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“The Catholics” (1973): A Trad Film Ahead of Its Time

Tradition and Sanity

A modernist Vatican in pursuit of ecumenism and worldly ideology, determined to stamp out the Latin Mass. The peremptory order to adopt a new Mass in English, facing the people, in the name of “obedience.” Faithful priests and laity resisting and drawing Rome’s ire. Wolves in sheep’s clothing. As similar as this may sound to the current situation in the Church, I am actually referring to the plot of the 1973 TV film The Catholics, directed by Jack Gold and starring Trevor Howard and Martin Sheen. Based on the novel Catholics written by Brian Moore a year earlier, the film (which is in the public domain and viewable in its entirety here) depicts the inevitable clash between Tradition and Modernism which has come to characterize the Church since the Second Vatican Council. While intended to be fictional, the storyline is eerily prophetic of today’s post-Traditionis Custodes landscape, which has so much in common with the post-Vatican II chaos familiar to the film’s first audiences. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.traditionsanity.com/subscribe