www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Shoes of the Fisherman to be released on DVD

Just a quick note:

The movie "Shoes of the Fisherman" will be released on DVD on April 4th.

I've already got mine in the queue on Netflix.

Not only that, but Warner Bros. will also release a "Films of Faith" 3 DVD boxed set of "Shoes of the Fisherman" along with "The Nun's Story" starring Audrey Hepburn, and "The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima". Some online sites are selling it at a good price.

Here is the image:

[Linked Image]

Cool! Even though Anthony Quinn was of Irish-Mexican backround, he did pull off the feat of portraying a role based on the life of his Beatitude Patriarch (Cardinal Major Archbishop , Josip Slipyj and/or a future John Paul II. Remember, JP II's mother family was Greek Catholic, but because of the influence of his paternal side (Woytila) his Eastern Catholic maternal heritage was concealed. One of my all-time favorite movies!

Ungcsertezs

My wife and I enjoyed watching "Shoes of the Fisherman" on a VCR tape. The unintentional similarity with the context into which JPII stepped was striking.

Another little-watched but superb Quinn performance was as Mayor Bombolini in "The Secret of Santa Vittoria." I also recommend the book.

In Christ,
Andrew

Andrew,

I loved that movie, "The Secret of Santa Vittorio". I think it was a masterful piece of subtle humor.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

The story is in fact based on the life of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Patriarch (Major-Archbishop and Cardinal) Josyf Slipyj, the Sino-Russo conflict of the early 1960's, and the Roman Catholic Church's attempt to mediate world peace. Many historians argued that the late Patriarch was released from a Soviet Gulag by the late Pope John XXIII and President Kennedy's advisor Norman Cousins to mediate world peace. Cousins wrote a book about the events but I can't seem to remember the title. Unfortunately, the untimely deaths of both Pope John XXII and President Kennedy quickly changed the world's political stage. Although Major-Archbishop slipyj would be elevated to a Cardinal the world would have to wait another 15 years before a Pole (with a Rusyn-Ukrainian Greek-Catholic mother) would become Pope. There can be no doubt that JPII mediated world peace, particularly in regard to the decaying Soviet empire which posed an ongoing threat to democracy and Christian civilization.

I.F.

I.F.

The author was at one time a Christian Brother (Edmund Rice). I believe in North America they are better known as The Irish Christian Brothers.

So he had some insider knowledge as to Church structures and mechanisms/procedures.

ICXC
NIKA

Speaking of the Shoes of the Fisherman, has anyone ever read "Keys of the Kingdom" by Cronin, now that would be a great movie!
Stephanos I

I thought the part of naming the central character of the shoes of the fisherman Hryhorij Lakota was interesting:


To illustrate this final point another hero of the Catholic Church can be selected out of history. Iosyf Cardinal Slipyj, was the last surviving Ukrainian Catholic hierarch after the Soviet purgings. Immortalised in the novel The Shoes of the Fisherman, by the Australian, Morris West, Slipyj endured 17 years of slave labour in a Siberian salt mine in defence of the Catholic faith. Tortured and brutalised he had both seen and heard of the deaths of his brother bishops (including that of Hryhorij Lakota, whose surname, incidentally, Morris West gave to the central character of his novel). He endured all these trials, believing himself to be all but forgotten in an isolated outpost of the Iron Curtain. His spirit endured even though the flesh became increasingly weaker. Only through the direct efforts of Pope John XXIII and President John F. Kennedy, was his release negotiated. Slipyj had been spurred on by the prayers of his predecessor Metroplitan Andrii Sheptyts'kyi, who on his deathbed declared to those around him: "Our Church will be ruined � but you will hold on, do not renounce the faith, the Catholic Church. A difficult trial will fall on our Church, but it is passing. It is only necessary to pray that the Lord God and the Mother of God will care for our poor tired people".