FILMS AND BOOKS

Every time Mark Wahlberg’s Stuart Long fumbled through being the nuances of being Catholic on the big screen, a theater full of Catholics laughed uproariously. The audience was touched by more serious moments in Wahlberg’s biopic “Father Stu” during a premiere of the film at the Harkins Camelview at Scottsdale Fashion Square April 8.

Mark Wahlberg, the star of the biopic “Father Stu” set to open in theaters on Good Friday, has been very vocal about his Catholic faith in recent years. Wahlberg was so committed to making the film about the late atheist boxer and actor who became a Catholic priest and lived his priesthood with an incurable muscular degenerative disease, that he partially financed it himself.

The worst day in the late Father Stuart Long’s life was the day the rector at Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict, Oregon, told him that he would not be recommending him for ordination. Father Long’s inclusion body myositis — a rare, incurable autoimmune disease affecting the muscular system that eventually took his life in 2014 — had progressed to the point where the rector was concerned whether the seminarian would be able to carry out his sacramental duties as a priest.

Catholic actor Mark Wahlberg, who plays the title role in the upcoming movie "Father Stu," said the real-life Montana priest is "having me continuing to carry on his message."

A Catholic priest and former broadcast media journalist has produced a film about the sacrament of penance as way to raise awareness about the oft-neglected practice of confession.

The following books are suitable for summer reading.

Between Pope Francis and retired Pope Benedict XVI, there is "continuity of magisterium and particularity in pastoral style," but even more, there is "a living communion of affection."

The new film "Fatima" is a fact-based drama that recounts what may rank as the most remarkable series of religious events of modern times.

World War II drama follows the captain of a U.S. destroyer (Tom Hanks, who also wrote the screenplay) as, over a period of five days, the convoy of troop transports and supply ships his vessel is helping to protect passes across the area of the North Atlantic beyond the reach of Allied air support. The skipper's Christian faith is prominent in Hanks' script, adapted from C.S. Forrester's 1955 novel "The Good Shepherd."

NEW YORK (CNS) — Moviegoers anticipating the feature film about the story of the children of Fatima will have to wait a few more months to see the famous miracle story on the big screen.