Catholics (1973) - Trailer - video Dailymotion

Film Gorillas

Drama (1973) 78 minutes ~ Color    In the near future, the Catholic church has joined with other western religions in an ecumenical movement that has washed out much of the original message of the religion. A group of Irish monks have begun saying the mass again in Latin and have begun to have an international following. Martin Sheen is sent from Rome to bring them to task and they must confront what is truly essential in their worship and what is not.    Director: Jack Gold    Writer: Brian Moore    Stars: Trevor Howard, Raf Vallone, Martin Sheen, Cyril Cusack

Transcript

00:00Last night, you said you felt you had no right to interfere with the beliefs of your congregation.

00:08I was in error.

00:10You promised to give up the Latin Mass at once, yet you give no reasons.

00:14And here's my letter of resignation.

00:17I've asked to be transferred to another monastery.

00:20Not as an abbot, but as an ordinary monk.

00:22But why?

00:24Is it because you're unwilling to carry out Father General's order?

00:27The order will be carried out at once.

00:30There will be no trouble.

00:32But what about the crowds and the mainland and the monks here?

00:34Of course there'll be trouble.

00:35We do not say the Latin Mass on the mainland.

00:37The people cannot attend it.

00:38As for the monks, I am their abbot.

00:40They will do as I tell them.

00:42But why do you want to resign?

00:44Because I was wrong.

00:46I had no right to tamper with people's faith.

00:58I think you're being too hard on yourself.

01:01Everybody makes mistakes, and yours were made with the best of intentions.

01:04Intentions don't count.

01:06Actions do.

01:07Remember Martin Luther?

01:09Insubordination is the beginning of the breakdown of the Church.

01:13And I have been insubordinate.

01:15I don't believe that, Father Abbott.

01:17I overheard you lecture Father Matthew last night on the vow of obedience.

01:23I was spoken from the heart.

01:25Well, it's easy to lecture others.

01:28In my own case, I've gone against the orders of my superiors.

01:31But there's no need for you to resign.

01:34You're a holy man and a good man, and you're needed here.

01:37Your duty is here, as the abbot of Mork.

01:39No.

01:40I've come to the end of a long road.

01:42I disagree, Father Abbott.

01:43And as Father General's plenipotentiary, I order you to stay.

01:45You can tear this up.

01:48There's no need for you to stay.

01:50You can tear this up.

01:53There's something I must explain to you.

01:56Your helicopter will be here in a few minutes.

01:58Let's go up and get your bag.

01:59We can talk on the way.

02:04I did not do this for holy reasons.

02:08I did it because I myself lack conviction.

02:11There's a file on me in Rome.

02:12There's a file about my visit to Lourdes.

02:14You've read it?

02:15Yes, I have.

02:16But it doesn't explain.

02:18I'll tell you now what happened.

02:19I went there with two priests.

02:21We were on our way to Rome, and we stopped off to visit the shrine.

02:25A pious pilgrimage.

02:27The shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France.

02:30The place where the Virgin Mary was supposed to appear before an ignorant peasant girl.

02:34A place where people come from all over the world

02:37because they believe that God's mother will ask her son to cure them.

02:42Those poor, sick people.

02:45Blind children, men without arms or legs, dying women on stretchers.

02:50Every deformity.

02:52Every mortal ill.

02:55And all of them praying for a miracle.

02:58Spending their life savings to get there.

03:02Oh, it's a sad, dreadful sight.

03:06I've stood at the shrine, Father, and something came over me.

03:12I went back to the hotel and shut myself up and knelt down and tried to pray.

03:22I tried to pray.

03:26It's not the first time I've had this trouble.

03:30Even before Lourdes.

03:32Sometimes here on the island I've gone to church and started to say the Our Father.

03:37Our Father who art in heaven.

03:40But then I looked at the altar and I know that there is no Father in heaven.

03:45That's a pitiful thought, don't you think?

03:48A man who became a monk with most of his life gone.

03:54Kneeling in church and staring at the altar and knowing that there is nothing on the altar

04:00but wafers of communion bread.

04:03Not God.

04:06Just pieces of bread.

04:10When that would happen, when the words were just words,

04:14I'd begin to tremble and shake as a prelude to hell.

04:19I suppose you'd call it a depression. I call it hell.

04:22An empty state.

04:24The hell of a priest deprived of God.

04:27And when I get into that state it's, oh, it's weeks, it's months.

04:31I never know when I'm going to come out again.

04:34In other words, it was nearly a year.

04:37So now I'm afraid to pray.

04:41You see, I don't know if I'll come out again.

04:49You don't pray? Ever?

04:55No, not for a long time.

04:58Not for years.

05:01Oh, what about saying mass or your daily office? Does no one notice?

05:06It's strange but they don't.

05:09One can pretend a preference for private devotion.

05:12But public prayers, well, there are plenty of monks who lead them.

05:16Then why have you stayed?

05:18It's a hard life, you said so yourself.

05:21But it's my life.

05:24I'm a sort of foreman here, a sort of manager.

05:27It's not far different from a secular job.

05:31The monks work hard. I'm here to keep them together.

05:34See, they make a go of it.

05:36We're like children.

05:38It's a simple life.

05:41We pass the days as if there was an endless supply of them.

05:46So you see, you didn't know what sort of a man you were asking to stay on as abbot.

05:57The End

Catholics (1973) - Trailer

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