Catholics: A Fable (1973)

Saw in our home with Ted Adams a videotape of Catholics (DVD: The Conflict), a 1973 movie starring Trevor Howard and Martin Sheen. Ted, a lifelong athiest, was sent the tape by his brother, with whom he corresponds daily and thought he knew everything about but who Ted has now learned has given up Catholicism after ten years of going to a Catholic church without Ted’s being aware of it. The movie also starred Raf Vallone, who does not appear in our version, from which the first 10 minutes were apparently cut. There is a sentimental, or perhaps actor’s, ending in which the secretly unbelieving abbot easily puts over on his supposedly orthodox monks an all-too-human meaning of miracle, kneels down to pray the Our Father with them in hopes of the miracle, and alone in his anguish finds he cannot continue saying the prayer.