Spoiler Alert ….
Most weekends, my husband and I watch the movies. Today, he felt like watching “Priest” and he says it is a movie about a priest who is for the RH Bill.
I knew he was kidding “Aww really?” I quickly searched for a synopsis.
Apparently, the movie is an adaptation of a Tokyopop graphic novel, Bettany’s Priest with a cross emblazoned on his forehead. The priest tries to rescue his kidnapped niece with the help of her boyfriend (Cam Gigandet), a warrior priestess (Maggie Q, ““Nikita”) and a sheriff (Stephen Moyer, ““True Blood”).
I love thriller movies but I wasn’t sure if I wanted the horror part of the movie- the vampires. Still, we went to watch it in 3D at Eastwood Cinema 6.
As the movie unfolded with my eyes closed at times, I thought my husband was probably right when he kidded me that the movie is about a priest who is pro-RH bill.
Though the Catholic Church does not say this quote , “To go against the church is to go against God” , I feel sometimes it is implied when the RH Bill is being debated.
In the movie, the protagonist is a good and tough priest and a warrior in an alternative universe. The priest is a metaphor for the fight between good and evil. Even good guys can be corrupted or destroyed by the dark side like Black Hat, the head of the vampires (who used to be a priest).
The good versus evil is also seen in the institution such as the Church in the movie.
The Church was initially good. The Church unleashes ““the Priests,” humans with super-human-like reflexes, who drive the vampires into exile. They protected them from the vampires but later on, got corrupted by their own power by invoking their infallibility, “To go against the church is to go against God” .
The head of the church (in the movie) insisted there were no more vampires but the priest didn’t think so. The Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on an obsessive quest to find her niece, Lucy before they turn her into one of the vampires. I will leave it at that so there are no more spoilers.
The movie got me thinking that there are probably many Catholics that are conflicted and/or have left their faith because of disagreement with certain teachings such as Humanae Vitae (Latin “Of Human Life”) , an encyclical written by Pope Paul VI and re-affirms the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church regarding married love, responsible parenthood, and lawful and unlawful ways of regulating birth.
The Catholic Church in the Philippines are still in denial when it comes to the need for the RH Bill. It has always been referred to as “evil” during the homily by some priests.
Priest , the movie just struck me as having so many similarities with the way some bishops of the Philippine Catholic Church particularly the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) are exerting authority over its faithful.
Let me give you just one example out of many. Last April 27, San Pablo (Laguna) Vicar General Msgr. Melchor Barcenas said RH bill advocates are using “tactics of Satan.”
“In this fight against RH Bill, our true enemies are not the people (who proposed it) but Satan. It is the evil that is manipulating the minds of all (pro RH Bill Congressmen) or those higher ups in the world. This is the reason why it is difficult to fight this enemy,” he said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines news site last April.
There goes Satan again.
Just watch the movie.