Over the past few weeks, as I’ve been listening to all the coverage of Congressman Weiner’s transgressions, I’ve realized that we’re at a crossroads.

Read more here.

I just posted a piece at CatholicVote.org commenting on a provocative column by LZ Granderson (CNN & ESPN) in which he raises the excellent question of why we rightly criticize high-profile men for misbehaving, but never their complicit and willing partners. Apparently, even in an age when women can behave as badly as men, there are still double standards. Read more here.

Saw the new film Bridesmaids. If you’ve been in a wedding party, especially if you’re a woman, you will identify with some hilarious aspects of the film. But, while the actors are all great comedians and we’re long overdue for seeing women take the lead in comedies, this movie is deeply conflicted…not unlike the situation of contemporary women. Read more here.

Director Roland Joffe’s new film There Be Dragons hits the screens today. The film is about Manolo (Wes Bentley), a man who grows up with his childhood friend Josemaria Escriva (Charlie Cox), the founder of Opus Dei. Two men with similar backgrounds make very different life choices and, yet, they are alike. The film also stars Bond-girl Olga Kurylenko.

I saw some early versions of TBD since I was doing some communications work for one of the contractors. (Joffe’s masterpiece The Mission is one of my favorite films.) So I’m interested to see the final version on the big screen. Definitely on the weekend agenda.

It’s also a different portrayal of Opus Dei. Forget the albino monk of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. Even though this is a fictional account, it presents a very real and engaging character in Josemaria.

An Opus Dei priest, Fr. John Wauck, was involved as a consultant on the film and it looks like his good advice was heard.

The Wall Street Journal’s David Gibson has an interesting review of the movie here. He goes beyond the movie to bigger issues affecting the Catholic Church:

The late John Paul II was one of those who championed the society, and as Opus Dei flourished it became a more confident, open and mainstream movement in the church. Opus Dei’s strategy of public engagement in the wake of “The Da Vinci Code” phenomenon was a model of public relations, especially for a church that can seem to make a doctrine of defensiveness.

Many of us lament the fact that there are “no good movies” being released. Here’s one. Make it a point to get to the theater this weekend to help the box office results!

I once had a private tour of part of the apostolic palace (Vatican) and when I was shown a private chapel sometimes used by the Vatican State Department. (I think the frescoes may have been done by Michelangelo, but I haven’t been able to verify it.) Anyway, one of the frescoes features a depiction of St. Catherine of Siena telling Pope Gregory XI to leave Avignon, where a succession of Popes had been for almost 70 years, and get back to Rome. My guide made wry comment about that being one of the last times a woman was able to tell a Pope what to do.

Anyway, today is her feast and if you’re in Rome, you can visit the altar where she is buried in the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (Gothic church behind the Pantheon). The back of the altar is open on her feast so that the faithful can touch her tomb/casket/sarcophagus as they venerate her. Her head is in Siena, somewhat incorrupt.

Sigrid Undset wrote a very good and intense biography of Catherine. I call it intense because it really made me examine my own spiritual life. Normally, I read through books very quickly, especially if I like them. This one, however, I liked but I couldn’t plow through.

After Pope Gregory, Catherine advised Pope Urban VI who had her come from Siena to Rome so that he could rely more readily on her advice. Undset quotes Urban speaking to the cardinals:

“See, brothers, how guilty we must appear to God because we are without courage. This little woman puts us to shame. And when I call her a little woman [piccola donzella] I do not do so out of scorn, but because her sex is by nature fearful; but see how we tremble while she is strong and calm, and see how she consoles us with her words. How could the Vicar of Christ be afraid even though the whole world rise against him? Christ is stronger than the whole world, and it is impossible for Him to fail His Church.”

Sure, I’m not crazy about how he describes the female sex as “fearful by nature,” but I like how he exalts Catherine’s strength, a feminine strength of which I think the Church offers us many examples which deserve greater attention.

Here’s to yet another example of the feminine genius of which John Paul II wrote. Paul VI declared her a doctor of the Church, along with St. Teresa of Avila. St. Therese of Liseux was also made a doctor.*

(*I failed to mention Teresa of Avila in an earlier version of this post.)

Buona festa!