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I had never seen the Paulist Productions’ film “Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story” until Monday night. Considering the movie was released in 1996, that’s saying something.
This week’s special screening, sponsored along with Paulist-run St. Paul the Apostle Church in Manhattan, took place just across town from St. Paul’s in the gem of a theater inside Lighthouse International on East 59th Street. It was billed as an opportunity “to honor the life and ministry of Dorothy Day and promote her cause for sainthood,” and it was all that and more.
You couldn’t walk more than a few feet at the pre-screening reception without running into a Paulist priest, and archdiocesan clergy were also on hand in long supply. Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo, the archdiocesan chancellor and postulator of Dorothy Day’s cause, was there, as was Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, executive director of Catholic Charities. Father Gil Martinez, C.S.P., the pastor of St. Paul the Apostle, was also there, and Father James DiLuzio, C.S.P., a missionary priest and actor whom I met for the first time.
The evening’s host was Father Eric Andrews, C.S.P., president of Paulist Productions, who proved quite capable at the microphone, both in introductory remarks and in post-screening interviews with the actor Moira Kelly, who portrayed Dorothy Day in “Entertaining Angels,” and with the film’s director Michael Rhodes.
Though now stationed in California, Father Andrews is a native New Yorker who was born in Poughkeepsie and grew up in St. Stanislaus Kostka parish in Pleasant Valley. He attended Arlington High School before going on to New York University Film School. When he told Father Raymond Rafferty, then director of the Catholic Center at NYU, that he was considering a vocation, the recently retired pastor of Corpus Christi parish in Manhattan suggested the Paulists.
Father Andrews, incidentally, is president-elect of the Paulist Fathers, a post he will take up next spring.
When I spoke to him the morning after the screening, Father Andrews was already at the airport on his way to another city. Paulist Productions is working on a number of new initiatives including a film called “Christmas for a Dollar,” produced in association with the Mormon Church and set for limited theatrical release next month and cable TV broadcast in December.
Then, there is the hour-long, commercial-free CBS Christmas Eve television special of Lessons and Carols set to be taped at St. Paul the Apostle Church in early December. It will air in place of the Late Show with David Letterman on Dec. 24 at 11:35 p.m. The featured choirs will be from St. Paul’s parish, Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus next door and the National Children’s Choir. Also featured will be TV personality Regis Philbin as lector and the puppetry of the late Jane Henson.
No wonder one TV executive told Father Andrews that he was “upping the game” when it comes to Christmas specials.
Regarding “Entertaining Angels,” Father Andrews confessed that he hadn’t seen the film for some time before this week’s screening, but he thought it had held up well through the years. “I think it was a very faithful telling of the story,” he said.
For me, the evening’s highlight was hearing Moira Kelly look back at her portrayal of a legendary figure in the 20th century New York Church from her present-day perspective as a 45-year-old Catholic mother of two.
She candidly told the audience that she hadn’t heard of Dorothy Day before she started to audition for “Entertaining Angels.” At the time, she remembered wondering whether she had enough life experience to pull off the role. That openness and honesty came across in her performance, which ultimately showed she was up to the challenge.
“It’s hard not to be moved by Dorothy Day, not just on a spiritual level, but on a human level. Her life should be taught to the young people of today,” said Ms. Kelly, who reckoned that her cause for canonization might offer opportunities for just that.
And Father Andrews said Paulist Productions would be only too happy to have more occasions to distribute the film to raise awareness of the saintly life she lived on the streets of New York.
