Saturday, March 19, 2011

Do You Believe in Sin?

The Rite

Almost all of the secular reviews I've seen on The Rite give it a pretty bad rap. For instance, Rotten Tomatoes gives 20% on their tomatometer.
Almost all of the Catholic reviews I've seen on The Rite give it an excellent rap. For instance, google 'The Rite, Catholic reviews.'
Being the interested-in-the-world's-view-of -the-Church kind of Cahtolic that I am, I went to see The Rite this evening and I am currently sitting somewhere between to two types of rap, as it were.
It wasn't a bad movie; however, it wasn't the thriller that the traillers would have you believe it is.

There were a couple of doctrinally dodgy things in the movie. Or, if they were not doctrinally dodgy, they could lead to someone having the wrong concept of the Faith. Which is fine for me, because I could see what was wrong; but for those who have little to no idea about the Church and what she teaches, this movie may be as helpful as going to a Mass full of liturgical abuses
Even for Catholics unsure in their Faith, I would recomend at least an Ave Maria before hand. And maybe a Sancte Michael Achangele for good measure.


Just little things like the girl that died after beinging hit by a truck.
There were priests around.
The reason Micheal Kovak hesitated to pray over her wasn't because he was only a deacon, but because he 'lacked faith' in what he was doing. [Can.  1003 §1. "Every priest and a priest alone validly administers the anointing of the sick."]
The thing is that some of these are 'just little' and, so, 'don't matter'. Just like those 'little' red letters in the Missal 'don't matter'.
Y'know?



The Rite opens with a quote that is attributed to our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II that I'm having touble finding anywhere other than sites about the movie. That's not to say that our beloved JPII didn't say 
 The battle against the Devil, which is the principal task of Saint Michael the Archangel, is still being fought today, because the Devil is still alive and active in the world. 
it's just that I can't find it.
 
Then the question is asked to no-one in particular "Do you believe in sin?"
This is an interesting topic for everyone to look into, but it is something essential that we Christians consider.
Worse that not believing in sin is the answer Micheal gives in the film. "Yes, I just don’t believe that the devil makes us do it."
 If we are to fight the the good fight, as the Apostle puts it, we need to know who we are fighting against, lest we fight against ourselves, each other. 

It's good that The Rite didn't leave the audience with an apparent sense of 'Well that just adds to my proof that the Catholic Church is full of it."
It was a fairly even handed approach to the Catholic doctrine of the Devil, given that is was Hollywood.


If you want to see a Hollywood movie this season that doesn't make you turn from the Faith, this is it.
Just pray before during and after.
Sure, demons are real. But with Christ, we can over come them, so there is not need to fear them or worry about them.

"Pray, hope and don't worry." - St Padre Pio

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