Netflix Movie World: Pulp Catholicism

Tuesday, 4 October 2016

DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY: PULP CATHOLICISM #044

As today is the feast of St. Francis, it seemed like a good time to dust off this old cartoon about the patron Saint of all animals and spruce it up with a bit of color. As for the subject matter, well, if St. Columba could allegedly chase off Nessie, then certainly St. Francis could preach to her. And no doubt he would be happy to do so. Writing about St. Francis, G. K. Chesterton would say…

“He never forgot to take pleasure in a bird as it flashed past him, or a drop of water as it fell from his finger: he was, perhaps, the happiest of the sons of men.”

And how did Francis maintain such a happy disposition? In a later work, Chesterton would speculate…

“In a…cynical sense…men have said ‘Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.’ It was in a wholly happy and enthusiastic sense that St. Francis said, ‘Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall enjoy everything.’ It was by this deliberate idea of starting from zero…that he did come to enjoy even earthly things as few people have enjoyed them.”

Now, one Saint’s key to enjoying life might not sound like that big of a deal, but remember that the Catechism tells us how the desire for happiness is not only a natural one, but is of divine origin. “God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it.” So if nothing else is working, don’t be afraid to try out a start-from-zero approach. It’s St. Francis approved.

Saturday, 27 August 2016

DIRECTORS COMMENTARY: PULP CATHOLICISM #050

If you've spent any time mulling around the Catholic blogosphere over the past few days, you've probably stumbled across the kerfuffle surrounding two well known Catholic bloggers who recently lost their writing positions at a well known Catholic publication due to various comments they've made online. You won't find any commentary on that particular situation here because that's not what we do at The B-Movie Catechism. What you will find, though, is this old cartoon I whipped up a few years ago which acknowledges the fact that St. Blogs can be a testy place from time to time, and pretty much always has been that way.

You know, the Catechism doesn't directly address blogging or comment sections on websites. It does, however, have a section on the use of social communications media where it notes, "It is necessary that all members of society meet the demands of justice and charity in this domain." So yeah, based on that, it's reasonable to assume that we're expected to watch our virtual tongues when we're interacting online. Anonymity doesn't excuse us from the demands of our faith. Now, of course, you're free to disagree with that conclusion, and if you do, by all means leave a comment below. But, you know, do it nicely.