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This Fourth of July weekend is big at the box office, and Benedictine College’s Catholic Hall of Fame wants to know your favorite “Proudly Catholic” movies.
We have fixed the bugs in our poll; vote here for up to five movies (if you voted before, you can vote again for one week only).
The Gregorian Institute promotes Catholic identity in public life, and so we are looking for movies that do that: Think Les Miserables, For Greater Glory and The Rite. In my classes, I like to show movies that thoughtfully critique Catholic identity. Those movies (Doubt and Breach, for instance) are great, but not what we’re looking for here.
When I was first brought into the fold of practicing Catholicism by friends in college, movies were a big part of my informal instruction. I was given Chesterton to read, a Rosary to pray, mortal sins to confess … and movies to watch. My new Catholic crowd could quote lines from Beckett and A Man for All Seasons. Their favorite Hitchcock was I Confess. Watching these movies helped me understand (and enter) the culture of Catholicism in America.
Now, as a father raising children, I reinforce Catholic identity with my own children through movies. The Trouble With Angels for vocations; The Scarlet and the Black for moral courage; Angels With Dirty Faces for mercy; Heaven Knows, Mr. Alison for perseverance. There are “Proudly Catholic” B movies for every sport: The Perfect Game for baseball, The Mighty Macs for basketball, Rudy for football.
Vote for up to five and look to The Gregorian Institute for follow ups on where to find the movies on the list.
Tom Hoopes, author of The Rosary of Saint John Paul II and The Fatima Family Handbook, is writer in residence at Benedictine College in Kansas and hosts The Extraordinary Story podcast about the life of Christ. A former reporter in the Washington, D.C., area, he served as press secretary of the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee Chairman and spent 10 years as executive editor of the National Catholic Register newspaper and Faith & Family magazine. His work frequently appears in Catholic publications such as Aleteia.org and the Register. He and his wife, April, have nine children and live in Atchison, Kansas.
