The Failure of Black Robes Cinematic Redemption :: Black Robe Research Papers

The Failure of Black Robe's Cinematic Redemption Works Cited Missing Musings over Talk Radio [1] I've been listening to talk radio lately. Not exactly sure why. I suppose I derive a smug sense of superiority over callers who are a little too concerned with high quality mulch or the Phillies' relief pitching. People become incensed over the most ludicrous things. Recently, though, I heard callers venting over something a little closer to my heart, and I couldn't listen with the same ironic distance from which I usually stand. Pope John Paul II had issued (at a papal Mass on March 12) an apology for the sins of the church over the past 2000 years. As a Roman Catholic embarrassed by many parts of my Church's history--the Crusades, the Inquisition, silence in the midst of the Holocaust--I was gratified to hear that the Pope was asking forgiveness for the Church as a whole. As can be expected, many were dissatisfied with the apology. Some felt John Paul II was not specific enough, failing to mention Pope Pius XII's failure to condemn Hitler's mass execution of Jews and ot her minorities in the Holocaust. However, when listening to the radio phone-in show, what struck me was that many of the callers were Catholics who resented being implicated in the Pope's apology. [2] I can understand the callers' indignation. I remember elementary school days, learning the Catholic doctrine of original sin, the idea that the first sin against God--whether you believe it was the Adam and Eve story or some other version of humanity's origins--stained all descendants of those first sinners (in other words, everyone). How unfair, I thought, that the sins of some stupid people from the past would cause me to be "stained" in the eyes of God. And what did the thirty-something caller from Jenkintown, PA, have to do with the Inquisition? Partial Membership [3] It's been a long time since Catholic elementary school, and original sin is still a tough pill to swallow. However, I've come to understand it (and my problems with it) as a matter of my identity not just as an individual but as a member of a group. I may not have sampled forbidden fruit, but as a part of the human race I am affected by that act (I say this not to proselytize, but to express my perspective as a Catholic).