EL CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO  

by Mary M. Gilvarry  

 It is a film that is an expose of the Catholic Church in Mexico.  At the beginning of the movie, a young man is taking his first place as priest in a rural parish.  He is shown as kindly, idealistic and trying to be temperate in the politics and the money doings here.  Then he finds his own weaknesses.  The love interest involves the young priest with a teenager.  He impregnates her and then helps in getting her to an abortion.  The young woman dies.      The movie's last scene is that of the funeral Mass, which the young man is celebrating:  A beautiful and colorful altar area with high rounded ceiling and there is the young man in a purple vestment proceeding with the Mass.  He starts with "I confess" of a group confession, pauses for a moment at the finish and then closes with the memorial words of the mass.

(Place: Foyer of the theater immediately after the showing)   

"Isn't he a bastard?" 

It was an elderly woman speaking at the exit to the above picture in the short hallway.  She was speaking to the woman in front of her, who was stopping for the bathroom line that was already formed at this side of the lobby.      The other woman was more restrained.  She made her own dramatic statement. "Our love is special, special, special."  All three of us laughed, including myself.  We were all elderly woman and European with a common emotional experience for the last two hours.  There had been no more than a dozen people in the theater for the film and these two woman seemed to have linkups with another two women lined up for the bathroom.    

  I commented, 

"Can I share too?  That film packs an emotional wallop."     

 The first lady said with contempt:

 "He wouldn't consider leaving the church and starting out again. "But then he would be a nobody, maybe a peasant and have to till the fields."    

 Another woman cut in:

 "He could have been a teacher.  He was well spoken. He had options."But he wanted to be a priest, that's what he wanted to do.   The ego strokes of the priesthood can be hard to give up.  You're special in these Catholic villages, in yourself, once you're part of the clergy, not like the woman who has to have a special relationship. They made sure to select a handsome 'good guy' for the role.  He was so sensitive and was trying so hard to do good by everyone until he fell."     

 The film was over and the afternoon was ending too.  We all had to go our separate ways and that was the end of that group, but what are the ramification of that Mexican film, here and in Mexico.  It has been a box office hit in Mexico and has caused riots, but don't forget it is in Spanish.  It seems that the complexities of a culture and certainly the conflicts have been put on film. What happens when a wide-ranging view finder is focused anytime on a way of life.  We will see.