Last July, I decided to devote the last week of July to a religious movie and I plan on carrying on that tradition this year by focusing on one of my favorite movies The Scarlet and the Black.

The movie takes place in Nazi occupied Rome in the year 1943. Colonel Herbert Kappler was just made head of the SS Police in Rome. His main political goals are to capture escaped allied prisoners of war and to help the Gestapo round up as many Jews as possible. His main personal goal is to enjoy all the delights of Rome with his family. Colonel Kappler discovered in the movie that his goals would be harder to accomplish than he thought because of an Irish monsignor working in the Vatican. His name is Msgr. O’Flaherty. In addition to his day job in the Vatican serving Pius XII, Msgr. O Flaherty ran an impressive underground operation that hid both allied soldiers and Jewish people throughout Rome and its countryside.

Eventually Colonel Kappler discovered that Msgr. O’Flaherty was in charge of a large underground group whose mission was to hide escaped Allied soldiers and Jews. Colonel Kappler ordered his men to shoot Msgr. O’Flaherty the moment he leaves the Vatican. He also personally kills two close friends of Msgr. O’Flaherty in order to try to get the Irish Monsignor to leave the Vatican.

Eventually the Germans, including Kappler realize that the Allied advanced is too much and they are going to have to surrender Rome to the Allies. Kappler becomes very afraid that the people of the city will kill his family and he has no one else to turn to for help except O’Flaherty. He informs O’Flaherty that he does not want O’Flaherty’s forgiveness but he does want him to save his family. At first O’Flaherty refuses but eventually he helps smuggle his family to safety.

Kappler is eventually captured by the Allies and convicted of war crimes. He is sentenced to life in prison. He only has one visitor (every month without fail); O Flaherty visits him and eventually brings him into the Church.

The first spiritual insight I have from the movie is what a blessing it is to be a Catholic in the United States at this time. From time to time we Catholic complain about our government or culture for persecuting us for practicing our faith and there is some truth in that, however we do not have it nearly as bad as Catholics who have and live under totalitarian systems like Nazis Germany and Communist Russia. The courage that O’Flaherty and others had should inspire us to use the freedom that we have to stand up even louder for our Catholic Faith and the things that we believe in for example the dignity of human life.

The second spiritual insight from the movie comes in the end when Kappler and O’Flaherty are speaking in the Roman Coliseum. Kappler begins to spew out a lot of Third Reich propaganda and O’Flaherty points out to him that there have been many human institutions before declaring that they would last forever but only the Catholic Church has survived. In fact the Roman Emperors have come and gone and the Catholics who they use to torture are growing strong today.

The third spiritual insight I have from the movie is no soul is ever too far gone and no sin is too great. Eventually Kappler is converted.

The fourth spiritual insight is that times of conflicts are times for heroes. When things got tough Msgr. O’Flaherty stepped up and his small organization saved thousands of lives. They did what they knew was right.