Monsignor, a film
made in 1982—in the midst of a very pro-business administration in Washington,
D.C.—depicts a Vatican steeped in matters of finance centering around a priest
whose degree in finance makes him a prime candidate to be groomed for the Curia.
That cleric, Father John Flaherty, helps the Vatican operating budget during
World War II by involving the Holy See in the black market through a mafia. In
the meantime, he sleeps with a woman who is preparing to be a nun and
subsequently keeps from her the matter of his religious vocation. The twist is
not that Flaherty is a deeply flawed priest, or that the Vatican he serves is
vulnerable to corruption inside, but that those clerics who mercilessly go
after him are devoid of the sort of compassion that their savior preaches.
The full essay is at "Monsignor"
