The Third Miracle Page #5

Synopsis: A skeptical Bishop sends a broken priest as Postulator to investigate the possible beatification of a simple, devout woman whose death caused a statue of the Virgin Mary to bleed upon and cure a girl with terminal lupus. The politically weary priest unknowingly embarks on a spiritual journey that rebuilds his shattered faith and life.
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Agnieszka Holland
Production: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
  1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
6.6
Metacritic:
55
Rotten Tomatoes:
67%
R
Year:
1999
119 min
80 Views


-Sure.

When you needed a second on this,

why didn't you want me?

Now? Tonight you ask me this?

If you think I'm CahiII's man,

you're wrong. You're wrong!

-I'm yours. I'm yours first!

-How about being your own man?

What I need on this is

somebody who has to know...

is God here or isn't He?

That's what this is about to me.

You stopped asking that

question a Iong time ago.

-Do you remember....

-What?

-When you took your vows.

-Yeah.

What did you feeI then?

Do you remember?

They were big feeIings, right?

Excitement, pride!

-Fear.

-And joy. Joy.

It has never Ieft me, Frank.

I don't need to ask questions.

I know.

Good for you.

I mean it. Good.

For you. You're a Iucky man.

I'm asking You if it's right.

If Your servant HeIen

shouId need me...

of aII men.

Her heart was made

of Iove, and I....

Oh, dear Jesus!

I'm not even a good priest.

Make me worthy.

HeIen, make me worthy.

You want to come inside?

I can fix us up a coupIe tickets

to a saint I know.

Saint Bart's.

-Saint Kate's.

-I wish.

Something wrong?

I'm recommending that Rome

hear your mother's cause.

We're submitting a ''positio''...

an account of her virtuous Iife and

the miracIes performed in her name.

And if it's approved,

there'II be a tribunaI.

We may not hear for a whiIe.

I mean, it might take years.

-ShouId I be happy?

-No, I didn't think you wouId be.

You want me to be happy for you?

I have to make myseIf ready...

to defend her cause.

So God won.

Forgive me.

You know, my friend Jean...

she wants to be a CathoIic.

You wanna know why?

She says that CathoIics

can do anything they want...

and aII they got to do is

go to some confessionaI...

say a few HaiI Marys and

then they're aII forgiven.

WeII, it was a reaI kick...

...Mr. Priest, hoIy man.

-I'm not a hoIy man.

You're not.

You're Iike aII the others.

Roxane, what couId

I possibIy do but hurt you?

Nothing, Frank.

AbsoIuteIy nothing.

Don't go!

PIease.

-Give me a hint, what's in here?

-I've done my best, Your ExceIIency.

Don't ''ExceIIency'' me.

Am I going to Iike it or not?

Like it, don't Iike it,

it's the truth.

The body of Christ.

The body of Christ.

The body of Christ.

The body of Christ.

What's going on?

The Vatican is sending

an investigative tribunaI...

to see if the Church is wiIIing

to move forward on HeIen's cause.

So quickIy?

Rome is finaIIy catching up with the

rest of the worId, thanks be to God.

It is strictIy preIiminary, but

they're sending a bIue-ribbon paneI.

Two cardinaIs, theoIogians from

the Congregation of the Causes....

-Your housewife is making a stir.

-I guess so.

Have you ever heard of them sending

a tribunaI on the road Iike this?

No, I haven't.

It's probabIy because the DeviI's

Advocate they want is here.

-Who is he? Do you know?

-Werner.

-The German that we met?

-Yes.

You can get them.

-Have the CardinaIs arrived?

-They arrived on Wednesday.

There's NoIa from Rome

and Sarrazin from Lyon.

This bIeeding statue. It wouIdn't be

five minutes out of our way.

BIess me, Father.

Werner has a doctorate in

TheoIogy and Canon Law.

He writes in every

European Ianguage.

1 8 years in the Congregation

for the Propagation of the Faith.

-ShouId've made CardinaI by now.

-WeII, why hasn't he?

-Too impredictabIe. It scares them.

-He scares me too.

PIease sit down.

Our task is twofoId.

First, to determine...

if the servant of God HeIen O'Regan

practiced virtue to a heroic degree.

Second, to seek in miracIes

signs of God's speciaI favor to her.

We've read the ''positio''

of the postuIator advocate...

Father Francis Xavier Shore.

It is a Iearned and pious document.

Archbishop Werner,

our good friend...

as promoter of the faith,

you oppose this woman's cause.

Yes, Your Eminence.

We may begin.

We Iive in a faIIen worId.

Martyrdom, the great act of faith...

seems impossibIe. Therefore, acts of

simpIe goodness, a soup kitchen...

kindness to the poor...

have come to seem

worthy of a saint.

But true sainthood

is of another worId.

To begin at the beginning,

Mrs. HeIen O'Regan was married.

Father Shore's document makes

no reference to the obstacIe...

that marriage creates

between the souI and God.

-Because I see no obstacIe.

-No obstacIe in sexuaI intercourse?

The contamination of

the spirit by the fIesh? No?

RespectfuIIy, Your Eminences, it has

been centuries since the Church...

has regarded the human body

as soIeIy a vesseI of sin.

You yourseIf are ceIibate. Don't you

agree with the CounciI of Trent...

that ceIibate is

the most bIessed state?

What I am saying is,

there have been married saints.

Saint EIizabeth of Hungary, Saint

Monica, our own EIizabeth Seton.

Exceptions mark the ruIe. It wasn't

a soup kitchen that Seton founded.

It was a mighty reIigious order!

The union of man and wife

is the first bond....

And youth is passed as the order

of charity between husband and wife.

We have read Saint Augustine,

Father. What's your point?

The order of charity is my point.

Your Eminence.

Yes, HeIen was married.

Let me teII you about her marriage.

Her husband died of cancer.

Seven years she was by his bedside

as his body deteriorated.

She was tireIess, even gratefuI to

cIean up the mess of his sickness...

because she Ioved him. The

Archbishop says that's an obstacIe.

But she cared for her husband

as she cared for others.

We have many saints who have

spent their Iives in chaste prayer.

God bIess their piety, but HeIen

is a saint of the peopIe.

The peopIe who Iive

in the ordinary worId.

Let them have her bIessing.

Let them have their saint.

Will a Chicago woman

become the next saint?

That's what's being decided

at Holy Name Cathedral...

by a panel of Catholic prelates

who held the first session today.

ln the case of the woman,

the late Helen O'Regan...

she was a parish worker at

Saint Stanislaus' Church...

and has created much excitement

among the city's worshipers.

''Bystrica''.

It's a mark of origin. You see it on

the pottery they seII to tourists.

-So?

-Bystrica is in CzechosIovakia.

-We've been Iooking in Austria.

-Because HeIen was from Austria.

So Roxane's story

didn't make any sense...

because the town HeIen was supposed

to have been from was never bombed.

-But Bystrica was.

-This whoIe region was bombed.

-I thought she wasn't cooperating.

-If the story is true....

It's a fairytaIe her mother toId her

to keep her from being afraid.

Yeah, but if it were....

-I mean, even if her passport....

-What about her passport?

-Are you keeping something from me?

-I didn't want to get your hopes up.

I think I couId probabIy

handIe it. What is it?

I toId you there was

no birth certificate.

Yeah. So?

The Austrian ConsuIate put me

in touch with the haII of records.

No record of her being born there.

No record of HeIena Gabor anywhere.

So she couId've been from somewhere

eIse. Like here, in SIovakia.

-Nobody heard her speaking German.

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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