Reflections on Faith, Feasts, and Film

By Fr. Scott Archer April 5, 2026 “He is risen” (Mk. 16:6). On that first Easter morning, the holy women came to the tomb of Our Lord. Mary Magdalen, Mary of Clopas, and the other women from Galilee had watched carefully where the body of Jesus had been laid. After His burial they returned to the city to prepare spices and ointments, intending to come again and anoint His sacred body. However, they first rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. Meanwhile the chief priests, still filled with fear and malice, went to Pontius Pilate. They asked that the tomb be guarded, lest the disciples steal away the body and claim that Christ had risen. Pilate granted their request, and soldiers were placed at the tomb. Yet all of this could not prevent what God had decreed. Early on Sunday morning Mary Magdalen came to the tomb—perhaps even before the others had arrived—and she saw that the stone had already been rolled away. The body of Our Lord was gone. Without yet meeting the other wom...

By Fr. Scott Archer April 14, 2024 “The good Shepherd giveth His life for His sheep” (Jn. 10:11). 112 years ago today, the Titanic struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic. One passenger aboard that fateful ship, one which Pope St. Pius X would call a martyr for the Church, was Father Thomas Byles. He was raised in a Protestant family in Yorkshire, England. Like his brother William, he eventually converted to the Catholic faith. He attended the Beda College in Rome and was ordained to the priesthood on June 15, 1902. His trip to America on the Titanic was prompted by the upcoming wedding of his brother William, at which he was asked to officiate. William had moved to New York to run a rubber business and fallen in love with Katherine Russell of Brooklyn. He was able to make arrangements with Captain Smith to offer Mass for the passengers since he had brought a portable altar stone and all accessories. On Sunday morning, April 14, 1912, Father Byles offered what would be his last...

Review by Fr. Scott Archer March 8, 2024 Cabrini is an amazing addition to Catholic filmography. In the capable hands of director Alejandro Monteverde, who cowrote the screenplay with Rod Barr, it takes us on the journey of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini from her convent in Lombardy, where she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to her first foundations in New York. It is the story of how she overcame opposition from both ecclesiastical and civic authorities to establish her empire of hope. The stunning cinematography by Gorka Gómez Andreu brings the viewer into 19 th century New York in a way few cinematographers have done. Every frame is a work of art, inviting the audience into the dismal world of Catholic Italian immigrants. The tragedy of their plight, as well as the work of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, is underscored with authentic set decoration by Stephanie Q. Bown. The brilliant original score by Gene Back adds emotion to the urgency of her mission, p...

By Father Scott Archer February 11, 2024 “And they understood none of those things…” (Lk 18:24). On February 11, 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, the eldest child of François and Louise Soubirous of Lourdes, France, was sent to gather firewood with her sister Toinette and their friend, Jean Abadie. Toinette and Jean had crossed the canal in front of the grotto of Massabielle, which connects to the river Gave, while Bernadette started removing her shoes and stockings to do the same. It was then that she heard a blast like a gust of wind. She looked toward the Gave and noticed the poplar trees were quite still. Hearing the sound again, she looked up to a dark niche in the grotto, where a light suddenly emanated and, in the light, stood a beautiful young Lady in a white dress, the bottom of which covered most of her bare feet, save for the tips, which were adorned with gold roses. She wore a long white veil, a blue sash was about her waist, and she held a rosary. The Lady smiled in welcome. Th...

By Father Scott Archer January 22, 2023 “Be not overcome by evil” (Rom. 12:21). Christ came to our world that we might not be overcome by evil but freed from our slavery to sin. By His Cross He destroyed the power the devil, the flesh, and the world have over us because sanctifying grace makes us holy and pleasing to God. Of the many evils we face in the world, perhaps the gravest is the unjust killing of the most innocent; that is, the unborn. Many speak of the rights of individuals or groups of people; however, if we are to have any genuine rights at all, the fundamental human right to life must be upheld by society. The life of infants in the womb is central to an authentic respect for human dignity because these innocents have no voice but those who seek to protect them. Those advocating the opposite position will raise objections and argue about when life begins, the circumstances of conception, and the life of the mother. First, science is quite clear when life begins. A ne...

By Father Scott Archer November 6, 2022 “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mt. 22:21). Father John Hunwicke recently wrote about the spirit of the age and the attempt to to set up a rival to Christ the King. One of the greatest threats to our living as authentic Christians is the temptation to conform to the spirit of the age, the spirit of the world, and it has deceived many Christians into thinking life would be better and the world more accepting of them if they compromised with sin. This has been a temptation since the very beginning. Christians were once required to worship the Roman emperor as a god and to offer a pinch of incense before his image. If they did so, they would live, if not, they would be killed. How easy it seemed, and many compromised. St. Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, did not. He said, “Eighty and six years I have served Him and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and Sa...