Question for you … If you had to summarize — or perhaps symbolize — what Catholic sisters and nuns are really like, what mainstream movie would you use to do that? What aspects of the movie would you point to as being particularly nun-esque? Note: The movie does NOT have to have a sister or nun in it!

Pray about it. Think about it. Then tell us about it using the comment section below or send us an email, Facebook, or Tweet and we’ll post it here!

For starters, here is Dead Man Walking (1995) with Susan Sarandon playing real-life nun Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ. One of the best portrayals of Catholic sisters today.

The aspects I particularly like are how the movie well portrays Sister Helen as a woman of prayer, justice, and community. Her story is definitely unique (as are all of ours) but it points to some universal characteristics about being a Catholic sister or nun. The care for all of human life, even life that we’ve deemed “unredeemable” is one of the most remarkable aspects of this film. Sister Helen lives out and is portrayed as living out what Cardinal Bernadin called “a consistent ethic of life“. This consistent ethic of life is one that you’ll find reflected in many religious communities.

Okay, now your turn! What’s a movie you’d use to symbolize what nuns are really like?

She dared to dream. They dared to believe.” The words are from the promo poster for The Mighty Macs. The movie is inspired by the true story of the coach, players, and sisters of Immaculata College. Against great odds, the small college won the U.S. national women’s basketball championship in 1972.

Yesterday, Sister Julie and I dared to drive through Chicago at rush hour to see an advance showing of The Mighty Macs. It was well worth it! We heard about the movie several months ago from our IHM “cousins” in Immaculata, Penn., home of the Mighty Macs. The movie will be in theaters beginning October 21.

During the movie, I was especially interested in the portrayals of the sisters. So I’m offering a few thoughts on the topic in this post. I’ll start by describing the story line.

The Story
The film is set in 1972, at Immaculata College (now University), at the time a small all-women’s college. The school then and now is run by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM), of Immaculata, Penn., not far from Philadelphia.

The story begins as 23-year-old Cathy Rush takes on the job of coaching the Mighty Macs. She is newly married to a successful NBA referee. She also is searching for more meaning in her life, which puzzles many people. At that time, most women work in the home, not outside of it, and the roles of wife, homemaker, and mother are closely tied to a woman’s identity and value.

Rush takes the job, despite having no gym and no experience as a head coach. Meanwhile, the college itself is having severe financial problems and is at risk of being sold. Rush dreams of the Mighty Macs being #1 in the country. But the season starts badly as the Macs are thrashed by other teams. Rush, the players, and the nuns have good reason to simply give up, but they don’t. Instead, they draw on the strength and encouragement of each another and together go on to make history.

Some things I like about the movie
The movie reflects the reality that “a vocation” isn’t just for sisters, it’s for all people. Cathy Rush and Sister Sunday, who became the assistant coach, both found their “vocations” as coaches. Being a coach was more than just a job. It was a way for them to find deeper meaning in their own lives and to help others do the same.

One of the scenes I especially like in the movie is when Sister Sunday is in church, praying to God for direction. She doesn’t understand why God brought her to religious life simply to work in the Admissions Office of the college. She prays, “Send me a sign, any sign, as I will be listening for your voice.” Just then, to her annoyance, her prayer is interrupted by the sound of a basketball bouncing against a floor in the nearby makeshift gym. God has a sense of humor.

I also like the way that the sisters supported Rush and the players. The movie conveys a strong message about the power of community. In the movie, when no one else is cheering for the Macs after they’ve been crushed by the opposing team, the nuns are there, in solidarity with the players and coach. That’s what it means to be community – being with one another even when the chips are down. And as the coach and players learn, that’s also what it means to be a team.

The movie also carries a strong feminist message—that society benefits when all people have the opportunity to pursue their hopes and dreams. In some circles historically, there have been questions as to whether a sister or any woman for that matter, can be Catholic and a feminist at the same time. To that question in the discourse, the movie would say “absolutely YES!” It’s true that in the early 1970s, sisters might not have called themselves feminists. But thousands of sisters in the US and elsewhere have worked for decades on behalf of women—in education, in society, and yes, even in basketball!

Some things I don’t like about the movie
Ok, I understand the whole thing about artistic license for the sake of storytelling. But here’s a few things that raised issues for me.

The depiction of the priest as the one who would determine the fate of Immaculata is just plain wrong. The priest didn’t own Immaculata, nor did he dictate to the nuns how the place should be run. The nuns built Immaculata with their own hard work and wise decision making, and the college endured because of their efforts with others committed to an excellent Catholic education for young adults.

The depiction of the coach is also one I’m still mulling over. In some senses, her role is so powerful that it overshadows the roles of the sisters. The coach’s arrival at a critical do-or-die moment in the college’s history could suggest that she was largely responsible for the transformation of the college. I agree that she was a part of that transformation and a powerful symbol of it– no question! But I’d bet all of Mother Superior’s poker winnings in the movie that the college’s transformation wouldn’t have happened if the nuns weren’t already moving in that direction.

For more info about The Mighty Macs

Although the movie doesn’t come out until Oct. 21, you can read the book it’s based on: O God of Players, by Julie Byrne. There’s also lots of links to movie previews and photos of the Mighty Macs. Here are some for starters!

• The Mighty Macs on Immaculata’s website
• The Mighty Macs movie website
• The Mighty Macs on the Internet Movie Database

I’d love to hear your comments and questions about the images of Catholic sisters that you see in the promotional materials for The Mighty Macs. Please share them by writing in the comment box below.

Sister Maxine and I attended a screening yesterday for the film “Band of Sisters,” a documentary by independent filmmaker Mary Fishman. Mary’s project took her to our IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, a few times and since she’s based here in Chicago, we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know her.

Filmmaker Mary Fishman (l) with friend Prof. Avis Clendenen (r)

The screening was attended by a great crowd of people, including many Catholic sisters. We saw Benedictines, Sisters of Mercy, Dominicans, Presentation Sisters, and of course, Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters! Among the folks were “stars” of the film, Mercy Sisters JoAnn Persch and Pat Murphy, and Sister Nancy Sylvester, IHM. Also there was cinematographer Ines Sommers who filmed many parts in the documentary (including a certain convent studio that we all know and love).

Band of Sisters, a work-in-progress due to be finished within a year, is a stunning portrait of Catholic nuns in the United States tracing their journey through the renewal period of the Second Vatican Council up to the present including the current investigation by the Vatican into the lives of these same sisters. The film’s tag line says it all: “Called by Vatican II to renewal and a return to their roots, they shed the outdated rules separating them from the world, put their lives on the line to stand with the poor, and are now in a pivotal conflict with the church hierarchy over who they have become.”

As a woman religious, I am profoundly grateful to Mary for her work and her great care for this project. It is a very real and personal story that allows sisters to speak in their own voice about their lives, their history, and their lived vision now and into the future. Mary herself was educated by nuns in Catholic grammar and high schools. She is also an architect and urban planner with a passion for social justice and filmmaking.

I believe that this is an important time for this film to come out because there has been so much interest and speculation about Catholic sisters in the United States. Underlying some of that speculation has been a confusion about how exactly sisters went from exclusively habited and cloistered and in teaching or nursing apostolates to being a diverse group representing many was to live faithfully the call to religious life. Mary’s film gives viewers a unique lens through which to see how these changes unfolded. Read more about the film.

What can you do? Check out Mary’s website Band of Sisters, sign up for her eNewsletter, donate to help Mary finish the film, and stay tuned for movie clips coming to an Internet near you!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

I saw Avatar the movie with a friend yesterday, and it was good. Coincidentally, the 67th annual Golden Globes agreed with me with top honors to Avatar in the categories of Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director – Motion Picture.

The Story

The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a lush, Earth-like moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. Humans are engaged in mining Pandora’s reserves of unobtanium, a precious mineral worth a bundle to humans. The mining operation employs U.S. Marines for security. Pandora is inhabited by the Na’vi, a blue-skinned species of sapient humanoids with feline characteristics. Physically much stronger and taller than humans, the Na’vi live in harmony with nature, worshiping a mother goddess called Eywa. The Na’vi resist the colonists’ expansion, an expansion which threatens the continued existence of the Na’vi and the Pandoran ecosystem. Scientists, headed by Dr. Grace Augustine, grow Na’vi bodies modified with human DNA, called avatars, that are controlled by genetically matched, mentally linked human operators. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a paraplegic former marine who becomes an avatar operator and learns to live with the Na’vi and comes to “see” them, to understand them as individuals, a people, and a spirituality. (cf. see Avatar: Official Movie Website and the Wikipedia Avatar 2009 film entry)

The Technology

First and foremost, it’s important to know that Avatar is not animated, it is “captured performance”. I’ll let the filmmakers describe this.

The other cool thing about the movie was the 3D effects. You can see the movie in 2D as well but I went for the funky 3D glasses and let me tell you, if you haven’t seen a 3D movie in a while (I think it’s been 20+ years for me), then you are in for a treat. Kind of freaky for the first 15 minutes but then I got used to it and it was awesome.

The Spirituality

There is an interesting spirituality operative in the movie which is heightened with the interplay of familiar tensions between faith and science, nonviolence and violence, stewardship and dominance. To top it off there are issues of race and gender to contend with. That all means that Avatar is a recipe for ideological disaster. And indeed, Avatar has become a target taking many critiques, positive and negative, fair and unjust.

From the Catholic perspective, there is concern with “neopagan” overtones and a “a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature.”  In the Catholic faith, we do not identify God with the created world (pantheism) but rather understand God as the Creator of the world, distinct yet nonetheless connected. Our love and protection of the environment and all of creation comes from our understanding that all is created by God and that all of creation is therefore good and worthy of reverence. That reverence is not to be mistaken for worship of nature. But neither should reverence for God’s creation be seen as disconnected from our spirituality.

So what of the spirituality of Avatar? Jay Michaelson (columnist, activist and author of Everything Is God) has this to say:

Roughly speaking, Avatar’s Na’Vi subscribe to a combination of pantheism and theism, a view scholars today call “panentheism.” As scholar of religion Gershom Scholem observed, panentheism is usually rooted less in faith … than in experience. Like mystics here on Earth, the Na’vi have an experience of unity of consciousness with other beings, all of which (themselves included) are really just manifestations of one Being, which they call Ai’wa [ed. also spelled Eywa]. Unlike Earth-bound mystics, the Na’vi have a convenient plug, attached to their bodies, which physically unites them to other beings (such as steeds, winged or otherwise) and to Aiwa Herself/Itself. (The Meaning of Avatar in the Huffington Post)

Even though the Na’vi are not Catholic, there is still something to be gained spiritually from tending to how they interact with their God, with one another, and with all of creation. For me, Avatar had echoes of scripture, of Catholic social teaching, of prayer, and of Pope Benedict‘s own message of care and protection of the environment and of human life.

The Upshot

I give Avatar two thumbs up, and I think blue is rather fetching for a skin tone.

(That’s right, you can “avatarize” yourself.)

Have you seen Avatar? What insights or questions were raised for you?

It’s Friday and that means it is Nun News Roundup podcast day. Today Sister Maxine and I review and comment on stories about nuns in the news this week. You can join in on the conversation during the live broadcast by listening and chatting in our chat room. We’ll include your questions and comments from the chat room on air.

Visit ANunsLife.org/live
Today
12 p.m. Central Time / UTC-5

Here are the stories we’ll talk about –

• Chicago nuns on a mission from God
• Catholic Sister Bests Biker Priest
• Ironman Nun
• Uma Thurman a Nun?
• The Top 5 Goofy Nun Movies
• Sister Maxine’s stunning visit to the Notre Dame archives

Michelle Jones from “Down Under” is the winner of A Taste of Heaven: A Guide to Food and Drink Made by Monks and Nuns by Madeline Scherb (Tarcher/Penguin, 2009). Michelle submitted her entry for the most compelling nun story: ‘Sooky’ Nun Helps Save Distressed Sailor in the Canberra Times (12/12/2005) about Sister Therese Mills of the Missionaries of God’s Love.

Give us your feedback about the A Nun’s Life podcasts you’ve heard or suggestions for future shows or topics!

POST-SHOW UPDATE: Listen to the recording of this show by clicking the “play” button below.

A new documentary about Catholic Sisters and Nuns has just been released. Interrupted Lives: Catholic Sisters Under European Communism is a one-hour documentary that “explores the experiences of Greek and Roman Catholic Sisters of Eastern and Central Europe sisters who at the end of World War II were trapped under Soviet domination as Josef Stalin seized control.” (source: USCCB press release)

The documentary will be released to ABC stations and affiliates later in September and hopefully we’ll have a copy soon so that we review it here on A Nun’s Life.

The executive producers are Sisters Margaret Nacke, CSJ, and Mary Savoie, CSJ, both Sisters of Saint Joseph of Concordia, Kansas.

The sisters realized the urgency (because of the age of sister survivors) of interviewing sisters who had “endured imprisonment, exile to Siberia, forced farm and factory labor, deportation, seizure of their schools and hospitals and expulsion from their convents.” (source: USCCB press release)

Preserving the stories of the extraordinary courage and unwavering commitment of these sisters is important historical data for the archives of the Catholic church.  Every effort was made by the Soviet communists and their satellite countries to suppress all activities of the sisters, depriving them of ministries that would in any way influence others and placing them in works that would negate any contact; therefore, whether on farms, in factories, caring for the elderly or incarcerated in prisons, sisters seemed undeterred in living their faith. (source: Sisters of Saint Joseph, Concordia, Kansas)

For more info on the making of the documentary, check out the Sisters of Saint Joseph link above and a 2003 article by Margot Patterson for the National Catholic Reporter “Preserving the gospel stories of today: Project seeks to record Catholic experience under communism” (September 19, 2003).

Women and the Catholic Church is always an intriguing and provocative topic. “Women of Faith: A Film about Women and the Catholic Church” is a new documentary by filmmaker Rebecca Alvin that explores this topic.

The one-hour film includes interviews with Maryknoll Sisters and Poor Clares and, among other things, looks at “the choice to lead a profoundly religious life in the Catholic tradition in the post-feminist era”.

According to reviewers of the film, there is no narrative, allowing the women to speak for themselves without the intrusion of interpretation or commentary. While a good idea, it’s important to note that no documentary can be completely “objective” because the very process of selecting and editing clips is itself an interpretation by the filmmaker. Still, I like the approach and appreciate it.

I’m hoping that the film will be screened in Detroit or Chicago as I’d love to see it for myself. The reviews have been interesting but I’ve not read anything from a nun perspective about the film.

Here’s one of the reviews for your reading pleasure.

Alvin Unveils ‘Women of Faith’: New documentary shines a light on local women and the Catholic Church in Cape Cod Today by Bethany Gibbons (April 7, 2009)

Also, you can check out the Women of Faith website — it’s got a few things on there, but unfortunately much is still “under construction”. Will write more on this when I am able to see the documentary.

Tonight HBO2 will premiere the film, called “They Killed Sister Dorothy” at 8 p.m. EST (see HBO write-up). The film is a documentary about Sister Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN.

Sister Dorothy was shot and killed in 2005 in Brazil amid a dispute with ranchers over Amazon rain forest land she wanted brought under Brazilian government protection.

The 73-year-old Sister Dorothy spent three decades trying to preserve the rain forest and defending the rights of poor settlers. She and her community worked with the poor in the rain forest of the Amazon basin in Anapu, Pará, Brazil. When wealthy cattle ranchers began destroying huge areas of the rain forest to make way for grazing land, Sister Dorothy became active in the Brazilian government’s Sustainable Development Project, also called PDS. She also became a Brazilian citizen.

For more information visit www.theykilledsisterdorothy.com.

Indie films are some of my most favorite movies. I love the fresh, unconventional, and truly “independent” spirit of these films and the people who make them happen. Sometimes these films make their way to the masses – Slumdog Millionaire is a perfect example — and sometimes not so much. Still, many are worth seeing just for the sheer ingenuity and creativeness that they embody.

Nun of That may not be the next greatest indie film since Slumdog but its trailer has left me with a sense of curiosity about the film.

“After being gunned down in an alley, [Sister Kelly Wrath] ascends to heaven to receive training from some of the great figures of religious mythology. She is then set back to Earth to join the other members of the Order of the Black Habit, a group of supernatural vigilante nuns, as they fight evil and seek revenge against the mob.”

Now before you start clicking around to learn more about Nun of That, I have to warn you that the film is (minimally) R-rated, it is of the horror genre, and it makes a point of promoting blasphemy (the movie premieres on Good Friday this year). It plays on the absolute worst stereotypes of Catholic sisters and nuns and represents them with the “usual” erotica mix: sex, violence, sacredness, profanity, dominance, and submission. In no way do I recommend it as an accurate portrayal of women religious. Absolutely not.

So why am I writing about it? Well, for a couple of reasons. One is to provide a place that people searching for info on this movie might stumble upon and perhaps stick around for a bit to learn about who Catholic sisters and nuns really are. Two, is because frankly I am fascinated and amused (in the incredulous kind of way) by this movie and want to try to understand why these stereotypes are so compelling to people. Indie movies put these kind of things in bold relief for us, and so for me it’s a kind of study to see what folks are thinking so that I can understand it and also address it.

With all that being said, I have to say I am rather fond of one line in the movie: “We are nuns. We don’t know the meaning of the word fear. We are strong, dedicated women who laugh in the face of danger.” In spite of the violence, blasphemy, stereotypes, and abundant cliches, there is something to be said for a film that presents nuns as “strong, dedicated women” who work to fight injustice.

It’s just that we typically don’t use hand grenades and ninja stars to accomplish our mission.

Today the Sisters of Charity of New York, my IHM nun Sister Maxine Kollasch, and myself will be here on A Nun’s Life blog from 2-4 p.m. EST for a “live” discussion and Q&A on Doubt the movie. This discussion takes place right here on this page in the comment section (below this post).

I asked the Sisters of Charity a few of my own questions. Sister Connie, the community’s archivist, graciously responded.

Sister Julie: Who are the Sisters of Charity of New York? What is your spirituality and mission/ministry?

Sister Connie: The Sisters of Charity of New York are a Roman Catholic congregation of vowed religious women founded by Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. We are in the tradition of St. Vincent de Paul and from our earliest foundation our mission was to serve the poor of every type who may require our assistance. In former times our ministries centered around child care, hospital work and education. Now, however, our mission to serve the poor brings us into many different ministries. No matter where we are, we strive to bring our Logo, “Living Lives of Love” into practical loving service.

Sister Julie: What are your overall impressions of Doubt the movie?

Sister Connie: I loved the movie DOUBT! I thought it was an example of suburb, talented, acting set against a background of spectacular technical effects. All the elements of good theater combined to create a great fiction film.

Sister Julie: How did you feel the Sisters of Charity were portrayed?

Sister Connie: I thought the Sisters of Charity were portrayed as a typical Religious Community of that time, 1964. We were portrayed as educators and as a community of religious women living together. As an educator, Sister Aloysius was dedicated not only to the academic excellence of the school, but also to the protective care of each of her students, especially the most vulnerable. As a Sister in Community her loving attention to the ailing Sister Veronica was and is typical of our concern for one another.

The film was dedicated to one of our Sisters, Sister Margaret McEntee who taught the author, John Patrick Shanley in the first grade. Sister Margaret remains today a living example both of a Catholic educator, and Community woman.

Sister Julie: What was it like to meet Meryl Streep?

Sister Connie: I was introduced to Meryl Streep when she visited our Archives. Of course, I was thrilled! But on a deeper level, I was impressed with her friendly attitude and her desire to meet and talk with as many Sisters as she could. She visited two of our Retirement Houses, ate and chatted and had her picture taken with the Sisters. She also visited the Convent where Sister Margaret McEntee lives. She allowed us to take pictures and posed with endless patience. On another note, when she visited the Archives, and we showed her the clothing worn in 1964, she was very interested. She said that she would like to make her own shawl.

The Sisters have a webpage specifically on the Sisters of Charity of New York and Doubt.

We’ll be here from 2-4 EST but feel free to begin posting your questions or comments here. For those who submitted questions earlier, I’ll pass them along to the Sisters. Please extend a warm welcome to the Sisters of Charity of New York, Sister Connie Brennan, SC, Sister Regina Bechtle, SC, and Sister Mary McCormick, SC. All three will be responding via Sister Regina’s comments.

Tomorrow (Thursday) A Nun’s Life is hosting a blog discussion on the move Doubt from 2-4 p.m. EST. The Sisters of Charity of New York will be joining us to discuss the movie with us.

I wanted to offer a few of my thoughts and questions regarding the movie Doubt but I find that my time is running out as I must get to the airport momentarily to fly from San Francisco to Detroit. So instead, I’m turning to Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Culver City, CA. She is the author of the blog Sr. Rose Goes to the Movies.

Sister Rose wrote a thoughtful review of Doubt the Movie. Here’s a short excerpt but be sure to read the whole thing.

The atmosphere of the film is cold and stark: December in a frozen, urban landscape is bleak. The emotional, rational, spiritual state of doubt can be chilly: a dark night of the soul, the revelation or realization of doubt, that makes us take action and ask questions, that challenges the comfort of our certainty, is a cold, and at times, lonely journey.

As the writings of St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of the Child Jesus, and Mother Teresa attest, doubt happens, and however painful, can be a source of honesty and ultimately, spiritual growth.

The United States Catholic Bishops also has a review of Doubt the Movie.

You can also get a copy of the original play Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley.

The Sisters of Charity of New York are joining us at A Nun’s Life this Thursday to talk about the movie Doubt. We’ll chat about the making of Doubt, which they served as consultants for (the Sisters of Charity are the ones portrayed in Doubt) as well as their impressions of the movie as a whole.

This “live discussion” is happening from 2 – 4 p.m. (EST) on Thursday here on A Nun’s Life. The discussion is like other discussions we’ve had here (e.g. Jim Martin, SJ, and Joan Wester Anderson) where the interaction is through comments back and forth on the blog. So all you need to do is visit around 2 p.m., read and offer comments/questions on that day. This is your conversation! You can email me or comment directly on the blog post of that day. You’ll have to update/refresh your screen to see new comments/questions.

If you have any preliminary comments or questions about the movie please write them in the comment section below. If you can’t join us on Thursday from 2-4, check in anytime later and you’ll be able to see the discussion.

Tomorrow I’ll post my review of the movie and my preliminary questions for the sisters and for you!

This Thursday A Nun’s Life is hosting a discussion about Doubt, the movie about a nun who confronts a priest after suspecting him of having an improper relationship with a student. The discussion will be here on the blog on January 8 from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. Eastern Time.

We will be joined by two Sisters of Charity of New York, the community of nuns who are featured in the film — Sister Connie Brennan, SC, the community’s archivist and Sister Regina Bechtle, SC. I am delighted and honored that they can join us and give us their impression of the movie, the making of the movie, and their experience as Sisters of Charity.

I just saw the movie with Sister Maxine Kollasch, IHM, so I’ll write up my own review of the movie and post it here prior to the discussion. I encourage you to see the move (or play) and join us for an online discussion about the movie, the Sisters of Charity, and other related topics.

If you have any questions now for the Sisters of Charity or Sister Maxine and myself, please offer them below and we’ll try to incorporate them into Thursday’s conversation.

Doubt is based on the play by John Patrick Shanley who also adapted and directed the movie version. The cast is stunning with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman,  Amy Adams, and Viola Davis.

I just saw the movie The Secret Life of Bees. I had read the book by Sue Monk Kidd a while back when it first came out. I loved the book and so I was nervous about seeing the movie because something is always different. But I figured Queen Latifah, whom I adore, was in the movie so it would at least be enjoyable to see her. Still I had some second thoughts, especially after my friends bailed on me. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a movie by myself. Seemed a little weird, but I went with it. In fact this was probably providential because the movie itself went from being a mere movie to something of a meditation for me, something which had I been surrounded by friends or people (there were only 5 or 6 other people there) might not have happened.

The movie, in a nutshell, is as follows:

Set in South Carolina in 1964, it’s the tale of Lily Owens, a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping, honey and the Black Madonna. (source: IMDb.com)

What I love about this movie as well as the book, is the imagery of Mary the Mother of God that pervades and grounds this story. Granted, Kidd did fictionalize a lot of the stuff around Mary lore, but it’s still compelling.

The imagery begins with a line from Lily at the beginning of the movie. (A lily flower, by the way, is a symbol for Mary.) Lily is fascinated by the arrival of bees and even imagines that they are swarming in her room as she lies awake in bed at night. Lily notes, “[The bees] showed up like the angel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary. I know it’s forward to compare my small life to hers, but I have good reason to believe she wouldn’t mind.”

This reference to the Annunciation when Gabriel announced to Mary that she would give birth to the Son of God is crucial to understanding the whole movie (from my humble perspective). The wiser-beyond-her-years Lily has an inkling that her life will forever change in the near future, a change that will bring her new life.

Mary imagery appears again in the form of a label for Black Madonna Honey. It this label that leads Lily from the tyranny of her father T. Ray to the home of May, June, and August Boatwright in Tiburon, South Carolina. It’s as if Mary herself is helping to lead Lily and guide her to new life. FYI while the Black Madonna that the Boatwright Sisters talk about is fiction, there really is a Black Madonna, and in fact, multiple ones.

Mary imagery appears yet again when Lily and Rosaleen first arrive at the Boatwright house. In the parlor is a striking statue of the Boatwright’s Black Madonna. I personally missed the original language of the book that referred to the statue as Our Lady of Chains of which August says that the reference to chains is “not because she wore them, but because she broke them.” Lots can be said about this statue. What was most meaningful to me was the focal point of the statue: Mary’s heart. It is Mary’s heart that the Boatwright sisters, and the prayer group “the Daughters of Mary”, touch for healing, for comfort, for encouragement, for connection to the Sacred. In our Catholic tradition we refer to Mary’s heart as the Immaculate Heart of Mary (something which I want to write more about soon).

One of the most profound images of Mary comes in two of the Boatwright sisters: August (Queen Latifah) and May (Sophie Okonedo). Although we don’t hear much about August’s past, her motherly presence is unmistakable. She is a living image of Mary the Mother of God. Her sister May is also an image of Mary but more so as Our Lady of Sorrows. It is May who represents the Mary who “holds all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:19). She takes in each and every bit of suffering that she sees and feels around her, and holds it in her heart. May’s character is probably my most favorite of the whole movie. She embodies the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the heart pierced by a sword because of the suffering of her child and the suffering of the world.

These are just a few of the powerful images that remain with me from the movie. As I mentioned above, the movie became a kind of prayer for me, leading me to think a lot about Mary (the real one, not the fictionalized one) and about myself as an Immaculate Heart of Mary sister. I will be pondering these things for a while.

Tell me your thoughts about the movie, book, or these reflections …

Being a classic Star Wars fan (original trilogy preferred), I love all manner of Star Wars references.

Here are two funny ones that I came across this week:

R2D2 at the Skatepark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a_Khd5edYY

Boba Fett in the Simpsons

Sister Act movies have long been a source of entertainment but also a problem when it comes to communicating who Catholic sisters and nuns really are. Unfortunately many people’s image of nuns is based solely on Whoopi Goldberg as lounge singer Deloris Van Cartier hiding out as Sister Mary Clarence in a San Francisco convent (do we even know the religious community?). Each of the nuns portrayed in the movie is naturally a caricature but still the images are compelling enough that they tend to seep into our imagination and to feed false stereotypes: stern mother superior, quiet mousy little sister, bubbly bumbling nun.

And honestly, people, do nuns really need a Vegas lounge singer to enlighten them to the needs that are literally right outside their convent door?

But enough about what I may think, I’m much more interested in what you think because I’m still not sure what to do with these movies. In some way they can lend themselves to positive perceptions of nun life but in other way to negative or false perceptions.

Sister Act movies, Whoopi, and images of nuns: discuss.

Yesterday I went to a great lecture at Loyola University called “A Question of Habit: The Curious Image of Nuns in Film and Popular Culture” by Professor Bren Ortega Murphy. Dr. Murphy is in the process of making a documentary film that examines the wide variety of visual images of Catholic nuns and sisters used in contemporary U.S. popular culture.

For the most part, said Murphy, nuns have been portrayed as one-dimensional characters. You get no sense of who the nun is, her moral agency, her way of life, her ministry, etc.

Murphy noted that in the history of film-making, Hollywood has had great difficulty in portraying women in general. Combine this with Hollywood’s uncertainty of how to deal with religion and one can begin to understand how portrayals of nuns (women+religious) has been exceedingly difficult for Hollywood. The result (however amusing and nostalgic) has been to portray nuns one-dimensionally, often reducing them to blatant caricatures. Sadly you can still see this in many media portrayals of nuns today.

Some examples of caricatures and stereotypes that I’ve seen:

• mean nuns with rulers
• hapless nuns
• giggling gaggles of nuns
• nuns always in full traditional habit
• sexually repressed nuns
• nameless nuns
• nuns who are theologically unsophisticated
• unquestioning nuns
• ethereal nuns who float in and then mysteriously disappear

Murphy said that there seemed to be a resistance, a hesitancy to portraying nuns (and women) as full human beings, with full moral agency, thoughts, questions, joys, fears, strength, etc. in the context of their life. Instead, nuns were dealt with by trivializing them (the hapless nun), demonizing them (mean nun with ruler), or sexualizing them (sexually-repressed nun).

So are there some good portrayals of nuns out there on the silver screen? Absolutely, said Murphy. Among those she noted “The Trouble with Angels”, “Brides of Christ” and “Dead Man Walking”.

Films about nuns coming to a theatre near you … soon: Our Lady of Victory (my post on the Mighty Macs) and Doubt: A Parable, a play which is being made into a movie. And be sure to look for Dr. Murphy’s documentary on visual images of nuns today.

And for my own fascinating reviews on nuns in movies check out: The Nun and The Blues Brothers. You’ll also find all sorts of interesting things when you type “stereotype” into the search box at the top of my blog.

Have you seen this movie? I watched it on DVD this weekend and was blown away. Black Snake Moan is one of the most powerful stories of redemption that I have seen. Here’s the synopsis:

After finding sex-addicted 22-year-old Rae (Christina Ricci) beaten and near death, blues musician Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson) acts as a father figure to help redeem her in director Craig Brewer’s Southern-fried drama. But before saving anyone else, Lazarus — whose wife deserted him — must face his own demons. The supporting cast includes pop star Justin Timberlake, John Cothran Jr. and S. Epatha Merkerson. (source)

This is a pretty brutal film, hence the R rating. But it is a reminder that redemption doesn’t necessarily (if ever) come without struggle, and that parts of life (and ourselves) are just plain ugly.

The acting was superb. Samuel L. Jackson not only was an amazing actor, but he sang and jammed surprisingly well. Christina Ricci, whom I adored in the Addams Family movies (she played the girl Wednesday Addams), was utterly convincing as a sex addict. Justin Timberlake was not half bad as an actor. His character is a young man trying to make something of himself but who struggles with anxiety.

Though the acting was great, what really struck me was how the writer/director of the film, Craig Brewer, was able to hold together the hardness of life with the tenderness of life … how both darkness and light are able to exist simultaneously in a situation, in a person. Redemption doesn’t mean the absense of struggle or sin or hardship. It doesn’t always come peacefully nor does grasping it necessarily mean that everything is perfect now.

Although the DVD is being returned today, this is definitely a film that will stay with me for a while.

I received an email from a reader about the Mighty Macs, one of the most famous women’s basketball teams this side of God. ESPN recently published this article: “Where did it all begin? Just ask Immaculata’s Mighty Macs” (March 26, 2008) by Greg Garber.

“Mighty Macs” was the name give to the team of women who played for Immaculata College (now Immaculata University) in Pennsylvania, a school that was founded by the Immaculata IHM Sisters, cousins to my own Monroe IHMs.

Here are some awesome stats gleaned from the article:

• Cathy Rush, the first basketball coach at Immaculata was hired for $450 a year beginning in 1970.
• Title IX guaranteed women an equal footing with men in collegiate athletics in 1972.
• The Mighty Macs won the first national championship in women’s basketball in 1972. They won again the following two years.
• Immaculata was the first college women’s team to play outside of the United States, traveling to Australia in 1974.
• In January 1975, Immaculata versus Maryland was the first women’s game to appear on national television.
• One month later, Immaculata and Queen’s College were the first women’s teams to play at Madison Square Garden.
• In 1978, when the first women’s collegiate doubleheader was played at Philadelphia’s Spectrum, all four coaches were Immaculata graduates — Vicki Harrington, Class of 1967 (Immaculata); Marianne Crawford Stanley, Class of 1976 (Old Dominion); Theresa Shank Grentz, Class of 1974 (Rutgers); and Rene Muth Portland, Class of 1975 (St. Joseph’s).
• Immaculata University is known as the Birthplace of Women’s Basketball.

The Immaculata IHM nuns were most supportive of their Mighty Macs. The caption of this picture (from the article) reads: “The nuns were primary teachers at Immaculata, and primary fans at the women’s basketball games. Without an organized pep band, they organized a Bucket Brigade to cheer for the Mighty Macs.”

As a proud product of Catholic school athletic programs and CYO basketball, I am thrilled that these women (nuns, coaches, and players) are getting the recognition they deserve.

Stay tuned for the movie “Our Lady of Victory“, a feature film about the true story of the Mighty Macs of Immaculata University winning the first national championship in women’s basketball in 1972.

My first act of 2008 was to drink coffee and watch a movie. No, I didn’t stay up past midnight. I went to bed at 8:30 p.m. and woke up around 7:30 (a nice, deep sleep) and decided to start the new year off by doing something unusual. I popped in a DVD and watched a movie at 8 o’clock in the morning! Which movie, you wonder? Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007). A good film with some very clever dialogue and scenes. Ay, matey!

While watching movies in the morning is probably not a norm I will continue, I hope that being open to the unexpected will be a norm that I can incorporate into my life in 2008.  Sometimes I think there are these silent barriers that we take for granted, but in reality they just don’t exist. Case in point: there’s no law that says you can’t watch a movie in the morning but generally it’s just not something we do. Not any more. I’m committed to being open to the unexpected even if it means knocking down a few silent, seemingly-real-but-really-non-existent barriers.

Okay, so what are you planning for 2008? I know it is so cliché to do the resolution thing, but it’s not a bad time to think about what you want to do or who you want to become in the future.

Yesterday I watched the flick Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). I thought I had never seen it before but it seemed strangely familar as I watched it.

“In this adaptation of Fanny Flagg’s novel, flashbacks reveal the remarkable and mysterious story of soul mates Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson) and Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker), whose antics cause an uproar in their rural Southern town during the 1920s. Feisty Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy) tells the tale to a repressed Alabama housewife (Kathy Bates), who becomes obsessed with Idgie and Ruth, and ultimately finds inspiration in their story.” (source: Netflix)

While there is defintely a sense of “girl-power” throughout this movie, there is a very powerful underlying message about the evil of racism. Actually, a lot of “isms” are turned upside down in this movie. Interestingly, the style reminded me a lot of Jesus’ parables, where you think one thing is going to happen and your expectations are totally turned upside down as Jesus seeks to communicate a deeper message.

For example, a scene early on has Ruth trying to get to know Idgie by going with her to the train yard, hopping on a train car and rifling through the skids of food. Prim and proper Ruth is agast as the train begins to move and Idgie starts hurling cans of food, boxes, ears of corn and other food items through the open door. “That food isn’t yours to take,” Ruth says indignantly (or some other words to that effect). Idgie keeps tossing out food and then Ruth sees what is going on. The train had been passing through a very poor area of town with people living in tents and huts. People are shouting, “Someone’s throwing food from the train!” and adults and children start running along the slow moving train. It dawns on Ruth that Idgie is giving the food to the poor. It is her concern for and connection with (she looks into the eyes of the children looking up at her, hoping for food) the people that moves Ruth to join Idgie in taking the food (i.e., stealing, something Ruth probably had never done) and giving to the people who were in terrible need of it.

In this brief scene, one sees a turning upside down of expectations and a conversion of heart — in Ruth certainly, but perhaps in the viewer as well.

Have you had a “parable moment” recently … something happen that turned your expectations upside down and revealed a deeper message?

This past weekend as I relaxed and recovered from what seems like weeks of traveling, I popped in the DVD “Pay It Forward” (2000).

Young Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) responds to an assignment from his teacher (Kevin Spacey) with a plan to help three people … who will help three more, and so on, in an ever-widening circle. Trevor touches more people than he expected in director Mimi Leder’s gentle drama: his abused mother Arlene (Helen Hunt), his physically and emotionally scarred teacher and a journalist who hears of the plan and starts investigating.

Although little Haley Joel Osment of “I see dead people” fame got on my nerves after awhile, he did a great job as a truly soul-filled kid who honestly believes he can change the world. His character Trevor is blown away by a teacher’s bonus assignment to think about a way to change the world and then put it into action. How his consciousness begins to change as well as the consciousness of people around him is truly amazing and the heart of the story. The rest of the drama swirling around this key message gets a bit weepy and exaggerated at times, but the message is compelling enough that the excess drama is tolerable.

The character Trevor is told the seemingly impossible: that he can change the world. As he’s riding his bicycle home after school, he passes an area where people who are very poor live. Trevor realizes that he can do something about it by bringing one person home, feeding him, and letting him sleep in the garage. When asked by the man how he can repay him, Trevor tells him to pay it forward: help three other people and tell them to do the same when they ask how they can repay the kindness.

In the novel Pay It Forward which inspired the film, Trevor explains:

“You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven.” He turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers. “Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?” (source)

Catherine Ryan Hyde, the author of the novel Pay It Forward, created quite a book in that she embedded within fiction a plan of action to help others out of kindness and without expectation of reimbursement. Since writing the book, Hyde and others have started the Pay It Forward Foundation “to educate and inspire students to realize that they can change the world, and provide them with opportunities to do so.”

I am pleased to know that the “pay it forward” concept is not just fiction, but that there are people out there who are trying to put this into practice. I think we all struggle with the knowledge that things in the world and in our own neighborhood are not as they should be. Yet we feel powerless to do anything about it or we feel like there is a chasm between “us” and “them”. Children are often much more adept at crossing lines because they don’t see the chasm or the boundaries. They’ve not grown old enough to construct all kinds of social/cultural/political/emotional barriers like we adults do. Jesus’ simple request that we become like little children was indeed loaded when looked at from this perspective.

Have you ever felt like you could change the world? What did you do or, what stopped you? Is there some need right in your own neighborhood that you could address, even if in a small way?

In my unending search for nun-related videos (recently rekindled by Pamela who found 20/20′s episode on cloistered nuns on YouTube), I discovered this short film: “Nun More Deadly”. It is a very clever film noir detective movie.

Here’s my favorite quote from the detective who temporarily loses his ability to form hardboiled similies:

There was something about the nun I didn’t like. Something shifty. No nunness. None nunnish. Unnunlike. A certain nunlessness about her.

“Winner of the audience award for best Irish short at the Cork International Film Festival, the award for best fiction at the Sligo Short Film Festival. and the Tiernan MacBride award for best Irish short at the Galway Film Fleadh.”

I am regularly asked about stereotypes that people have about nuns and how, prior to becoming a nun myself, those stereotypes were busted for me. I’m interested to know from you what you see as nun stereotypes, either because you are a nun and have bumped up against them, and/or because you had a stereotype that was busted, and/or see various stereotypes played out in movies, TV, culture, etc. Don’t be shy!

P.S. Click here for other posts we’ve written on stereotypes.

P.S. By stereotype I am referring to a “gross often mistaken generalization”; “something conforming to a fixed or general pattern; especially : a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment” (Merriam-Webster).

A while back I wrote about Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change (click here to see my original post). The film is a one-hour documentary produced by Hartfilms in association with Alabama Public Television.

“During the bloody marches of 1965 in Selma, Alabama, a startling new group of leaders joined the battle for civil rights: African American and white Catholic nuns. Nine nuns look back at the events that changed their lives and helped make Selma a turning point for Martin Luther King’s movement and for religious Americans.”

Starting in February which is Black History Month, the film will be aired on PBS Stations. Go to the film’s web site and click on “airdates” in the left menu bar, and then on “broadcast” to see when it might be aired on your local station. You can also see a very compelling video preview in the same window that opens up for “airdates” … click on “video preview”.

I haven’t yet seen the film and am looking forward to it. If you’ve seen the film, please let me know what you think about it.

I read this news article by Catholic News Service and had to find out more about the Sisters of Selma. Below is some of the background which is taken directly from the film’s web site. Here is a list of the congregations who were the “Sisters of Selma”. Each link explains how that congregation’s sisters were involved.

• Franciscan Sisters of Mary

• Sisters of St. Joseph  of  Carondelet

• Sisters of Loretto

• Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester

• Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

from the film’s web site …

Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change
a one-hour documentary in production for Alabama Public Television

In 1965, American nuns from St. Louis made civil rights history in the streets of Selma, Alabama. At a time when many church leaders were reluctant to address the treatment of Blacks in the South, these courageous women defied authority—and a long history of simply praying for causes—to proudly take their message to the streets. When the image of these women of the cloth, marching alongside other protesters, graced the front pages of newspapers and magazines, Selma became a turning point for Rev. Martin Luther King’s movement and for religious people in America.

A Few Steps in the Right Direction

The time was the Sixties; the place, the deep South. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been working to bring voting rights to the region’s African Americans. For decades, local laws had all but prevented Blacks from voting. And those who did venture to the ballot box often faced harassment and even violence. Rev. King had decided to challenge the status quo once and for all. On a dreary Sunday in early spring, dozens of peaceful protesters gathered to demand voter registration reform. But the quiet resolve of the assembly was shattered when state troopers and the sheriff’s posse on horseback struck down scores of Black citizens. Dozens were badly injured and two killed in the days following. With much of the debacle shown on television news, “Bloody Sunday” stunned Americans, focusing nationwide attention on civil rights for the first time. A new feeling of outrage emerged, and civilians were not the only ones to join the fray.

Religious leaders left their pulpits to take to the streets—ministers, rabbis, and priests. Fiftyfour from St. Louis, Missouri took two chartered flights to Selma.

Four habit-clad sisters were in the first plane. Sister Mary Antona, a Sister of St. Mary, was accompanied by Sister Eugene Marie, her superior at St. Mary’s Infirmary. Being African American, Sr. Mary Antona had suffered racial segregation in her own novitiate program. She had prayed to go to Selma, knowing full well that sisters simply didn’t do such things. When the call came, Sr. Antona realized: “God was calling my bluff.” Sister Ernest Marie and her companion Sister Thomas Marguerite were on the same flight. They were Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and college teachers. They knew little about the Black struggle for voting rights beyond the buzz on campus, but going to Selma seemed the right thing to do.

In the second plane were Loretto sisters Sister Ann Christopher and Sister Christine Mary. They lived and worked with Black inner-city residents of St. Louis who embraced Rev. King’s peaceful methods. These Blacks were the people the sisters wanted to represent in Selma.

They did not anticipate the reactions of the South and of the Catholic establishment.

In Selma, the Missouri sisters were surprised by how much the Black residents trusted them. This was due in large part to the years of bridge-building by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester. They had met the education and health care needs of the poor Blacks of Selma since 1940. The Archbishop of Mobile-Birmingham had prohibited them from joining the demonstrations, so they fed, housed, and nursed waves of civil rights activists from elsewhere. They welcomed the nuns from St. Louis.

On the Wednesday following “Bloody Sunday,” the sisters led a procession defying a ban by church, city, and county authorities. Though the police cut the demonstration short, the images of these women in the national and international media had tremendous impact. People were shocked. A Gallup poll showed that the majority of Americans felt sisters should remain cloistered in their convents. For Dr. Martin Luther King the presence of the visiting nuns in the Selma demonstrations “had a special significance because the public knows a nun to be a woman of great sacrifice and dedication.”

For thousands of their peers, however, these women religious had made a thrilling statement because the event coincided with the Second Vatican Council, an ambitious four-year effort by Rome to modernize the Catholic Church. Sisters around the country were rethinking their vow of “obedience,” their missions, and their own segregation from the life of the nation. In the following weeks, many went to Selma to join the marchers. These Catholic women religious who marched in Selma inspired many American nuns to seek social and economic justice through their ministries well beyond the traditional realms of teaching and nursing.

This is a story of “aggiornamento,” (Pope John XXIII) the “updating” of societies resistant to change. More importantly, it is the story of a few women who took it upon themselves to become the agents of that change. What did they change? How were they themselves changed by the experience? Was it all for the better? Now in their 60′s and 70′s, the women reassess their roles in the Civil Rights Movement.

3 Needles is a film that looks at the struggle against AIDS through the lens of situations in three different cultures: “a novice nun in Africa tries to educate villagers in safe sex; in China a black-marketeer collects illicit blood donations; in Canada a porn star hides his occupation and his illness from his mother” (NYTimes).

In particular, here’s what the NYTimes synopsis says about the novice nun:

Sister Clara (Chloë Sevigny) is a young nun who is working with two, more experienced, missionaries (Olympia Dukakis and Sandra Oh) in a village along the African coast. Sister Clara finds herself struggling against ignorance and misinformation among the natives, but discovers she can only accomplish so much through traditional means and is forced to make a great personal sacrifice for the greater good.

Shawn Ashmore, Stockard Channing, Lucy Liu, and Tanabadee Chokpikultong also star in this film. 3 Needles is written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald.

It is due to be released on December 1, 2006. Check out the 3 Needles Web site and the movie trailer at Bigfoot Entertainment.

While surfing around the Internet I came across the mini series “Body & Soul” which was shown on Public Television Stations in 1993. Here’s a plot summary:

A nun, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, leaves the convent temporarily to help save her family knitting mill from bankruptcy following the death of her brother. Outside the convent she becomes a fairly shrewd businesswoman and feels attracted to one of the men who work at the mill, and thus begins to feel conflict about her religious vows. (Amazon.com)

As many films about struggles that nuns face, this one ends in Sister Gabriel leaving the convent. The plot does actually sound rather intriguing though I’m not sure how well it accurately conveys religious life. Has anyone seen this mini series?

What I really like is this bus station poster advertising the mini series. It shows a nun in full habit showing some leg … I guess the artist intended it as symbolic of the nun’s struggle or to show that she is still a woman underneath the nun garb.

What is up with these horror flicks about deranged nuns?? Today I came across the 2006 movie The Nun on the shelf of my local video rental store. Here’s the Netflix description:

For the young students at a strict Catholic boarding school for girls, one particular nun (Cristina Piaget) made their lives a living hell — until she miraculously disappeared, ending the torment. Years later, however, when the school’s alumnae begin dropping off one by one, the survivors can’t help but feel a familiar and menacing presence among them. Banding together, they strike out to send this twisted sister from whence she came!

Starring: Manu Fullola, Tete Delgado …
Director: Luis De La Madrid
Genre: Horror
Format: Widescreen …
Language: English
Subtitles: Spanish

For horror violence and language

It’s not that I like nun horror movies or think they have any redeeming qualities. (I know, it’s not fair of me to judge these movies without having seen them, but COME ON!) I’m just amazed by people’s perverse fascination with nuns. Is it the huge contrast between a so-called woman of God and the fact that she is an abusive and merciless murderer that makes such films appeal to people? Would the movie have been as appealing if the murderer was a non-nun school teacher gone awry? Not being a fan of the horror genre of movie, I really couldn’t say for sure. Who knows what makes a film into a blockbuster or cult classic?

How has the traditionally-habited nun with a nasty mean streak gotten lodged in our collective imagination? What is so compelling about that image for people? Folks don’t get nearly as interested in nuns if the nun is “ordinary.” Who wants a dull ole nun wearing khakis, a blouse, blazer, and (sensible) heels? She’s no fun if she’s not whacking people with rulers or murdering boarding school girls.

Well hopefully this is the last horror nun flick that I run into. I need a good dose of Sister Helen Prejean and her acting double Susan Sarandon to kick me back into reality.

Yesterday I had lunch with a couple of colleagues at a local “Capt’n Nemos,” a Chicago-based restaurant featuring the fabulous Chicago Style Sandwich (traditional Italian bread loaded with meats and cheeses). At every booth in the restaurant there are painted wood cutouts of various characters. When you slide into the seat of the booth, it’s like you are sitting with Grandma and a punk rocker, a friendly police man, or the Blues Brothers and the infamous nun, Sister Mary Stigmata — better known as “The Penguin” (played by Kathleen Freeman).

The painting in the restaurant has Sister Mary Stigmata between the two brothers, an ear of each held firmly in hand. Of course you can’t mistake her as a nun: she’s in full habit. Nor can you mistake her sinister demeanor. She looks angry, mean, and downright scary. Having not seen the movie (I was not even 10 years old when it came out), I could tell by the caricature alone that the portrayal of nuns in that movie was not going to be pretty.

1. The nun is repeatedly referred to as The Penguin. Why? because the black and white habit resembles penguins that are black and white from head to toe (flipper?).
2. The nun is portrayed as the mean nun who runs the orphanage in which Elwood and Jake are raised. Here’s how she is described in reviews: fussy, ruler-wielding, strict, supernatural, “a very strict disciplinarian,” tough, crazy, scary.

Unfortunately, it is movies like this that cement in people’s minds really bad stereotypes of nuns. Granted, the movie is a classic and people seem to love the portrayal of Sister Mary Stigmata. But the problem is that, since many people don’t know real live nuns or sisters, they automatically assume that nuns are categorically this way. When people find out that I am a nun (as I do not wear a readily obvious habit), most times their main source of comparison is with a badly stereotyped nun character in a movie like the Blues Brothers. “I guess I can’t lie to you because you are a nun.” — yeah, I’ve heard that; now I know where it comes from. “Do you sing and play guitar?” — not on your life; thank you Sound of Music. I sigh and tell them to go see Dead Man Walking for a more accurate movie portrayal of a real live nun — Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ. (More on Helen Prejean later.)