by Ryan Pangilinan

The Exorcist...or how Dogma made me feel good to be a Catholic again - by Ryan Pangilinan

So this weekend I did something that my parish would probably excommunicate me for, I saw Dogma. The fourth film from Kevin Smith’s ever-so-popular post Gen-X series (which also includes Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy), Dogma tackles Catholicism, and although it gets a tad bit crude (thanks in part to the vulgar character of Jay), it was for the most part...sweet.

Most of the protesters of Dogma have only heard about the movie through word-of-mouth via priests and the Catholic League’s pressure for the movie’s original distributor, Miramax/Disney, to drop the film, which they did. Without knowing what the contents of the actual film was, most of my fellow Catholics set out to destroy Smith, who is Catholic himself. That did not really sit tight with me.

(This is the spoiler part of this editorial, so I hope you’ve watched the movie already.) What the movie really says that beyond all factions of Christianity, all doctrines created by man, and all religious bickering, what really matters is your true faith in God (or a god/ supernatural force, for all my non-Christian friends out there).

Dogma was able to voice what many disillusioned Catholics such as myself feel. Why should we believe in the Bible, a book that claims to be centuries old, yet has no doubt been tampered with by man? Why should I go to Sunday mass to hear how I’m going to hell from another human being just because he wears a white collar? Why should I put money in the basket? To me, Catholicism is not logical and there are too many issues that contradict with today’s society for me to take heed. The only thing that does matter is my relationship with God. Aside from gun-toting renegade angels (kudos to Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, by the way), and the "Shit-Demon," Dogma was a very pro-Catholic film and the Catholic League should praise it, as opposed to shatter it and the credibility of Smith.

I am now able to enjoy conversations with my family, most of whom are Baptists, regarding religion, and I don’t have to feel shunned, as I did before. Creating a comfort zone for those in my position, albeit in a strange way, Dogma speaks volumes for those Catholics who love God, but feel liberated by a thing called humanity. That is the only dogma that priests may worry about.

Ryan Pangilinan used to go to school at St. Mark’s in Seattle before Californian public school corrupted him. He is also writing a screenplay for Karate Kid 2000.