"Becket" & Its Lessons for Our Day

A USCCB review explains that 1964's Becket is

• "The 12th-century saga...of the deep friendship and later conflict between England's King Henry II...and his friend, Sir Thomas a Becket..., and how their days of drinking and womanizing came to an end when the monarch decided to appoint Becket archbishop of Canterbury. Much to Henry's surprise, Becket was transformed into a deeply spiritual man of God, who took his new responsibilities very seriously....The film charts how Becket went head-to-head with the king over the vigilante murder of an erring priest by one of Henry's knights. Henry's famous despairing cry, `Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?' -- leads to Becket's martyrdom in his cathedral."

Becket starred Richard Burton, at the peak of his film career, as well as Peter O'Toole. It received 12 Academy Award nominations & the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. As per a 2007 review (which originally appeared on Amazon.com), "While the Catholic Encyclopedia agrees [with the USCCB review] on much of the details, there are several noteworthy differences:

• "The Catholic Encyclopedia seems to indicate that Thomas' conversion was somewhat less dramatic, and that his pre-archbishop years were chaste (or at least more so than what the movie indicates).
• "The Catholic Encyclopedia mentions nothing about the unnamed priest's alleged crime. Yet, it does indicate that Thomas strongly opposed Henry's effort 'to bring clerics guilty of crimes under the jurisdiction of the secular courts.' Looking back over the scandals of the past few years, one result seems that - in our own time - the secular world is again exercising too much jurisdiction over clerics (My own opinion, of course).
• "The Catholic Encyclopedia mentions nothing about Henry's famous line. It also indicates that Henry's culpability for Thomas' murder is not clear."

Under pressure from the media and the Philadelphia D.A., 21 priests - none of whom, to my knowledge, has been criminally charged - have been placed on administrative leave by the archdiocese. Now, St. Thomas was absolutely NOT in favor of whitewashing alleged crimes committed by priests, but he was not about to let the King push around the Church! "It was with him simply a question of principle. St. Thomas seems all along to have suspected Henry of a design to strike at the independence of what the king regarded as a too powerful Church."

Parish promotion and discussion of Becket would seem to be incredibly timely.