Faithful, loving, firm, and strong—this is what every person desires in a father and what every parishioner desires from their local pastor. Look no further than Stephen Fermoyle, the main character of The Cardinal (1963). In a world where subsets of the Catholic faithful have fallen into some version of the “Barney-the-Dinosaur-esque” prosperity gospel, The Cardinal offers a glimpse into what our Great-Grandparents’ Catholicism may have looked like. Catholics living in a post-Christian world hunger for a porthole into the past. The film encapsulated this astoundingly.
Played by Tom Tryon, the film tells the story of how a Catholic priest from Boston confronts bigotry, Nazism, and personal conflicts as he rises to the office of a cardinal. It tackles morale issues, familial faith, race, culture in America, Italians vs. Irish, the Church in Italy’s relationship with the American Church, and much more. The main character does not compromise on his Catholic morals, and the film does not hate him for it. Directed by Otto Preminger, with the Rev. Dr Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) as the liaison officer, it was edifying and invigorating to see an actor in a Roman collar not make a fool of himself.
Something ubiquitously lost in modernity is the lack of “fatherhood.” Men these days are perpetually emasculated by their work, the media they consume, and the secular world. In The Cardinal, men in the Catholic hierarchy lift up each other. Cardinal Glennon’s interaction with Fermoyle is reminiscent of God in the Old Testament. While the modern perspective describes God as angry and evil, he truly loved his chosen people and had to do what he needed to do.
“You Shall Love a Neighbor as Yourself” is a common theme exemplified by not only Stephen Fermoyle but Cardinal Quarenghi and Cardinal Glennon, as well as Fermoyle’s relationship with his sister and family. However, as I described earlier, it is not a hollow platitude used to execrably allow sinful behaviors, as is so often the case with “Barney-style Catholicism.”
Let us remember what Christ said in Matthew 22:37-39, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
There is nothing more hateful than an accessory to a soul’s eternal damnation. Certain church positions may be tough pills to swallow. To that end, let us recall Romans 8:31: “What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us?”
In nearly every modern film, the Catholic Church is shown in a negative light—filled with greed, corruption, scoundrels, and hypocrites—with nothing positive or redeeming about the faithful whatsoever. That said, The Cardinal is a must-watch for those who want to see a Catholic movie in which our faith isn’t ridiculed or derided. Making a morally sound, entertaining movie while being orthodox is entirely possible. Often, it just does not happen because Mammon is Hollywood’s idol.
Requiescat in Pace, Legion of Decency!
I recommend skipping two parts for those sensitive to dancing scenes: one at 50:00 and one at 103:38.
