While we’re talking about movies, we had two good articles in the November issue of Catholic World Report on the movie The Magdalene Sisters. It’s based on the true story of the Magdalene laundries which operated in Ireland for most of the 20th century. They were institutions run by religious sisters to which young women were sent for various reasons, from having children out of wedlock to just being “too pretty.” The conditions in these places were horrific and it is good for the truth to be known. But are the filmmakers doing so with good intentions?
That’s the crux of the question addressed by John Herreid in “Marketing Outrage” and Michael Rose in “Unfortunately, It’s True.”
I liken it to the media coverage of the Scandal. Most media outlets don’t have the Church’s well being at heart in their coverage, yet the exposure of this cancer in our midst was a great service to the Church in any case.
