Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon Mothers Who Think

Grilling our young
The SAT test coaching industry goes after kindergartners. Little blank slates mean great big bucks.
By Jonathan Fox
[11/08/99]

What is a Jewish lesbian punk folk singer to do?
Neaten her crewcut, put on an apron and sell lots of Tupperware.
By Erin J. Aubry
[11/05/99]

The other woman
I can't wish she were dead; she may be dying.
By Jane Underwood
[11/04/99]

Unpleasantly plump
American kids are too fat and their parents are too wimpy. No one wants heavy kids to feel a burden, but is pudgy healthy?
By Anneli Rufus
[11/03/99]

Meet the Screamers
My kids are so loud they go to group speech therapy.
By Jennifer Moses
[11/02/99]

Complete archives for Mothers Who Think

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Today she is 71, the grandmother of 13, a lay minister at St. Robert's, a docent at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, a volunteer at Sisters of Mercy Convent bookstore and, as always, a woman of deep and abiding faith in God and the Catholic faith.

She is also my mother-in-law and something of a movie fan. In fact, after receiving communion from the pope, an honor that she never in her life imagined she would enjoy, the only person she truly aspired to meet was Gregory Peck. Her experience of film is not exactly broad -- her decisions of what to see were guided by Catholic censors of the Legion of Decency until it disbanded in the early-'60s. But she still tries to see every best picture nominee before Oscar night.

What better person, then, to preview "Dogma," Kevin Smith's biblical parable for the millennium?

Also Today Sacré bleu! Why are Catholics so set on dogging "Dogma"? By Stephanie Zacharek

Few, if any, of the Catholics protesting the movie have actually seen it. Yet according to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the film is a prime example of "Catholic bashing." And Raymond Drake, president of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, told a reporter at a recent protest of the film, "'Dogma' is a blasphemous movie that mocks and scorns everything that is holy to Catholics."

I decided to take my mother-in-law to a screening of "Dogma." (She had to switch her volunteer day at Sisters of Mercy to get there, but that was OK.) She hadn't heard of Kevin Smith (or his movies "Clerks" or "Chasing Amy"), nor had she heard of anybody else in the movie, except, I learned later, George Carlin. I began to regret my invitation when the F-word was shouted for the millionth time -- by angels, prophets and a direct descendent of Jesus -- but Marian made no move for the door.

This is what she had to say when it was over.

Were you aware of the Catholic "discomfort" about this film?

I hadn't heard anything. I hadn't seen any previews and the parish I'm in doesn't really do that. It probably will be in the San Francisco Catholic [a weekly publication] and I read that. But I didn't know that the man who made it was Catholic until you told me.

How often do you follow the recommendations of Catholic groups like the ones protesting this film?

Well, I didn't go see "The Last Temptation of Christ." I didn't like the idea of a wimpy Christ. I thought, "I'm not going to pay money for this."

I like to know what [the protesting groups] are talking about. At one time I would have used the Legion of Decency list to decide what to see. That is something that I really followed. When they said, "Don't go," I didn't go. But, I think a lot of Catholics are past that. I do have that old-fashioned thing of not wanting to support something I don't approve of -- I feel like I can watch it on TV to see what it's about, but not give money to the producer.

Next page | "I love the idea of angels"