Edit: re-posting this from a year ago. Taking a break from writing at the moment. Good, long work week, but exhausted. Resting, swimming, drinking my low carb go-to fermented beverage of choice. Sunday will be High Mass and lunch at Ollie's Restaurant in Berryhill near the FSSP parish. We'll visit cemeteries Monday, then chill (in the literal sense of the word) at the must-go-to Oklahoma oasis Blue Hole Spring.
I was chatting today in the comment section of yesterday's post with my fellow Trad Blogger Oakes Spalding about the cinematic history of Martin Sheen. I'm musing about this as I sit here another night running the next Netflix episode of The West Wing. Sheen is about as liberal as they come, but he has some deep Catholic roots, at least culturally, and I respect his style and gravitas on screen. That includes an old movie from the 1970s he starred in called "Catholics," later renamed "Conflict."
I agree with Oakes the end leaves something to be desired, but I think this film almost qualifies as a much-watch for trad families, or at least it deserves a spot in the dvd collection. I picked up a few copies once at the dollar store to hand out.
For those who haven't seen this picture, it is about an Irish monastery that refuses to say the New Mass and sticks to the Latin Mass. Sheen's character is a liberation theology, secularist Vatican priest investigating the traditionalist stance of the community.
One favorite scene from the movie shows the laity gathered on a hill while one of the priest monks offers the traditional Mass on a rock altar. It is a stoic but heroic scene as Irish trads gather in cloudy, rainy climate typical of Ireland, solemnly observing the ancient rite. I also liked the scene where they carry out a large, baked salmon into the refectory as the monks relish sharing a piece of newly caught fish. The best scene to me is when the abbot, the liberal priest, and an old priest monk are talking in a stable as the old monk gently feeds a baby lamb while admonishing the young liberal Sheen about a secularized Mass facing the people in the vernacular.
Let me know what you think of it if you've seen it, or check out some clips here: