He is bigoted and corrupt, this Father Julius. He only cares about one thing: chocolate. “Disgusting to use sacred things for such a purpose,” says the film critic of the US Catholic Review. By “holy things” he means the priest, who is played by “Mr. Bean” actor Rowan Atkinson. With the purpose: the current film comedy “Wonka”. According to the critic, the film is “morally unsuitable” for young people.
It is not new that official or self-appointed church representatives have difficulty having fun in a sacred context. When the Monty Python satire “The Life of Brian” came to German cinemas in 1980, the German Catholic Film Commission advised against attending: it was “a satire overloaded with cringeworthy slapstick and jokes”, “cynical and in some cases Scenes offensive to Christians”. Already Pope Pius XI. In his encyclical “Vigilanti cura” (“With vigilant concern”), he called on Catholics to judge films according to Christian standards. In Germany, this has been done for years by the “Filmdienst”, whose founding manifesto from 1947 states that young audiences must be “immunized” against film damage.
But the cinephile masses were never in the mood for “immunization.” People preferred to have fun with Charlie Chaplin in a preacher costume or Fernandel rather than Don Camillo. People laughed when Heinz Rühmann as “Father Brown” investigated or Leopoldo Trieste as the uptight Father Adelfio in “Cinema Paradiso” had the projectionist remove sinful scenes. Even when Paolo Bonacelli, as a priest, collapsed in the back of a taxi as a result of Roberto Benigni’s blasphemous sex confession in Jim Jarmusch’s “Night on Earth,” there was a lot of laughter.
Meanwhile, there is mostly cheerful comedy serenity on the Catholic side (it was more relaxed on the Protestant side anyway). It’s funny when in a scene from “Monsieur Claude and his Daughters” the priest looks at cassocks on the tablet in the confessional instead of being interested in the problems of a believer. He’s only human after all! Even with Rowan Atkinson as a grimacing clergyman (after “Murder in the Rectory”, “Four Weddings and a Funeral” now in “Wonka”) – with the exception of… Catholic Review – resigned. It’s better to reach people through comedy films than not at all.
Pope Francis even calls on his priests explicitly on this, to live the “joyful humanism” of Don Camillo. He also quotes Father Brown inventor Gilbert Keith Chesterton in his speeches. He even welcomed Roberto Benigni recently. Benigni was arrested 40 years ago for “insulting religion.” to a prison sentence To be sentenced. But when he met Francis, he beamed so much that one had to fear that he would immediately tell the Holy Father a frivolous joke.
“A cheerful heart is good for the body,” says the Bible (Proverbs 17:22). It’s wonderful if some religious representatives see it that way today.