note: some Catholics are put off by the very vulgar language. We felt it told the story of Stu's background and how far he comes. However, there is a PG-13 version where the language has been cleaned up called Father Stu Reborn.

Pickles

Pickles, Joseph Bail

 Here's a type of work that I enjoy, cooking! My daughter, Hannah, and her husband really enjoy pickling and canning. It is work, but a labor of love and deliciousness.

A Cotton Office in New Orleans

A Cotton Office in New Orleans, Edgar Degas, 1873
via Wikipedia

Delayed during a trip to New Orleans, Degas decided to paint to pass the time. Circumstances led to this being one of his first sales to a museum. I've featured this painting before but I love it, and the story, every time I come across it.

Only man is capable of work, and only man works

On Labor Day I thought I'd put some Catholic thought on the nature of humans and work. Where better to look than John Paul II's Laborem exercens (Through Work). I didn't even know this existed.

THROUGH WORK man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to elevating unceasingly the cultural and moral level of the society within which he lives in community with those who belong to the same family. And work means any activity by man, whether manual or intellectual, whatever its nature or circumstances; it means any human activity that can and must be recognized as work, in the midst of all the many activities of which man is capable and to which he is predisposed by his very nature, by virtue of humanity itself. Man is made to be in the visible universe an image and likeness of God himself, and he is placed in it in order to subdue the earth. From the beginning therefore he is called to work. Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work. Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth. Thus work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons. And this mark decides its interior characteristics; in a sense it constitutes its very nature.

I love this basic statement. It seems so simple, yet it conveys so much about who we are as children of God.

It was the sky that welcomed me back

It was the sky that was Texas, the sky that welcomed me back. The land I didn't care for that much — it was bleak and monotonous and full of ugly little towns. The sky was what I had been missing, and seeing it again in its morning brightness made me realize suddenly why I hadn't been myself in many months.

Larry McMurtry

This was just what I realized after Tom and I took a trip years ago to the East Coast. Bursting out of the East Texas piney woods into the open plain as we headed for Dallas, I felt suddenly free, suddenly relaxed, suddenly at home. Yes, that sky and those wide open spaces.

Can you spot the third man?

Click on the photo (or the link below) to see the photo larger.

This 1915 photo of three men with a giant pecan tree somewhere near San Antonio appeared in @NatGeo magazine a few years ago. And, yes, that's right: THREE men. Can you spot the third one? This is one huge pecan! They can live 200-300 years and reach 150 feet tall in the right conditions.

Traces of Texas

Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History by Rodney Stark

I first reviewed this in 2016 but never reread it until Scott chose it for our next episode (315) of A Good Story is Hard to Find. It is so uniformly excellent that I'm reposting the review here.

I have long been aware of Rodney Stark's excellent work using facts and statistics to set the historical record straight.

This might be the best part of the book, at the end of the introduction:

Finally, I am not a Roman Catholic, and I did not write this book in defense of the Church. I wrote it in defense of history.

And we thank you.

The fact that Stark isn't Catholic matters because it means he doesn't have a dog in this fight. Except, of course, as a historian who loves truth more than "what everyone knows." I was really surprised that every chapter had examples of current historians (who Stark calls "distinguished bigots) perpetuating untruths, usually despite clear evidence from modern  historians who had disproven them.

I really loved this book. Even in the cases where I knew a lot about anti-Catholic history I always learned new and surprising facts. Often this was the result of simply reorienting my thinking.

For example, I knew the Church's inhumane behavior to thousands of people during the Inquisition was largely exaggerated, but I was totally unprepared for archival evidence to show that these claims are a pack of lies. Pack. Of. Lies. It's so ingrained to believe that there was at least some level of culpability that I realize it looks outrageous for me to say this. But it is true.

As are the lies that have been perpetuated about motivating anti-Semitic medieval pogroms culminating in the Holocaust, precipitating the Dark Ages (which never existed, by the way), provoking the Crusades, burning witches, supporting slavery, and much more.

I could go on, but you get the point. No wonder the Church has a hard time among moderns. As Stark himself points out, anyone would resent an organization guilty of the hateful acts that the Catholic Church has been charged with committing throughout history. Luckily for us, he has plenty of facts, usually from secular sources, to show that those crimes never were committed in the first place.

You don't have to just take Stark's word for it. Each chapter has a chart of historians whose work contributed to the proof Stark lays out for us, and there is an extensive bibliography with recommended reading.

Get this book and read it whether you're Catholic or not. The proof is there. The truth matters.

Natural Candle

Natural Candle
taken by D.L. Ennis

Fires in Hawaii. Flooding in California. Hurricane Idalia. How to help everyone.

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions. — Shakespeare, Hamlet

I have to admit that I waver in knowing who to give disaster aid to, especially when the emergencies come flooding in, both in the U.S. and abroad. 

I recently have become part of the St. Vincent de Paul society which specializes in person-to-person help with neighbors in need. I am proud to serve the Lord and my neighbors in this way. 

But I hadn't thought much about how the St. Vincent de Paul Society helps outside my own city. This message reminded me that Vincentians are working around the country and need the funds to allow them to lend a helping hand to help neighbors get their lives back to normal.

Fires in Hawaii. Flooding in California. As I write this, Hurricane Idalia is battering Florida. And dozens of storms and natural disasters that never make the national news, but still uproot lives and destroy communities.

Disasters can strike suddenly. But the recovery effort can take years.

You can help. Your support of the Saint Vincent de Paul Disaster Relief Campaign will assist Vincentian volunteers who are responding to these and future disasters.

Rather than giving towards a specific disaster, the National Council asks that you give to our general Disaster Relief Campaign. This reserve allows SVdP to respond as quickly as possible to requests for disaster aid wherever — and whenever — it's needed most urgently.

If, like me, you want to help in all the disasters that are popping up, here is a way to contribute to even the ones we never hear about on the national news.

TV You Might Have Missed 5 — Law School

Yang Jong-hoon, a prosecutor-turned-professor, teaches criminal law at a prestigious law school. He and his first-year law students get involved in an unprecedented case during a mock trial. During a mock trial class, the supervising professor is found murdered and Professor Yang is arrested as the main suspect. Showing on Netflix.

We expected that the law students would band together to prove their professor's innocence. It turns out that Professor Yang needs no one's help. He is a formidable master of the law and detection. As he fights his arrest and investigates his fellow professor's death we see that he is the coolest of cool. (As you can tell from the poster above.)

We follow not only the professor but some of the students who have a study group. Some turn out to be connected to the murder victim while others have their own mysteries for us to discover. It soon becomes obvious that the professor regards every situation as an opportunity to teach his students. Whether in class or not, even when he is in jail fighting for his own freedom, he is continually teaching. This isn't always obvious but thinking back over the series it is a tribute to the writing and what drives the character's actions.

There was a refreshing lack of romance, aside from the occasional glance sent from one student to another while they weren't looking. This was a straight up drama that's wildly intricate and inventive in the plot's twists and turns. Somehow it had plenty of drama without being emotionally over-the-top, which we appreciated too.

We found this series by looking for more shows featuring actor Kim Bum after watching Tale of the Nine Tailed where he played Lee Rang. 

However, we're now fans of Kim Myung-Min who played Professor Yang. So we're going to follow him to the Detective K film series where he plays the titular character during the Jeoson dynasty. Which means wonderful period costumes as well as mystery!

Professor Yang is off to the side while actor Kim Bum is front and center.
We can see who is expected to draw the fans! Hey, he got us here!

Face of Christ on St. Veronica's Cloth

Face of Christ on St. Veronica's Cloth, Claude Mellan, 1649

This remarkable engraving by 17th century French engraver and painter Claude Mellan consists of a single spiral line!

Beginning on the tip of the nose, the line spirals outward, its passages of increasing or decreasing thickness defining the darks and lights of the image.

Image and info via lines and colors.

Who will do it?

Sometimes, when things get hard or tedious and I don't want to do them, I ask myself this: If someone who has been as blessed as I have been is not willing to clean out the barn, who will?

Ross Perot

Ross Perot was a self-made billionaire and most of us aren't that blessed. However, most of us are very blessed indeed. I know that I am. This quote applies to me for sure.

What Monstrous Gods by Rosamund Hodge (coming in 2024)

Centuries ago, the heretic sorcerer Ruven raised a deadly briar around Runakhia's palace, casting the royal family into an enchanted sleep - and silencing the kingdom's gods.

Born with a miraculous gift, Lia's destiny is to kill Ruven and wake the royals. But when she succeeds, she finds her duty is not yet complete, for now she must marry into the royal family and forge a pact with a god - or die.

To make matters even worse, Ruven's spirit is haunting her.

This book begins where Sleeping Beauty usually ends, with someone breaking the spell on the briar-enclosed palace and awakening the royal family and servants. As is so often the case with Rosamund Hodge's tales, there is only one place where the connection to a traditional fairy tale is obvious before the story unfolds to become something completely different and original.

On the surface, this is an exciting adventure into an imaginative world. Below the surface there are many layers to ponder for those who are so minded.

In my case, I pondered the intricacies that connect us to the original story's title for several days after I finished it. Where do we see sleepers who need awakening? What do they find after they return to consciousness? What happens when those who were always awake find that they have perhaps been sleepwalking? If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what happens when the beholder "wakes up" and sees a previously hidden truth?

This book doesn't come out until March 2024 so I don't want to say anything else that might spoil the book. Readers have something special to look forward to. I'm a big Rosamund Hodge fan and am happy that What Monstrous Gods proves once again that she is a master fantasy novelist. Highly recommended.

Vesuvius in Eruption

J. M. W. Turner, Vesuvius in Eruption, between 1817 and 1820
via Wikipedia and Google Art Project

'Unfortunately I met Mr. Turner at the Academy a night or two after I received this letter ; and he asked me if I had heard from Mr. Lennox. I was obliged to say 'yes.'

'Well, and how does he like the picture?'

'He thinks it indistinct.'

'You should tell him,' he replied, 'that indistinctness is my forte.'

Walter Thornbury. The Life of J.M.W. Turner,:
... Founded on Letters and Papers Furnished by
His Friends and Fellow Academicians.

The picture filled me with awe and the quote made me laugh. Turner, you have it all!

Interesting — How AI may be able to improve journalism when it comes to reporting on Catholicism

As it pertains to religion reporting, the use of AL tools such as ChatGPT is also something worth delving into. The big question for me is can these tools actually make the reporting around matters concerning the Catholic church better?

In some cases, it can — but only if AI is used properly and if the reporter asks the right questions. Let’s look at some real stories and what AI could have done to add valid content. The hope is that such tools make stories better, not worse.

 GetReligion writer Clemente Lisi is considering how AI is going to impact the journalism profession. One thing he found was that AI doesn't do a bad job of filling in the background on Catholic issues.

He looked at three current stories which led him to asking ChatGPT the following pertinent questions:

• What Catholic doctrine says regarding immigration and helping the poor and those in need?
• What does Catholic doctrine say about pre-marital sex?
• Why, in terms of doctrine, abortion is so abhorrent in terms of ancient and modern Catholic teachings.

I was impressed with the answers and agreed with Lisi that such a resource could give reporters at least a leg up on a broader understanding of issues and the sorts of questions they should be asking in their stories. Read the whole piece here.

Lagniappe: The ringing bell had a sinister sound, for no reason of itself, but because of the ears to which it rang.

I got a shoulder holster out of the desk and strapped it on and slipped a Colt .38 automatic into it, put on hat and coat, shut the windows again, put the whiskey away, clicked the lights off and had the office door unlatched when the phone rang.

The ringing bell had a sinister sound, for no reason of itself, but because of the ears to which it rang. I stood there braced and tense, lips tightly drawn back in a half grin. Beyond the closed window the neon lights glowed. The dead air didn’t move. Outside the corridor was still. The bell rang in darkness, steady and strong.

I went back and leaned on the desk and answered. There was a click and a droning on the wire and beyond that nothing. I depressed the connection and stood there in the dark, leaning over, holding the phone with one hand and holding the flat riser on the pedestal down with the other. I didn’t know what I was waiting for.

The phone rang again. I made a sound in my throat and put it to my ear again, not saying anything at all.

So we were there silent, both of us, miles apart maybe, each one holding a telephone and breathing and listening and hearing nothing, not even the breathing.

Then after what seemed a very long time there was the quiet remote whisper of a voice saying dimly, without any tone:

“Too bad for you, Marlowe.”

Then the click again and the droning on the wire and I hung up and went back across the office and out.

Raymond Chandler, The High Window

Just beautiful. There is nothing like Chandler's writing.

Rue Neuve Notre Dame à Paris

Rue Neuve Notre Dame à Paris, 1826, Eduard Gaertner

I love the way this doesn't show Notre Dame from one of the usual angles, but just as the regular Parisians living nearby would have seen it.

A Catholic Among Mormons - Scott Danielson Interview

 Scott is interviewed by Tomasso, who was a guest on our podcast. Scott tells about his spiritual journey, laced with plenty of science fiction talk. 

The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr

I am writing this review to let non-Christians know that you won't find a faithful Christian or Catholic theology in this book.

This was chosen for my book club. Early on, I could see it was problematic from a Christian point of view but I found it fascinating because I know it has been a best seller. I was interested to see what appealed to people. I'm not actually sure, now that I've read it, because I found it bafflingly illogical. However, one thing became clear. If people are looking for Christian theology, they won't find it here. This is not a Christian book.

Richard Rohr combines Nestorianism (treating Jesus and Christ as two separate people, which is an old heresy), gnosticism, paganism, and pieces of Eastern religions to serve up his vision of who Christ really is. In support of this, he cherry-picks much of the quoted Scripture, as well as several philosophers, saints, and authors (including G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis) in order to give his theory authority.

The result is something that people may find attractive, but it is not Christian and it is most definitely not Catholic.

For a more detailed description of what is not Christian about the book, read these reviews:

• ‘Everything Is Christ’—and Other Muddled Messages from Richard Rohr
• The False Christ of Richard Rohr

August

August, Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry

The month of hawking; the nobles, carrying falcons, are going hunting while in the background peasants are harvesting and swimming in the river. Behind them is the Chateau d'Etampes.

University of Chicago