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

The Failure of Black Robes Cinematic Redemption Works Cited abstractedMusings all over Talk Radio1 Ive been listening to talk radio lately. Not exactly sure why. I suppose I derive a complacent sense of superiority over callers who are a little too concerned with high quality mulch or the Phillies relief pitching. People travel incensed over the most ludicrous things. Recently, though, I heard callers venting over something a little closer to my heart, and I couldnt listen with the same teetotal distance from which I usually stand. pontiff 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 some parts of my Churchs 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 n on specific enough, failing to mention Pope Pius XIIs failure to condemn Hitlers mass execution of Jews and other 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 Popes apology. 2 I can understand the callers indignation. I remember elementary school days, learning the Catholic doctrine of original sin, the theme that the first sin against God--whether you believe it was the Adam and Eve story or some other version of humanitys 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 Membership3 Its been a long time since Catholic elementary school, and original sin is still a tough pill to swallow. Ho wever, Ive 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).