Position Papers - January 2018 by Position Papers

A review of Catholic affairs

Looking back at 2017: books and films Learning to be Faithful by Rev. José Javier Marcos

Nine key ideas from Amoris Laetitia by Rev. Gavan Jennings

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Number 515 · January 2018

Editorial by Rev. Gavan Jennings

In Passing: Playing with fire by Michael Kirke

Learning to be Faithful by Rev. José Javier Marcos

Nine key ideas from Amoris Laetitia by Rev. Gavan Jennings

Book Review: Mystery of the Magi: The Quest to Identify the Three Wise Men by Rev. Patrick G Burke

Book Review: A selection from 2017 by Francis Phillips

Film Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi by John Mulderig

Film Review: MercatorNet’s films of 2017 by mercatornet.com

Editor: Assistant editors: Subscription manager: Secretary: Design:

2 4 9 17 25 28 32 35

Rev. Gavan Jennings Michael Kirke, Pat Hanratty, Brenda McGann Liam Ó hAlmhain Dick Kearns Eblana Solutions

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Editorial

ow clearly the New Year reveals how much we yearn for a fresh start. Everywhere people are turning over a new leaf in the care of the body (think of the packed gyms and empty fridges), of their social life, and even of the spiritual life. But somehow the momentum barely carries the New Year’s resolutions even into February. Perhaps it is because people forget that Christ has given us a sacrament of starting again – it is called confession. Christ himself said that he “makes all things new” (Rev. 21:5); he is the great ally of the fresh start. I had the joy of hearing many confessions in the lead up to Christmas, and in some cases of people who were starting again after years away from the sacrament. And I always make the same suggestion in such cases: to begin the practice of monthly confession. We are creatures of routine – routine sustains us in virtually every aspect of our lives: eating, sleeping, working, socialising etc. But the same should apply to our sacramental life (and indeed it does in the case of Sunday Mass). How much we can be helped by having a definite day each month (the first Friday, second Saturday…) on which we have the routine of going to receive God’s pardon in the great sacrament of confession. Sometimes, however, my suggestion evinces replies such as: “Oh there’s no confession in my parish”, “I’d have to ring to make an appointment for confession”, “There’s only a twenty minute slot each week before Mass on Saturday morning.” Worst of all (though infrequent thankfully) is the answer: “The priests simply give general absolution.” Certainly Mother Church wants the sacrament of confession to be as available as reasonably possible to all the faithful. In the Code of Canon Law we read: “All to whom the care of souls has been entrusted in virtue of some function are obliged to make provision so that the confessions of the faithful entrusted to them are heard when they

reasonably seek to be heard and that they have the opportunity to approach individual confession on days and at times established for their convenience â&#x20AC;&#x153;(Can. 986 Â§1). It is true that priests in parishes are busy, and in some cases chronically over-stretched, but that said it is hard to imagine anything in the life of a priest which could be more important than making confessions available to the flock entrusted by God to his care. Besides there are few things that make a priest happier than to find among his penitents those who had been alienated from the life of the Church. In hearing confessions the priest becomes the great ally of the fresh start.

In Passing: Playing with fire by Michael Kirke

amille Paglia is a contemporary social and cultural critic who defies categorisation by any terms which our dazed and confused post modern world has at its disposal. This is what makes her so interesting – and important.

observe that there is one profound traditionalist point that she maintains repeatedly, and it is one of the first truths of the conservative disposition. She announced it, he explains, a few months back in an interview with the New York Observer. In the very first question of that interview she was asked about comparisons which have been made between President Trump and Adolf Hitler. She replied: “‘Presentism’ is a major affliction – an over-absorption in the present or near past, which produces a distortion of perspective and a sky-is-falling Chicken Little hysteria.” In the fable, Chicken Little caused widespread panic when he mistook a falling acorn for a

Mark Bauerlein, who is senior editor of First Things, describes her as “an idiosyncratic mix of liberal and conservative convictions—or perhaps we should say that she, like any person of serious understanding, has an intellectual makeup more complex than our current political simplicities can absorb.” He doesn’t try to unravel Paglia’s whirlwind mind but he does

piece of the sky. Presentism is defined as an uncritical adherence to present-day attitudes, especially the tendency to interpret past events in terms of modern values and concepts.

modern youth, Paglia says, students have not had a “realistic introduction to the barbarities of human history…. Ancient history must be taught…. I believe in introducing young people to the disasters of history.”

Ignorance of history, ignorance about the conditions of humanity in past ages, is crippling the minds of millennials in Paglia’s view. She is appalled by how little knowledge of history young Americans actually possess. Paglia believes there is a causal connection between young Americans’ ignorance of history and their dim view of present conditions. On this side of the Atlantic, with the devastating and destructive work being done by Irish and British curriculum designers just now, we will soon be in the same place.

When people judge the present solely in present terms, not in relation to the past, diversity becomes not the pursuit of knowledge of other cultures, religions, and civilisations. It becomes, Paglia says, a “banner” under which we presume to “remedy” contemporary social sins. At that point, we should realise, education has turned into indoctrination. That’s not what education is supposed to do, she continues. Education is about “opening the great past...” She wants more focus on knowledge. But we should not be afraid of knowledge about the things which were hard, difficult and even downright barbaric – knowledge of the good, the bad and the ugly. Clearly an academy which creates spaces for student in which they will be “safe” from

At a conference in Oxford early in 2017, Paglia stated again, in response to a student who criticised her and others for telling young people not to be so sensitive and snowflaky, “There is much too much focus on the present.” Thanks to the (presumed) sensitivity of

this knowledge is to her an anathema.

involving a drunken threesome, he had no doubt that, if guilty, the rapist had committed a horrible crime. However, Hook’s undoing was that he then had the temerity to ask a universal question: “But is there no blame now to the person who puts themselves in danger?”

She argues that we have allowed the classroom to devolve from the pursuit of knowledge to the pursuit of “cures” for social problems. That approach is “wrong,” Paglia insists, a job for social welfare agencies, not postsecondary learning. We should return to the vision of education as the “abstract and detached study of the past and of the global present.”

Mr Hook then began to think out loud – perhaps a little incoherently because this was talk radio after all: “There is personal responsibility because it’s your daughter and it’s my daughter. And what determines the daughter who goes out, gets drunk, passes out and is with strangers in her room and the daughter that goes out, stays halfway sober and comes home, I don’t know. I wish I knew. I wish I knew what the secret of parenting is.”

If historical illiteracy is bondage, the moral variety is even more so. Paglia’s has her own controversial view of that too. The moral illiteracy of our age is astounding. It was revealed yet again some months ago in an Irish context in the controversy surrounding a well-known radio journalist, George Hook, who found himself suspended from his job for asking a simple question with insufficient delicacy.

“But there is a point of responsibility. The real issue nowadays and increasingly is the question of the personal responsibility that young girls are taking for their own safety.”

In fact, the delicacy was not the real issue. It was that he asked the question at all.

No sooner than he said this, the alarm bells went off around the country. Noeline Blackwell, CEO

But what exactly did he say? In the context of a rape charge

of an Irish Rape Crisis Centre, said Mr Hook’s comments were problematic, wrong, and entirely irresponsible. “When someone is raped the only person responsible is the rapist.”

I get into a car with a drunk behind the wheel do I not have to ask myself some questions about my common sense, my moral sense and certainly my sense of responsibility with regard to my own safety and well-being? If my companion drives off the road I will not be culpable for his crime and folly – but my injuries and possibly my death will be a witness to my gross imprudence as well as to the driver’s criminality. Perhaps the moral ignorance which makes people think otherwise comes from the widespread equating of legality with morality.

Chris Donoghue, the group political editor at Communicorp, the media company that owns the station Hook works for, tweeted about his colleague saying, “Someone needs to go to town on Hook. It’s disgusting.” A day or two later he tweeted again saying: “Thanks for msgs, I’m not trying to be a hero or outspoken. It’s a basic thing for everyone to stand for. Rape is never a victim’s fault.” Clearly the journalistic “ethic” that dog refrains from eating dog doesn’t apply anymore.

Camille Paglia and Laura Kipnis, cultural critics and feminists who talk a lot of sense about drinking on campus have made themselves very unpopular with the moral illiterates.

This is moral illiteracy – showing a total and wanton ignorance of the rational concept of moral culpability, or lack of it.

“If you’re to going drink eleven ounces of liquor, that’s destructive on a lot of levels. In terms of self-protection, you just cannot know what’s going to happen when you’re comatose,” Kipnis argues in her new book, Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus.

Put simply and taken out of the sordid context of rape, if I see a “Beware of the dog” sign and, after ignoring it, get badly bitten, at best I am a fool, at worst I am morally culpable of negligence relating to my bodily integrity. If

She also makes the point: “To say that women don’t have to be part of the solution is almost perverse.”

member of the rock band The Pretenders telling us in her 2015 memoir, Reckless, that she’d been raped by a biker gang member at the age of 21. The moral illiterates found it incomprehensible that the singer blamed herself for “playing with fire.”

Paglia’s new book, Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism, reprises her previously published essays. A professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, she suggests less boozing and more “take-charge attitude” might spare young women from rape – or what she described in a 2014 Time article as “oafish hookup melodramas arising from mixed signals and imprudence on both sides.”

Poor George Hook thought he might get away with adding his tuppence-worth of moral wisdom to all that. Little did he know the depth of ignorance he would have to contend with as the moral illiterates bayed for his blood and attempted to destroy his career with relish?

Then we had an older and a wiser Chrissie Hynde, founding

ABOUT THE  AUTHOR

Michael Kirke is a freelance writer, a regular contributor to Position Papers, and a widely read blogger at Garvan Hill (www.garvan.wordpress.com). His views can be responded to at mjgkirke@gmail.com.

Learning to be Faithful by Rev. José Javier Marcos

orty days have gone by since Jesus’ birth, and the Holy Family sets off to fulfil what is ordained in the Law of Moses: Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.[1] Bethlehem is not far from Jerusalem, but the journey by donkey takes several hours. When they reached Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph made their way to the Temple. Before entering, they fulfilled the purification rites with great devotion, and bought at a nearby stall the offering prescribed for poor people: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. Then, amid the coming and going of other pilgrims, they passed through the Hulda gates and the monumental subterranean passages and came

out onto the great esplanade. It is not hard to imagine their prayerful emotion as they turned towards the Court of the Women. It was perhaps then that an elderly man came up to them, his face alight with joy. Simeon greeted Mary and Joseph warmly and told them how ardently he had been waiting for that moment. He was aware that his life was drawing to a close, but he also knew, because the Holy Spirit had revealed it to him,[2] that he would not die without seeing the Redeemer of the world. When Simeon saw them enter, he was granted the light to recognise in their Child the Holy One of God. With great care, since Jesus was still barely six weeks old, he took him in his arms and, filled with

emotion, raised his prayer to God. Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel.[3] At the end of his prayer Simeon addressed Mary in particular, introducing a hint of shadow to that scene of light and joy. Still speaking of redemption, he added that Jesus was to be a sign that is spoken against, that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed, and he told our Lady: a sword will pierce through your own soul also.[4] It was the first time they had heard anyone speak like that. Up until then, the Archangel Gabriel’s annunciation, the revelations made to St Joseph, the inspired words of our Lady’s cousin Elizabeth, and those of the shepherds, had all proclaimed joy at the birth of Jesus, the Saviour of the world. Now Simeon prophesies that Mary will bear the destiny of her people in her own life, and play a leading role in the work of salvation. She will accompany her Son, standing at

the centre of the reaction for or against Jesus in which men’s hearts will be laid bare. Contemplation: meditating in faith Our Lady saw clearly that Simeon’s prophecy did not contradict but rather completed all that God had previously shown her. Her attitude at that moment was the one we see reflected elsewhere in the Gospels: Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.[5] Our Lady meditated on the happenings around her, “searching” for God’s will in them. She turned over the questions Yahweh raised in her soul and never fell into a passive attitude. That is the way to be loyal to God, as John Paul II reminded us: “Mary was faithful, above all, when she lovingly strove to seek out the deepest meaning of God’s plan for her and for the world…. Faithfulness cannot exist unless there is, at its root, an ardent, patient and generous seeking; unless there is, in man’s heart, a question to which only God holds the answer, or rather, to which only God is the answer.”[6]

The search for God’s will leads Mary to welcome and accept what she discovers. In the course of her life, Mary was to find countless opportunities for saying “Be it done, I am ready, I accept.”[7] These were crucial moments for fidelity, probably accompanied by the realisation that she couldn’t understand God’s plan in all its depth, or how it would be brought to fulfilment. And yet by pondering them carefully, she showed how much she wanted God’s will to be done. Mary accepted these events in all their mystery, making room for them in her soul, “not with the resigned attitude of someone who gives up in the face of an enigma, but with the readiness and availability that went with opening herself up to be dwelt in by something – by Someone! – greater than her own heart.”[8] Under our Lady’s attentive eyes, Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man.[9] When the years of our Lord’s public life arrived, Mary would have seen how Simeon’s prophecy was being fulfilled: this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken

against.[10] During those years Mary’s faithfulness was expressed by “living in accord with what one believes: conforming one’s life to the object adhered to in faith; accepting misunderstanding and even persecution rather than allowing any break between what one believes and the way one lives.” They were years during which Mary showed her love for and fidelity to Jesus in a thousand different ways, years that could be summed up in one word, consistency, “the innermost core of faithfulness.” But all fidelity “must necessarily pass through the most demanding test of all: that of duration,” constancy. “It is easy to live up to one’s beliefs for a day or a few days. What is both difficult and important is to live up to them for one’s whole life. It is easy to be consistent in moments of exaltation, but difficult in moments of tribulation. And only consistency that lasts throughout one’s entire life can truly be called faithfulness.”[11] That is how our Lady acted: she was loyal at all times, and still more at times of tribulation. Mary was present at the supreme trial of the Cross, accompanied by a small

group of women and the Apostle St John. Darkness covered the earth. Jesus, nailed to the wood, amidst immense physical and mental pain, sent up to heaven a prayer that united personal suffering and radical trust in his Father: “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”[12] These are the opening words of Psalm 22, which culminates in an act of trust: All the ends of the earth shall remember, and shall turn to the Lord.[13] What must our Mother have thought when she heard her Son’s cry? For years she had meditated on what God wanted of her. Now, seeing her Son on the Cross abandoned by nearly everyone, our Lady must have recalled

Simeon’s words yet again: a sword was piercing her heart. She suffered intensely over the injustice that was being committed, and yet, in the darkness of the Cross, her faith brought the reality of the Mystery before her eyes: the ransoming of each and every soul. Jesus’ trusting words gave our Lady new light to understand how closely her own suffering associated her with the Redemption. Raised up on the Cross, at the very moment of his death, Jesus met his Mother’s eyes. He found her beside him, united in intentions and sacrifice. And thus “Mary’s fiat at the Annunciation finds its fullness in the silent fiat that she repeats at the foot of the Cross. Being faithful means not turning away

John Paul II, Mexico 1979

when darkness comes from what was accepted in the public light.”[14]Our Lady had prepared for this moment by here wholehearted daily response. She knew that her unconditional selfsurrender on the day of the Annunciation also included, in some way, the events she was now sharing in, with full inner freedom. “Her suffering is united with that of her Son. It is a suffering filled with faith and love. Our Lady on Calvary participates in the saving power of Christ’s suffering, joining her “fiat,” her “yes,” to that of her Son.”[15] Mary remains faithful, and “offers her Son a comforting balm of tenderness, of union, of faithfulness; a ‘yes’ to the divine will.”[16] Our Lord placed St John under the protection of our Lady’s fidelity, and together with him the Church throughout the ages: Behold, your mother![17] Faithfulness: responding out of faith Being faithful: seeking, welcoming, being consistent and constant. Mary’s life was a faithfilled response to the most varied situations. This response was made possible because she was

deeply moved when she received God’s messages, and meditated on them. Our Lord himself, when an enthusiastic woman burst out in words of praise for his Mother, pointed to the real reason why she deserved it: Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it![18] This is one of the most important lessons we can learn from Mary: faithfulness is not improvised; rather it is built up day after day. One cannot learn to be faithful spontaneously. It is true that the virtue of faithfulness is a disposition that is born of a firm resolution to respond to the call we receive, and that prepares us to welcome God’s plan for us. But this decision demands a “constant consistency” from each one. The perseverance that fidelity requires has nothing to do with inertia or monotony. Our lives unfold in a continuous succession of impressions, thoughts and actions; our minds, wills and feelings are moving constantly from one object to another, and experience shows that it is impossible for human faculties to remain concentrated upon a single object for a long time. Therefore unity of life requires

realising that over and above any given event, we have the capacity to organise our own scale of values, meditating on events and evaluating them and thus sorting out the ones that are truly important, in order to be consistent with the course of life we have chosen. Otherwise we would only be able to concentrate on the experience of the moment, and end up in superficiality and inconsistency. As St Paul says, “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything.[19] A Christian evaluates events in the light of faith; by this light we discover which are the truly important events, and receive the message they hold and make them a reference-point for our actions. A person who is faithful is guided by the genuine meaning of events in one’s life, so that the truly important realities, such as God’s love, our divine filiation, the certainty of our vocation, and Christ’s nearness in the Sacraments, effectively guide our behaviour and produce firm attitudes in us.

St Josemaria said: “Only people who are inconstant and superficial change the object of their love from one day to the next.”[20] And referring to the star that guided the Wise Men he said: “If vocation comes first, if the star shines ahead to start us along the path of God’s love, it is illogical that we should begin to doubt if it chances to disappear from view. It might happen at certain moments in our interior life – and we are nearly always to blame – that the star disappears, just as it did to the wise kings on their journey. We have already realised the divine splendour of our vocation, and we are convinced about its definitive character, but perhaps the dust we stir up as we walk – our miseries – forms an opaque cloud that cuts off the light from above.”[21] Were something like this to happen to us, we need to remember the decisive moments in our life when we saw what God was asking of us and we made generous decisions to be faithful to him. Thus our memory has a key role to play in our fidelity, because it can evoke the magnalia Dei, the

great things that God has done in our own lives. Our personal experience becomes a fount of dialogue with our Lord: it is one more spur to be consistent and faithful. St Josemaria saw in the virtue of fidelity the effective result of the full commitment of human freedom that aspires to the highest gifts; it is a continual self-giving: a love, a generosity, a self-renunciation that lasts, and not merely the result of inertia. This can be seen in Mary’s life, and in the history of the Chosen People: Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.[22]Remembering God’s goodness, in the world and in each person, moves us to be loyal. The light and grace that God grants us when we receive the sacraments, in the prayer, in the means of formation, and also in get-togethers and in our work, show us specific ways to be faithful in our daily life. These lights enable us to be more refined

in our piety and to grow in our fraternity; they spur us on in our apostolate and help us to do our ordinary work joyfully and with a spirit of service. If we are docile to the thoughts, decisions and affections that the Holy Spirit inspires in us, we will grow steadily in faithfulness, and cooperate in carrying out God’s plans, even without realising it. How fruitful is our faith when it incorporates the events of our own experience in life! We are not alone. We all depend on God’s grace and on one another, and our Christian vocation sets us face to face with our responsibility to bring many people to God’s love. Faced with situations that may seem harder to accept or understand – complications in our family relationships, illhealth, times of inner dryness, setbacks at work – we seek and accept God’s will. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?, says divine Wisdom through the mouth of Job. Thus we won’t view temptations as something separate from or incompatible with past inspirations or decisions, since

temptations also enter into the divine plan of salvation. “After the tragedy of the Cross all the disciples have fled, all of them! There only remain a few women and an adolescent, John, whose fidelity was rewarded with the Redeemer’s words: Behold, your mother! (Jn 19:27). In response to the fidelity of a few short years, our Lord entrusted him with what he loved most on earth, and also gave him himself. With our eyes on this little band of women, strong in the hour of sorrow, loyal in spite of everything, let us renew our resolution to never again forsake God. And if on some occasion we have in fact fled, we promise him it won’t happen again, while asking him to grant all of us the strength to persevere.”[23]

[11] John Paul II, Homily in the Cathedral of Mexico City, 26 January 1979 [12] Mk 15:34 [13] Ps 22(21):27 [14] John Paul II, Homily in the Cathedral of Mexico City, 26 January 1979 [15] Benedict XVI, Angelus, 17 September 2006 [16] St Josemaria, The Way of the Cross, Fourth Station [17] Jn 19:27 [18] Lk 11:28 [19] 1 Cor 6:12 [20] St Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, no. 75. [21] St Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, no. 34. [22] Is 44:21-22 [23] St Josemaria, notes from a meditation given on July 22, 1964.

[1] Lk 2:23 [2] Cf. Lk 2:26 [3] Lk 2:29-32 [4] Cf. Lk 2:34-35 [5] Lk 2:19; cf. Lk 2:51 [6] John Paul II, Homily in the Cathedral of Mexico City, 26 January 1979 [7] Ibid. [8] Ibid. [9] Lk 2:52 [10] Lk 2:34

ABOUT THE  AUTHOR Monsignor José Javier Marcos

has been Central Vicar Secretary of Opus Dei since 2010. This article is reprinted from www.opusdei.ie. The feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated on February 2.

Nine key ideas from Amoris Laetitia by Rev. Gavan Jennings

s we enter the final months of preparation for next August’s World Meeting of Families here in Dublin, it is a good time to revisit Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter on the family, Amoris Laetitia. What I have done here is to select a key idea from each of the nine chapters. This is not really a summary of the document, but rather a more personal take on the themes which jumped out at from me from the pages of the Pope’s work. 1. Tenderness “Against this backdrop of love so central to the Christian experience of marriage and the

family, another virtue stands out, one often overlooked in our world of frenetic and superficial relationships. It is tenderness. Let us consider the moving words of Psalm 131… [Here] the union between the Lord and his faithful ones is expressed in terms of parental love. Here we see a delicate and tender intimacy between mother and child: the image is that of a babe sleeping in his mother’s arms after being nursed” (Amoris Laetitia, 28). Pope Francis has at times called for a “revolution of tenderness.” “And what is tenderness?” he asked in that TED talk he gave last April. “It is the love that comes close and becomes real. It

is a movement that starts from our heart and reaches the eyes, the ears and the hands.”

exploits and squeezes to the last drop. Then, goodbye. Narcissism makes people incapable of looking beyond themselves, beyond their own desires and needs. Yet sooner or later, those who use others end up being used themselves, manipulated and discarded by that same mindset. It is also worth noting that breakups often occur among older adults who seek a kind of ‘independence’ and reject the ideal of growing old together, looking after and supporting one another.” (AL, 39)

Think of the motherly tenderness of Mary. How tender her concern for the newlyweds of Cana whose celebrations are about to be marred by the wine running out. See how tenderly she accompanies Jesus on the Way of the Cross through the streets of Jerusalem, and then standing by him on Golgotha. We can imagine how, on Holy Saturday, she gently and kindly gathered together the crestfallen apostles who had abandoned her son the previous day. We think of ourselves. Are our relationships superficial? Is our lifestyle a bit frenetic? Are we harsh at times with those around us, especially other members of our own families? 2. Commitment “We treat affective relationships the way we treat material objects and the environment: everything is disposable; everyone uses and throws away, takes and breaks,

Francis often warns of our disposable culture – especially insofar as what we dispose of are human beings: friends who are dumped, relatives ignored, or even spouses abandoned. We don’t keep to the commitments we have made, or won’t even make them in the first place. Admittedly life-long commitments are hard to make. We don’t merely give a gift, but we wrap ourselves up (think of a bride’s wedding dress) and say to another human being: “Here you are. I’m yours – for keeps.

And there are no terms and conditions.”

operating with God in bringing children into the world.

The Pope identifies narcissism as the big enemy of commitment. Remember poor old Narcissus, the handsome Greek son of a river god who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water and wasted away there gazing at himself.

When we see this we must remember that we looking at an icon of the Blessed Trinity; and if the Blessed Trinity is infinitely beautiful, then his image must also be incredibly beautiful. Do we realise what a marvel the family is, despite all the problems all families tend to have?

Well narcissism is alive and makes us think we’re too precious to give ourselves away: spouses think that the other half did much better in making the match, and younger people think that they are too precious to give just to any old mortal … or even to the immortal God for that matter. 3. Self-giving “The family is the image of God, who is a communion of persons” (AL, 71). God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have painted their self-portrait in the human family: the union of a man and woman who say “I do” to the project of staying with each other “forever” and co-

Even the IKEA motto is pointing in this direction: “Home is the most important place in the world.” The beauty of our home is not the size of the house, or the great furniture (IKEA or not) inside. Its beauty is only in the love that is shared there. This love is a proclamation of God’s love. In debates about the family, we must keep this in sight says Pope Francis, so that “Our teaching on marriage and the family cannot fail to be inspired and transformed by this message of love and tenderness; otherwise, it becomes nothing more than the defence of a dry and lifeless doctrine” (AL, 59).

4. Patience

them to be and getting very annoyed when they are not.

“In a lyrical passage of Saint Paul, we see some of the features of true love: Love is patient, love is kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.” (AL, 90) … We encounter problems whenever we think that relationships or people ought to be perfect, or when we put ourselves at the centre and expect things to turn out our way. Then everything makes us impatient, everything makes us react aggressively. Unless we cultivate patience, we will always find excuses for responding angrily. We will end up incapable of living together, antisocial, unable to control our impulses, and our families will become battlegrounds. That is why the word of God tells us: ‘Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, with all malice’ (Eph. 4:31)” (AL, 92). How easily we grow impatient in the family setting, getting angry, and believing we have every right to be angry! Insisting that things ought be the way I want

Pope Francis points out that a live and let live approach is key to patience: fellow family members don’t have to be the way I would like them to be: “Patience takes root when I recognise that other people also have a right to live in this world, just as they are. It does not matter if they hold me back, if they unsettle my plans, or annoy me by the way they act or think, or if they are not everything I want them to be. Love always has an aspect of deep compassion that leads to accepting the other person as part of this world, even when he or she acts differently than I would like” (AL, 92). 5. Manliness “We often hear that ours is ‘a society without fathers’. In Western culture, the father figure is said to be symbolically absent, missing or vanished. Manhood itself seems to be called into question.” (AL, 176) … “God sets the father in the family so that by the gifts of his

masculinity he can be close to his wife and share everything, joy and sorrow, hope and hardship. And to be close to his children as they grow” (AL, 177). Pope Francis describes how the absence of the father figure in families is due in part to an overreaction to the excessive authority of the father figure in the family in the past. The father is in a tricky situation as “Nowadays authority is often considered suspect” (AL, 176).

Maybe dads don’t really feel their place is in the home, or don’t know what role they have there, so feel more comfortable playing the role of the huntergatherer and stay all evening at work, or all weekend on the golfcourse, or even on the computer in his room. This is a serious situation; for as is well known child and teen delinquency is largely due to “a shortage of love from the father” (Pope Francis, General Audience, Paul VI Audience Hall, Jan. 28, 2015).

Mothers too have an important role to play in affirming, not supplanting nor undermining, the authority of the father in the family.

6. Crisis management “The life of every family is marked by all kinds of crises, yet these are also part of its dramatic beauty. Couples should be helped to realise that surmounting a crisis need not weaken their relationship; instead, it can improve, settle and mature the wine of their union … when marriage is seen as a challenge that involves overcoming obstacles, each crisis becomes an opportunity to let the wine of their relationship age and improve ” (AL, 232). Nearly all marriages have crises associated with navigating the differences between spouses, coping with in-laws, bringing up children (as someone observed: “Every year civilisation is invaded by hordes of wild barbarians … they’re called infants.”); dealing with adolescents; facing the empty

nest syndrome ; as well as a host of personal worries regarding health, finances etc. The Pope’s advice is not to run away from a crisis, nor pretend that it is not happening nor just hope it will go away. Never face a crisis alone: speak heart to heart with someone; seek help. A crisis is in fact a moment of potential growth in your marriage. The word “crisis” comes from the Greek for “decision” and so a marriage crisis is a moment in which a spouse has the opportunity to say: “I’m sticking at this, I’m making this work.” And remember real love is itself a decision, not a sweet feeling. 7. Wait! “In our own day, dominated by stress and rapid technological advances, one of the most important tasks of families is to provide an education in hope” (AL, 275).

children the value of waiting for good things: of delaying gratification. Today a large part of delayed gratification centres on the proper use of mobile phones: “This does not mean preventing children from playing with electronic devices, but rather finding ways to help them develop their critical abilities and not to think that digital speed can apply to everything in life” (AL, 275). The character of the adult in large part depends on the ability, learnt in childhood, to restrain one’s impulses. The great World War I army chaplain, Fr Willie Doyle SJ, when he was only a child at his home in Dalkey, Dublin, was seen by the housemaid in front of a mirror berating himself for over-doing it at a meal, saying “Willie, you’re not getting one more biscuit!”. His ability to forego satisfying his immediate needs was one of the qualities which made him a great saint, able to give his lives for soldiers on the battle fields of Flanders in 1917.

Education children in hope is closely related to teaching

8. Mercy “We cannot forget that ‘mercy is not only the working of the Father; it becomes a criterion for knowing who his true children are. In a word, we are called to show mercy because mercy was first shown to us’” (AL, 310). All of us, and particularly priests hearing confessions, are faced occasionally with the task of balancing two things which sometimes appear to be diametrically opposed or contradictory: truth (or justice) on the one hand and love (or mercy) on the other. Some of us can err on the side of truth/ justice – a bit like a stern father. Others err in the opposite direction – and in this they are more like indulgent mothers.

(too much justice and we get discouraged, too much mercy and we get lax!). The Pope applies this to the situations where moral weakness makes itself all too apparent in marriage: marital infidelity, divorce, second unions and so. Even such failings must be met with mercy and “This is not sheer romanticism or a lukewarm response to God’s love, which always seeks what is best for us, for ‘mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life. All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness which she shows to believers; nothing in her preaching and her witness to the world can be lacking in mercy’” (AL, 310). 9. Holiness

However both elements are needed and complement each other – as do mothers and fathers. As St Paul puts it in Ephesians 4:15, we must learn to assert the truth in love (veritatem facientes in caritate). One to the exclusion of the other may do more harm than good

“The Council stated that lay spirituality ‘will take its particular character from the circumstances of… married and family life’, and that ‘family cares should not be foreign’ to that spirituality” (AL, 313). Pope Francis concludes Amoris Laetitia calling to mind what

Vatican Council II had taught about marriage, namely that the vast majority of men and women grow to maturity and holiness in and through family life. He goes on to say that “The Lord’s presence dwells in real and concrete families, with all their daily troubles and struggles, joys and hopes” (AL, 315), and in three things in particular: prayer, self-giving, and care.

given themselves to another person. Finally, “the family has always been the nearest ‘hospital’” (AL, 321), by which he meaning it is special place of love, care and hospitality: for the spouses, the children, relatives and even strangers and the poor. ***

Regarding prayer he says that “A few minutes can be found each day to come together before the living God, to tell him our worries, to ask for the needs of our family, to pray for someone experiencing difficulty, to ask for help in showing love, to give thanks for life and for its blessings, and to ask Our Lady to protect us beneath her maternal mantle.” (AL, 318).

Pope Francis concludes the letter with these words which we can apply to our journey to the World Meeting of Families in August: “Let us make this journey as families, let us keep walking together. What we have been promised is greater than we can imagine. May we never lose heart because of our limitations, or ever stop seeking that fullness of love and communion which God holds out before us” (AL, 325).

The second feature – “the experience of belonging completely to another person” – (AL, 319), is unique to a married couple and represented by their wedding rings which say very proclaim that they have already

ABOUT THE  AUTHOR

Fr Gavan Jennings is the editor of Position Papers.

Author Dwight Longenecker

PublisherÂ Regnery Book review Publishing Inc Mystery of the Magi: The Quest to Identify the Three Wise Men

A book review by Rev. Patrick G Burke

wight Longenecker, the author of this book, is a fascinating character. Born into an Evangelical Christian family in the USA, he moved to England as a young man and was later ordained for the Church of England. After some years of living the life of a country parson, he left the CofE and became a Roman Catholic and began to earn his living as a writer. Fast forward a number of years more and he was ordained a Catholic priest in the United States, where he now combines his writing career with parish ministry. I first came across Fr Longenecker some years ago by way of his online blog and over the years have enjoyed the articles he posts on it as well as

elsewhere and one or two of the other books he has written. When his most recent book was published I was immediately intrigued by the concept behind it. Truthfully, modern scholarship has rather neglected the Magi. Their story is either dismissed out of hand as a fanciful legend; or considered unlikely on the basis that the Magi mentioned in Scripture must refer to the group of scholars, shamans, and stargazers who had been influential in the courts of Persia centuries before the time of Jesus, but whose power had by then dwindled dramatically and would have had neither the resources nor the interest in

Jewish affairs to make so long a journey. But what if the Magi of the Bible are real and scholars have been looking for answers in all the wrong places as to who they might actually have been? I just finished reading Fr Longnecker’s book and I must say I am extremely impressed. He points out that there is a major problem with the way many scholars look at the story; and that is that no where in Scripture does it claim that the Magi spoken of were the Persian sorcerers they claim they would had to have been. All St Matthew says that wise men came from the East, men who had seen the star of this new king at its rising, and as a result journeyed to Jerusalem. Fr Longenecker notes that by the time of Christ the term “magi” had come to mean any group of wise men or scholars. And that by saying they had come from the East, St Matthew very clearly identifies where they were from – for that was the Jewish term at the time for Arabia. Now, was there anyone in Arabia who might have wanted to pay homage to a new born king of the

Jews? Very much so – there was in that area the kingdom of Nabatea; and the Nabateans not only had their own group of wise men or magi who archaeology demonstrates to have been stargazers, but there was a very strong link between the court of the king of the Nabateans and that of Jerusalem. King Herod’s mother, as it happens, had been a Nabatean princess; and as a young time he himself had spent much time in that court. After his death his son who rose to the throne after him went on himself to marry a princess from that kingdom. So very strong links existed between Nabatea and Jerusalem. And we may think it very likely that had their wise men, as they studied the stars, felt that some sign in them indicated that a new king had been born to the Jews would think it very appropriate to send a delegation to make the relatively short journey to Jerusalem to go and pay him homage. Indeed, this theory, as well as fitting in much better with known facts, would explain why it was that they went to Jerusalem instead of straight to Bethlehem … for where else

would they expect to find a new born king other than in the court of the current king? Does Fr Longenecker’s explanation prove that the Magi were Nabatean wise men? It does not; but it does not have to. All it has to do is provides a credible case, based on the facts as given to us in Scripture, that the wise men and their visit was indeed something that could easily have taken place. And that it does. He puts forward a very good case not only in support of his position that the Magi are to be regarded as historical figures but also as to where they might really have been from and who they might have been. He covers the complex archaeological, historical, and scriptural evidence thoroughly enough to impress a scholar and yet in a way that makes it all very accessible for the reader who is coming to this kind of material for the first time.

scholarly debate on this issue. The second is that the nonscholarly reader is given an entertaining and highly educational introduction to the history and culture of the time and place it deals with. I don’t think that Mystery of the Magi is available in Irish bookshops; but it is readily to be found online on sites such as Amazon or Book Depository. It is a fascinating book for which the author deserves much credit and that deserves to be widely read. I think it is fair to say that the mystery of the Magi is a mystery no longer.

I would suggest that this is an important book for two reasons. The first that Fr Longnecker’s proposal, well grounded as it is in the available evidence, makes an important contribution to

ABOUT THE  AUTHOR

The Rev Patrick G Burke is the Church of Ireland rector of the Castlecomer Union of Parishes, Co Kilkenny. A regular contributor to Position Papers, he was formerly a broadcast journalist with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network. He blogs at thewayoutthere1.blogspot.ie

Book review A selection from 2017 by Francis Phillips

s a book blogger it is hard to choose between all the books one has read throughout the year in order to select ones that particularly stand out, for the purpose of a Christmas round-up. After some debate with myself on the merits of various volumes, here is my final list and why I have chosen them: I met Paul VI. By Archbishop Rino Fisichella (Gracewing, £7.99) A short memoir providing some interesting anecdotes and insights into the personality of this shy and saintly man.

Cor Jesu Sacratissimum. By Roger Buck. (Angelico Press). An absorbing spiritual autobiography of a man who spent years in the thrall of the New Age Movement and who shows how only the love flowing from the Sacred Heart was able to release him from the spell of secular “spirituality”.

The Love that made Mother Teresa. By David Scott. (Sophia Institute Press). For those who think that God exists to make us feel good about ourselves, this book details the purgatorial darkness that enveloped Mother Teresa for many decades as she struggled for sanctity within her missionary apostolate.

The Mariner. By Malcolm Guite (Hodder & Stoughton). Whoever loves the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his greatness and in his weaknesses and who wants to understand the likely genesis of his most famous poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, will find this scholarly study very illuminating.

St Mary Magdalene: Prophetess of Eucharistic Love. By Fr Sean Davison (Ignatius Press). The author, who spent some years working in Provence, has written a most moving account of the true story behind the legends of Mary Magdalene’s long sojourn in France after the Crucifixion; in so doing, he draws out the saint’s vocation as the first adorer of Christ. What Jesus Saw from the Cross. By A G Sertillanges (Sophia Institute Press). The republication of this classic book (it should be top of the list for Lenten reading material) will bring home to a new readership all the geographical and historical features of Jerusalem at the time of Christ, as well as a

new understanding of the personalities that conspired in his death. From Atheism to Catholicism: Nine Converts Explain Their Journey Home. With a foreword by Marcus Grodi (EWTN). A stimulating collection of personal stories by well-known writers and academics who have made the decision, aided by the grace of God, to move from confusion and doubt - and the unhappiness they cause – to the serenity and joy of Christian faith. The Priest Barracks. By Guillaume Zeller (Ignatius Press). A detailed account of the infamous “priest barracks” at Dachau concentration camp and the heroic men incarcerated there, as well as the extraordinary means they employed to furnish their little “chapel” and assist at the secret ordination of seminarian Blessed Karl Leisner. With God in Russia. By Fr Walter Ciszek (HarperOne). From the horrors of Fascism to the horrors of Communism: the true story of one Polish American priest’s experience of the Gulag for over twenty years, how he kept his faith (and his sanity) and ministered to fellow convicts.

Confession: The Healing of the Soul. By Peter Tyler (Bloomsbury £14.99). Written to encourage more Catholics to make regular use of this wonderful Sacrament the author, a Catholic psychotherapist and academic, explores the difference between psychology and Confession and argues for wider recognition of the deep-rooted human instinct to confess one’s sins.

ABOUT THE  AUTHOR

Francis Phillips was educated at Farnborough Hill Convent and then at Cambridge University. She is married with eight children, and is a freelance book reviewer and books blogger for the Catholic Herald website and magazine. This article is reprinted with the kind permission of the Catholic Herald.

Film review Star Wars: The Last Jedi A film review by John Mulderig

espite the high price of a movie ticket these days, patrons are unlikely to come away from a showing of the engrossing sci-fi epic Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Disney) feeling shortchanged.

Directed by Rian Johnson

Produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Ram Bergman

take this fictional faith, a sort of dime-store Taoism, as just one more element in a fantasy world will benefit from lessons about the value of hope and the true nature of heroism.

Vast in scale and operatic in intensity, this 152-minute visit to that galaxy far, far away is both satisfying and, for the most part, family-friendly. With the mayhem inevitable in a movie about a war kept gorefree and only minor blemishes on the dialogue, parents may be more concerned about the nonscriptural notions centering on the famous Force that are here collectively referred to as the “Jedi religion.” Teens able to

The Star Wars saga has often been characterized as the Iliad of contemporary culture. So perhaps it’s fitting that the opening of writer-director Rian Johnson’s eighth episode of the narrative initiated by George Lucas in 1977 finds Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) imitating Homer’s Achilles by holding aloof from the great struggle in which he once took an active part.

Rather than sulking in his tent, as Achilles did, Luke is leading a solitary life of self-imposed exile among the small stone huts of a distant planet. (These scenes were shot on the Irish island of Skellig Michael, site of a medieval monastery.) His isolation is interrupted by the arrival of Rey (Daisy Ridley) who has come as a messenger from Luke’s twin sister, Leia (the late Carrie Fisher).

Ren (Adam Driver). Originally a good person, Ben has gone over to the side of darkness, and now serves as Snoke’s chief lieutenant. Even so, he still has some elements of good remaining in him, and his ongoing moral struggle has the potential to sway the outcome of the intergalactic battle. Though it gets off to a slow start, once it hits its stride The Last Jedi sweeps viewers along with stirring action and audience-pleasing plot twists. While not as taut as last year’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, this sprawling instalment of the great franchise makes, in the end, for a more memorable experience.

As the leading general of the embattled Resistance – the latter-day version of the Rebel Alliance for which Luke once fought – Leia urgently needs her brother’s famed skills as a warrior if the struggle against the fascistic First Order (successor to the evil Galactic Empire), and its malignant leader, Snoke (Andy Serkis), is to continue. Luke refuses to join the conflict. But he does agree to train Rey in the ways of the Force. Rey will need the power of this mysterious spiritual energy, the source of Luke’s own prowess, when she eventually confronts Leia’s son, Ben Solo, aka Kylo

The script’s portrayal of the Force as capable of endowing those who cultivate it either with goodness or iniquity may strike moviegoers of faith as establishing a false equivalence of power between these two poles of morality. Some may even see in this an implicit denial of the rule of divine providence and God’s ultimate supremacy over sin.

Yet, in keeping with a Christian worldview, characters do make their ethical choices more or less freely. And the idea that a change in basic identity should be reflected by a change of name echoes a recurring trope in Scripture – and in the church’s sacramental practice. Audience members young or old are unlikely to spend much time meditating on these aspects of the picture, however. Instead, they’ll be content to ride this cinematic whirlwind while it lasts, and leave its mythos behind them like so much popcorn on the cinema floor. The film contains frequent but bloodless combat violence, a scene of torture, a couple of mild oaths and a few crass terms. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II – adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

ABOUT THE  AUTHOR John Mulderig is a reviewer

Film review MercatorNet’s films of 2017 by mercatornet.com

017 was not a landmark year for the movies. The most popular films were reboots or sequels; science fiction and animation were winners. There seemed to be fewer thoughtful and original films, perhaps because studios are playing it safe. With ever-rising production budgets, they cannot afford to take chances. Nonetheless, there are always some winners. We’ve selected the titles below from a range of genres, with something for everyone. Dunkirk  Director: Christopher Nolan. Starring Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, James D'Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy. Length: 106 minutes.

Dunkirk is the highest-grossing World War II film ever, although it is cinematographically as quirky as Christopher Nolan’s other films. The stirring story of how the British evacuated hundreds of thousands of troops from the beaches of Dunkirk is no longer as well-known as it once was, unfortunately, and it deserves to be retold. Nolan’s focus is three Britons, on land, sea and air: a soldier, an ordinary skipper of a small craft and a daring pilot. He paints the heroic rescue as a

mosaic of small but memorable incidents of courage, cowardice, loyalty, grit and patriotism. Critics have called it one of the best war films ever. Ethel and Ernest: a True Story  Animation directed by Roger Mainwood. Voices of Jim Broadbent, Brenda Blethyn, Luke Treadaway. Length: 94 minutes

This is a superb adaptation of a best-selling graphic novel which tells the story of an ordinary married couple from the 1920s to the 1970s. Ethel is a conventional homemaker whose passion for her home beautifies and gives grandeur to motherhood; Ernest is a milkman with Bolshie ideas but a good workman and a devoted father. Amazingly for a contemporary film, it dignifies the role of the housewife. It’s wonderful to find a film which lovingly reaffirms the beauty of life in the home. I, Daniel Blake  Director: Ken Loach. Script: Paul Laverty. Starring Dave Johns, Hayley Squires. Length: 100 minutes.

Another superb film from Ken Loach, the left-wing director whose life has been devoted to campaigning for social justice in contemporary Britain. In this film, the focus is on the UK’s Kafkaesque unemployment system. Daniel Blake is a widowed carpenter who suffers a serious heart attack. His doctor tells him he should not work, but the welfare system insists that he needs to look for a job. He ends up “sanctioned” – banned from benefits and he finds it hard to appeal because he cannot use a computer. A tragic and moving film about moral integrity and solidarity.

Life  Director: Daniel Espinosa. Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare, Olga Dihovichnaya. Length: 104 minutes.

Six astronauts on the International Space Station discover a living organism in dirt brought back from Mars. It responds to oxygen and grows bigger and more vicious. One by one the astronauts die as the critter (named Calvin by children back on earth), seeks oxygen and nutrition. In the final scenes, the remaining crew abandon the space station in a desperate attempt to save Planet Earth. It’s a familiar plot, but absorbing and very tense. A Quiet Passion  Director: Terence Davies. Script: Terence Davies. Starring: Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle, Keith Carradine. Length: 126 minutes.

The life of the nineteenth century Massachusetts poet Emily Dickinson was singularly uneventful: she was well educated, never married, dressed in white, and mostly stayed in her bedroom. She published only a handful of poems. But after her death, nearly 1800 of them were discovered and she was soon acknowledged as one of the greatest of American poets. But we know almost nothing about her. In this poignant film British director Terence Davies explores the mystery of her inner suffering – what she called “Zero at the Bone”. Brilliantly acted by Cynthia Nixon. My Feral Heart  Director: Jane Gull. Script by Duncan Paveling. Starring Steven Brandon, Shana Swash, Will Rastall, Pixie Le Knot. Length: 82 minutes

“We’re not so different, you and me” is the theme of My Feral Heart, a poignant British indie about a

young man with Down syndrome. Though filmed in a grey and overcast English village and a grey and overcast and damp English countryside and the slightly chaotic life of a care home, it projects a rare warmth of feeling. At the heart of the film are two intertwining themes: that we can only find happiness in caring for each other and that all of us are vulnerable and needy, not just people with Down syndrome. It’s not a big-budget picture, but it projects a great message. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2  Director: James Gunn. Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Sylvester Stallone, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Kurt Russell. Length: 136 minutes

Marvel struck gold again with this absurd, complex, improbable and entertaining yarn about superheroes reconciling with their fathers and discovering their families – without neglecting their main job of saving the Galaxy from annihilation. The tongue-incheek humour and the interaction between the bizarre characters is the best part of the film. What other film features a genetically modified raccoon bounty hunter? Spider-Man: Homecoming  Director: Jon Watts. Starring: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Tyne Daly, Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr. Length: 133 minutes.

Acclaimed as the best of the Spiderman movies, this gag-filled romp is great fun. A young Peter Parker/ Spider-Man made a sensational debut in Captain America: Civil War. Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May, and trudges off to the local high school where is regarded as a bit of a nerd. But then the Vulture emerges as a new villain, and Spidey has his hands full.

The Post  Director: Steven Spielberg. Script: Liz Hannah and Josh Singer. Starring: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks. Music: John Williams. Length: 115 minutes.

No one knows better how to make a film about selfconfident moral rectitude than Steven Spielberg. In this gripping drama about a decision by the Washington Post to publish the stolen Pentagon Papers, he highlights the sturdy traditional values of a fearless independent press. It’s particularly relevant in an era of “fake news”. Meryl Streep, as brilliant as ever, plays Kay Graham, the Post’s owner, and Tom Hanks, with his customary air of honest professionalism, the Post’s editor Ben Bradlee. The stakes were high: publishing government documents which revealed that the government had lied about US involvement in Vietnam could have sent Graham and Bradlee to jail and closed the paper. But they put the truth first. A great meal for media junkies. The Lego Batman Movie  Director: Chris McKay. Script: Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jared Stern, John Whittington. Starring: Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, Ralph Fiennes, Siri. Length: 1h 44m

Delirious silliness meets Batman gravitas in this animated film. It’s a real hoot to listen to the voices of well-known actors coming from the clunky Lego blocks. There is a plot, of course, because films are required to have plots, but the main point is riffing on a lifetime of Batman movies. Perhaps parents will enjoy this more than the kids. (Lots of critics have described it as the best of the Batman movies!)

War for Planet of the Apes  Director: Matt Reeves. Script: Mark Bomback, Matt Reeves. Starring: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn. Length: 140 minutes.

This is the third instalment of a franchise which seems to improve with each iteration. In a world where a mutant virus makes apes super-intelligent and kills humans, mankind is on the back foot. Caesar, the apes’ Moses leading them away from danger, has a show-down with a mad, ape-hating, sadistic Colonel with the two armies trying to batter each other into bloody submission. This is a sombre and intelligent film which asks whether homo sapiens really deserves to reign over the planet. Turkey of the year ... and thank your lucky stars you missed it, our nomination for the worst film of the year: The Emoji Movie, an animation about the emojis in your smartphone. “Lacks humor, wit, ideas, visual style, compelling performances, a point of view or any other distinguishing characteristic that would make it anything but a complete waste of your time,” said one critic. Its score on Rotten Tomatoes was 9%. But it grossed US$217 million on a budget of $50 million. With that return on investment, there could be a sequel! This article was originally published on MercatorNet.com under a Creative Commons Licence. If you enjoyed this article, visit MercatorNet.com for more.

Nazareth Family Institute Pre-marriage preparation. Marriage enrichment, restoration & healing. Dates of marriage preparation weekends: 19/20 January 2018 23/24 March 2018 13/14 April 2018 18/19 May 2018 7/8 September 2018 2/3 November 2018 Venue: Avila retreat centre, Donnybrook, Dublin. Extended course: A seven week course by arrangement with the course directors Course director, Peter Perrem 01-2896647 For more information see: www.nazarethfamilyinstitute.net

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