There is a new movie featuring nuns. Doubt debuted December 12 and I am curious to see this film. (Sure, the chances of me actually seeing it in the theaters are few. I will have to wait until it comes out on DVD or on cable.) I have read some reviews and looked at the trailer and I must confess I am intrigued, but I also have some apprehension about this movie and the images it conveys about Catholic women religious. This does not seem to be The Sound of Music, Nun’s Story, or even The Trouble with Angels. The trailer has stark images of an authoritarian Sister of Charity. (This is the community of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton whose sisters wore mourning clothes consisting of bonnet and cape. This is not a new image for anyone familiar with this community prior to Vatican II.) The trailer reveals the familiar austere ruler-wielding Sister of Charity, played by Meryl Streep, the softhearted and beautiful young sister, and the fun, new, priest who is or is not a pedophile. All represent a stereotype of the Catholic parish school that continues a common held belief about what nuns are really like. But I have only seen the trailer.
But what about the reality? Are all Catholic priests pedophiles? Are all nuns austere? As a historian of Catholic women religious (sisters and nuns), I hope for a more nuanced understanding of the work and life of the hundreds of thousands of women who were teachers, nurses, and social workers (to name a few “assignments”).
The play has been praised. There is “Oscar Buzz” for Meryl Streep and her fellow cast members. The Sisters of Charity of New York have created this page on their home page that reveals their connection to the play and movie and this, more than anything else, makes me hopeful that this maybe a worthwhile move to see. Now, I just need to find the time to see it.
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