PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International
June 7, 2019
By Robert Mickens
“If you want to be priest, lie!”
That was supposed to be a punch line in “Mass Appeal,” a comedy-drama written by American Catholic playwright Bill C. Davis.
First staged in 1980, it was made into a film four years later.In the screen version Jack Lemmon stars as Father Tim Farley, a popular pastor of an affluent parish in Connecticut. He’s a friendly, feel-good type of priest whose homilies are carefully designed to avoid challenging or upsetting his generous parishioners.
Fr. Farley drives a late-model Mercedes-Benz, loves his wine and Scotch, and spends his day-off at the racetrack. He is “considered to be one of the best priests” in the diocese.
One day he’s asked to mentor Mark Dolson (Željko Ivanek), a highly idealistic young deacon who risks being blocked from priestly ordination because he hasn’t toed the line in the seminary.
Mark’s main offence is that he strongly defended two seminarians that were expelled for a suspected homosexual relationship.
The seminary rector (Charles Durning) thus suspects Mark is also gay.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.