Ever feel like you are in a prison where only you seem to realize that everything is amiss? Yeah, me too.

I recently started re-watching the 1960s British mini-series, "The Prisoner."  It turns out that its suave "British" star was born in Queens, NY and raised in Ireland!  Though famous for playing spies, his own life was a far, far cry from the likes of 007.  In 2009 when Patrick McGoohan died, he and his wife - to whom he wrote love letters every day - had been married 57 years!  More than a half century after it was made, The Prisoner continues to attract audiences.  It is a cerebral show, which inspires serious philosophical reflection (cf, Matthew Archbold, National Catholic Register, 1/12/16).

"[Patrick] McGoohan was a devout Catholic.....

"At the time The Prisoner went into production, Patrick McGoohan was the highest-paid actor in British television. He was the star of Danger Man (shown in the United States as Secret Agent), in which he played a spy by the name of John Drake. But Drake was no James Bond knock-off. Danger Man premiered on September 11, 1960, almost two years before the release of the first Bond film, Dr. No. Incidentally, McGoohan was the first actor offered the part of Bond, but he turned it down. He felt that Bond’s womanizing and killing were immoral....

"Here is the premise: A secret agent—whose name is never revealed in the entire series—angrily resigns his job and prepares to leave the U.K. on holiday. Unbeknownst to him, however, he is followed home by a man in a hearse, who knocks him unconscious using some kind of gas. When the secret agent awakens, he is in his own bedroom, but when he looks out the window, he finds that he is in a strange, cosmopolitan little town. He discovers that he is being held prisoner in this place, which is known only as 'the Village.' No one is referred to by name, only by number. The inhabitants wear colorful costumes, and spend a good deal of time parading and having fun, yet they are all curiously soulless. Underneath the Village is a complex of underground control rooms, from which a vast bureaucracy watches the Villagers’ every move using sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment....

"there is one thing conspicuously absent from the Village: a church. The Villagers are devoid of any spiritual dimension. They are happy, healthy, well-fed humanoids, with an army of psychologists at the ready to drug away their every doubt and blue mood....

"the Village also seems to be hostile to marriage, sex, and procreation....

"Without preaching to us, without ever mentioning religion, McGoohan invites us to rise above our No. 1, and turn our souls toward the Real Boss" (Collin Cleary, 2002)

We have recently learned that one of the princes of the Church rose to great power, while authorities may have put their hands over their ears to reports of his debaucheries.  In our own government, we seem ready to uncritically embrace unsubstantiated tales against those with whom we disagree.   This is madness!  Yet, we live amongst people who continue to wear "colorful costumes, and spend a good deal of time parading and having fun...[seemingly] soulless."

When "The Prisoner" was re-made in 2009, it is interesting to note that it again starred a devout Catholic.