Friday, May 20, 2005
Passion, faith fuel search for truth, respect
Joanne Weintraub wrote in yesterday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on two upcoming television specials involving natives of small-town Wisconsin.
And if the title "Holy Water-Gate" doesn't deter you, the program will be shown again next Wednesday.
No surprise there. There must be enough material around for a sequel to Paul Wilkes' The Education of an Archbishop. I'd suggest The Education of an Archdiocese as a working title.
Then a new pharmacist comes to town, and he's rumored to be a Jew, and she's read and heard the Jews described as the people who killed Christ. That started her toward an eventual career.
Not really. ¶ 5/20/2005 07:50:00 PM
Of the two, [Peter] Isely is probably better known in Milwaukee, a result of his high-profile work as a spokesman for the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
His story, along with those of other abuse victims, is told in "Holy Water-Gate: Abuse Cover-up in the Catholic Church," which makes its American TV debut tonight on Showtime.
And if the title "Holy Water-Gate" doesn't deter you, the program will be shown again next Wednesday.
Isely came forward with his claims in 1989, sought a meeting with then-Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee and was rebuffed.
No surprise there. There must be enough material around for a sequel to Paul Wilkes' The Education of an Archbishop. I'd suggest The Education of an Archdiocese as a working title.
The other Wisconsinite is Sister Rose Thering.
In "Sister Rose's Passion," a nominee for best documentary short at this year's Academy Awards, Thering describes growing up in a farming community where everyone was white and - with the exception of a single Protestant family - Roman Catholic.
Then a new pharmacist comes to town, and he's rumored to be a Jew, and she's read and heard the Jews described as the people who killed Christ. That started her toward an eventual career.
The passion of the film's title is her advocacy for Judaism as a respected elder sibling of Christianity, not its enemy.
The latter interpretation, Thering believes, is at the root of the anti-Semitism that ultimately led to the Holocaust and other horrors.
Not really. ¶ 5/20/2005 07:50:00 PM
