Recently in Pop Culture Category

 In my defense, I've had computer outages and family reunions and a few days of single-parenthood, which is always a bracing reminder of what many parents go through all the time.

And this weekend it's off for a week's vacation.

Anyway, hence the long absence. Apologies to those who have checked in faithfully, and I'll try to put up a few of the many interesting items that are out there. And maybe some thoughts about family reunions.

We have a couple of main roots, one from France and the other through upstate New Yorkers by the name of Cronkite.

Pax.

Yes, this photo of Obama ostensibly eyeing a young woman (apparently a 17-year-old delegate from Brazil--where are her parents?!) at the G-8 Summit is the hottest Google search item. And of course the question of what Obama was thinking is a leading Fox News story.

So it goes, even as the leaders try to address such minor topics as climate change and world hunger.

God knows Sarkozy, that ol' chien, seems to be leering--quelle surprise, eh? Obama could plausibly be looking elsewhere. Still not quite to the level of, say, Mark Sanford or John Ensign, I think. I confess I'd have looked, if only for the definite "wow" factor the young woman was likely going for.

I was also struck by an odd coincidences, in that as this story popped over the transom I was lifting bits out of Bruce Gordon's grand new bio of John Calvin for a piece on Calvin's 500th birthday, which is today. Gordon tries to dispel some of the myths of Calvin as "an unyielding, moralistic and stone-faced tyrant who rejected all the pleasures of life." And he writes that in his correspondence Calvin "could let drop a line that indicated an eye for beautiful buildings and a well-dressed woman."

Well, Jean Cauvin was French, you know.

Anyway, maybe a shot of Barack with Benedict--should be coming soon--will displace the Girl from Impanema. But don't bet on it.

The folks at CNS put together an awesome "word cloud" of Caritas in Veritate to get to the heart of the matter. Sometimes a graphic is worth a thousand words, or in the case of this encyclical, 30,000.

Here, in an easily searched version. Analysis and excerpts to come.

ENCYCLICAL LETTER
CARITAS IN VERITATE
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS
PRIESTS AND DEACONS
MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS
THE LAY FAITHFUL
AND ALL PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL
ON INTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
IN CHARITY AND TRUTH

 INTRODUCTION

1. Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. Love -- caritas -- is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. Each person finds his good by adherence to God's plan for him, in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free (cf. Jn 8:22). To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity, in fact, "rejoices in the truth" (1 Cor 13:6). All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon them completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan. Indeed, he himself is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6).

2. Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine...

Read it all at the Vatican site in English...

Like too many people, I suspect, I never watched "On the Waterfront" straight through until well into adulthood. And probably just as well, because I could appreciate it--and the labor priest and activist Fr. Pete Barry, played by Karl Malden, who passed away July 1 at the age of 97.

Part of what made the film resonate with me is that I was living in Weehawken at the time, and attending Mass in Hoboken, at Sts. Peter & Paul Church, where interirors of the film were shot. (Exteriors were mainly at Our Lady of Grace a few blocks away.)

But I was also "raised by Jesuits," in a sense, and Malden's portryal was based on the real-life Jesuit, Fr. John Corridan. Remarkably, Malden died 25 years to the day after Corridan, whose New York Times obit is here.

Fordham's Jim Fisher has written extensively about Corridan and "On the Waterfront," and I think has noted that one of the most "Catholic" films of all time had no Catholics involved in its creation: Elia Kazan directed, and Bud Schulberg wrote the script, e.g. But it is based on Corridan's ministry, and captures the reality of that time of American Catholic life.

At America's blog, Fr. Jim Martin has an appreciation, which includes excerpts from this essay by Jim Fisher about Corridan and the fascinating story behind the making of this movie classic:

Between 1951 and 1953 Schulberg produced numerous versions of a Waterfront screenplay while deals for the film project were made, then broken. The renowned director Elia Kazan came on board in 1952. After meeting the street-smart, earthy Corridan at Xavier, Kazan grilled Schulberg: "Are you sure he's a priest? Maybe he's working there for the waterfront rebels in disguise."

Schulberg viewed Corridan as "the antidote to the stereotyped Barry Fitzgerald-Bing Crosby" portrayal of the priesthood "so dear to Hollywood hearts." Corridan agreed and exhorted Kazan and Schulberg to "make a Going My Way with substance."

The project was turned down by every major studio in Hollywood before finally being rescued by independent producer Sam Spiegel. Corridan served as adviser on the film and helped secure clearances from the Port Authority for the use of piers in Hoboken, where the film was shot in late autumn 1953.

He also provided the filmmakers with his speeches and writings on waterfront conditions, including the famous "Christ is on the waterfront" speech he had first presented at a Jersey City chapter of the Knights of Columbus in 1948. In On the Waterfront, Fr. Pete Barry (Karl Malden) provides a stirring rendition of the speech over the body of a slain longshoreman. Kazan and Schulberg refused repeated demands by the producers to shorten the scene, which is the moral core of the film since it persuades longshoreman Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) to follow his conscience and testify against waterfront criminals. 

As Paul Moses noted at dotCommonweal, that speech is as good a social encyclical as any the pope will issue on Tuesday.

Malden had a remarkable career, which is detailed in the NYTimes obit and the LATimes obit.

So where are we with the "rule of threes" in celebrity deaths? David Carradine, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Ed McMahon, now Karl Malden--or is that a myth?!