Nuns and Pop Culture

Tune in this morning for the Oprah Show which features Oprah Winfrey chatting with some of the Dominican Sisters of Mary of Ann Arbor, Michigan and Lisa Ling’s experience visiting their “real-life nunnery”. It airs at 9 a.m. CST on ABC.

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.

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.

The Flying Nun is an icon in many people’s imagination — whether Catholic or non-Catholic, whether you saw the originals or just the re-runs. The Flying Nun was a sitcom in the late 1960s starring a young comic Sally Field as Sister Bertrille, a novice with the Daughters of Charity who could fly.

Natalie Portman has been outed as having turned down the role of a young nun in the movie Doubt because she couldn’t wrap her head around the character being celibate.