Priests find value in new TV series

A new TV series that has been condemned by one group as anti-Catholic would actually make a wonderful vocations video, according to a priest who has previewed "Nothing Sacred."

Three Albany diocesan priests who saw the pilot gave enthusiastic "thumbs up" to the new ABC series, which focuses on a fictional inner-city parish, its staff of priests and a nun, and the neighborhood they serve.

The show has drawn criticism from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which condemned it for its "very, very negative portrayal of the priesthood" (The Evangelist, August 7 issue). But the priests who previewed the first episode, called "Nothing Sacred," which debuts Sept. 18, a very realistic presentation of the priesthood.

Positive reviews

"I'd like to use it as a vocation video," said Rev. John Molyn, director of the diocesan Vocations Office. "It treats us priests more kindly than we sometimes treat ourselves. Each style of priesthood -- the newly ordained searching for prayer, the liberal from the '70s, the older priest -- was presented kindly."

Rev. David Tressic, associate pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Latham, called the program "very real and full of life. It addresses what makes us become priests -- that burning drive inside about God that I want to share with others. That's what [the main character] showed. He struggles with the problems in society, challenging himself and society to change. All these things, including the temptations he faces, are real. We are human beings. God has chosen priests from the people, not from the angels."

Also lauding the show was Rev. Peter Sullivan, assistant judicial vicar for the Diocesan Tribunal, who said: "I would like my sisters, brother and mother to watch it to see the reality of the priesthood as opposed to the plaster-of-paris [image of priests]. There's a misconception among a lot of people that priests are not real. That's not helpful to the Church or to vocations."

Plot line

"Nothing Sacred" focuses on Father Ray, the pastor of an inner-city parish beset with financial woes and tension from neighbors not happy with the Church's efforts to help the poor. Personally, he questions his vocation, is tempted by a woman he loved before being ordained and has been tape-recorded in the confessional giving advice on abortion that his superiors dislike.

"Every single tension in the Church was presented in the space of one hour," Father Molyn commented. "I hope one priest never has to face that much turmoil. They really compressed events to make a point, getting issues out in four sentences to crystalize everything."

Allowing for that dramatic license, however, he said the series "faithfully portrays what the diocesan priesthood is about."

Likes and dislikes

Father Molyn said of a scene in "Nothing Sacred" in which the main character anoints a boy after an auto accident, "I couldn't teach a sacramental class better than that." He also lauded a concluding scene in which everyone in the story comes to communion, demonstrating how Catholics unite around the table of the Lord.

But there were some parts of the show that were off the mark, said the priests:

* Father Sullivan cited a scene of a Mass in which the Our Father was presented out of chronological order and with the celebrant in the wrong location;

* Father Molyn described the character of the nun as "a little wooden";

* Father Tressic said, "The only part that is not real is that Father Ray did everything right. We make mistakes. We say and do things that are not the best."

Thumbs up

But in general the three priests approved of the program and plan to watch it again.

"The criticism I've read is unjust and unreal," Father Molyn said. "I would hope I could face a ministerial crisis as well as Father Ray did."

Father Sullivan credited the program with presenting realistic images of priests. "It gives a valid example of one priest," he said. "I'd watch it again -- and invite others to watch."

(09-11-97) [[In-content Ad]]