But Is It Art?

Among the other good works of his papacy, John Paul II called for attention to the use of modern media to spread the Gospel. In response to this challenge, some Catholics formed a production company and created a film about the life of St. Therese of Lisieux (www.theresemovie.com). A small-budget labor of love, this film featured unknown performers and was advertised in the States largely by word of mouth, traveling from city to city (the website can tell you if it's playing in yours). I wouldn't say that Therese was everything I hope for in a feature film, but it does credit to the Pope's challenge to use media to make faith come alive. St. Therese's short, undramatic life isn't ideal cinematic material, and her words can sounds sentimental to those of us not reared in the Romantic period. Luke Films depicted her story movingly without veering too much into sentimentality. My main quibble was that the script smoothed over the real radicalism of this Doctor of the Church, such as the elephant-in-the-room fact that Therese wished to become a priest. But it doesn't subvert her story for ideological causes, and it should increase the number of people who care about St. Therese's life and work. It's a good teaching tool which I urge you to check out.
Into this positive future for Catholic film falls the Vatican's recent condemnation of the Da Vinci Code. I forget who pointed out that the Vatican managed to do this after everyone in the entire world had read the book; or who countermanded that that way they avoided contributing to its publicity; both are kind of amusing. The Da Vinci Code, famous for its inaccuracies, has advantage of frankness over Therese of owning to its fictionality. That is, since Therese is based on real events and makes claims to verisimilitude, it allows readers to forget that an editorial voice dictates decisions about the material included in the film. As the Da Vinci Code is obviously fiction (come on, a cool, Vespa-riding Harvard prof?!) it ought to encourage readers to question, rather than accept, the statements it presents as fact. It has done exactly that, as evidenced by the deluge of books and media coverage that followed it, presenting facts about the book's material from art history to papal succession to Mary Magdalene.
The life of Mary Magdalene, in contrast to Therese Martin's life, would make great cinema. Not because Mary was a prostitute: the Vatican announced some decades ago that biblical scholarship could no longer confuse Mary Magdalene with the woman who anointed Jesus' feet and was known for her sexual sin. Jesus cast demons out of Mary, meaning that she might have been what we would recognize as mentally ill. She went on to become a preacher of Jesus' word, a close friend of Jesus, as is clear from the Gospels, and of course, she was the first person privileged to know of the Christian mystery, the Resurrection. Because of the Da Vinci Code and another recent work of fiction, Mary Called Magdalene, which I very much recommend, and because of many works of art and media which do not present the complete Vatican party line, thousands of readers have come to inquire into the truth about this great saint.
It is often useful for the Vatican to reaffirm Church doctrine on issues of the day (sometimes it comes as a smackdown to an already hurting group or as dog-wagging that ignores greater problems). It certainly hurts nothing for the Vatican to restate the official particulars about Jesus' life called into question in the Da Vinci Code. But Catholics and others are perfectly capable of finding out the facts from scholars like Karen King and Elaine Pagels - and waiting years after the book's publishing to act doesn't help the Vatican's relevance any. Our church leaders should be careful to avoid the appearance of denouncing all art and media that doesn't entirely conform to Catholic teaching, but that raises interest in and questions about issues germane to faith. The Curia would be best advised to challenge each faithful reader to carefully analyze all media pertaining to issues of faith - most especially those that lack the clear stamp of fiction.