Latest / The Lila Rose Show / E98: Why Cabrini Is A Must See

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E98: Why Cabrini Is A Must See · The Lila Rose Show

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Cinematography was amazing, production was absolutely
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incredible. The acting was also amazing.
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This is a movie about a St. and you don't get movies about
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Saints this high caliber. We see apex femininity in this
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film out of a religious sister who's taken a vow, celibacy and
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poverty. That is such a countercultural
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message today. What I do wish the film showed
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more of you only saw tiny glimpses of was.
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We're going to break that all down to stay with me.
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Welcome back to the Lila Rose podcast.
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Why is it that all the movies, the biopics about women today
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are so woke or so crazed with this feminist themes?
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It's very frustrating and annoying.
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I mean, I'm sure you have noticed this with a lot of
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movies in Hollywood and the way that women are portrayed.
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Now, there is an anecdote to that.
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If you don't like the art that's being created and put out in the
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world, go create better art. And I'm thrilled to say that
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today we're going to do a very special episode on a masterpiece
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work of art called Cabrini. I got a sneak preview of this
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film over the last few weeks. I had heard about it six months
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ago and I was very excited. It is an absolutely gorgeously
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produced movie. You're going to learn the story
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of Mother Cabrini and her life, who is an American St.
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And you're also going to be blown away by the power of the
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cinematography and the storytelling.
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What I liked the most about the film though, besides the
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production value, which again, you don't see films like this
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made about Catholic Saints. I think the budget I heard was
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in the 10s of millions. What I liked the most, though,
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was that it showed the apex femininity of Mother Cabrini.
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So I'm going to talk about that, compare that to what else is
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happening in the Hollywood world, and then breakdown some
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of my favorite parts of the movie, what I liked.
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You're going to actually get to see some sneak peeks yourself.
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So spoiler alert, we might have that in here.
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And I'm also going to share areas of the film where I wish I
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had gone even deeper. I'm going to conclude with some
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special things about Cabrini's life that you'll want to know,
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including her own writings. But first, let's check out the
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trailer. Open your eyes.
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This is America, the greatest nation on earth, where rats have
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it better than Italian children. If we are to build an empire of
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hope, we must first conquer New York.
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Our New York being threatened by a wave of brown skin filth.
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They just keep coming. We ought to ship them all back.
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We have to show America we are all people of dignity.
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I want to build an orphanage and give the abandoned children the
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love they so badly need. If you're asking my permission,
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no. Your mission is over, Mother.
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My mission is barely begun. This is a beautiful place to
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live in. Now we need to feel it with
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children. Be careful, this place will
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leave you alive. You're under arrest.
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You make a Pope cannot protect you from what may come.
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You have to learn to face your fears.
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Who the hell? Do you think you are?
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I am a woman and I am Italian. We are all the same, all human
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beings. Children of God.
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I believe I am being threatened by a nun.
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Most of these Italians are already Americans.
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You have an election coming up, do you not?
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And I thought you were new at this.
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OK, so chills. I again, the Italian story
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element here resonates so deeply with me.
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I'm half Italian. And what also resonates so
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deeply here is that this is a movie about a St.
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And you don't get movies about Saints this high caliber.
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I mean, we have the passion the Christ made about our Lord Jesus
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Christ, which is incredible film.
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I mean, the best film of all time in terms of it's just pure
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beauty in my opinion. And the the the perfection with
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which it was produced and filmed and scripted and everything.
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Mother Cabrini. Cabrini has some of those
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elements of just the finest of art in its standard of how it
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was produced, how it was filmed. I mean, the cinematography alone
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is captivating, is stunning. And that in and of itself is
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reason to watch this film. The other reason to watch this
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this film is that you're not going to have poison pills in it
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from, you know, some agenda trying to change Mother Cabrini
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in some terrible way. Now, I do think there were
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elements that were maybe overemphasized or under
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emphasized. I'm going to get to that in a
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moment. But I don't think that there is
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something in this film that showed her not being the Saint
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that she was. I think that there was an
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accuracy and a faithfulness in the film to the things that she
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did in her life. That was also really refreshing
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because unfortunately, sometimes, you know, people take
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religious topics or religious figures or people of spirit with
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the profound spiritual life, and then they try to corrupt it
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intentionally. And it's really sad to see that,
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right? So that did not happen with this
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film. And that was a huge relief.
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So yeah #1 Hollywood caliber, I mean, not just Hollywood, but
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the best of Hollywood caliber in terms of the production and the
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cinematography and the editing. I mean, it is just gorgeous.
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In addition, I thought that you had these incredibly emotional
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moments that were truly inspiring.
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I started crying minutes into the film.
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I was sobbing because it just shows the plight of these
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children in New York, you know, these immigrant children.
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And then I was inspired so deeply by moments throughout the
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film where Mother Cabrini drew on her faith in God or she
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persevered through a trial in her mission to serve these
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children and serve the children of God.
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Ultimately, we're going to get to those scenes.
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But ultimately, I would say on its face, just as a film, in
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terms of filmmaking, this is a must see.
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And you rarely get must see films made about religious
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figures like this. I mean, it's such a tragedy.
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We have some of the best stories in our Christian tradition, the
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greatest heroes, the martyrs, the Saints, people that explored
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and discovered and fought for good causes for God and others.
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And we rarely get beautiful biopics about them.
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I mean, we just don't have that pretty much.
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And so that's what this film attempted to do.
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And I think they really landed the plane with the quality of
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the production. What's so powerful though, about
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this film? There's a lot of powerful
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things, but think about today's world.
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There's so many strong women that are represented in media.
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There are films being made about strong women.
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There's Wonder Woman and there's Barbie, and there's all these
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movies about strong women. It seems more popular than ever
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to feature strong women. This is a movie about a strong
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woman who is not so strong because of her own strength, but
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because of the strength of God in her, and whose life is
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undivided in its focus on loving and serving God and others.
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And I think in that framework, we see apex femininity in this
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film out of a religious sister who's taken a vow of celibacy
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and poverty in her life. And I think that is such a
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countercultural message today to have someone who is celibate,
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who's a religious sister, giving her life to God, who is apex
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femininity. And we're going to break that
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all down. So stay with me.
8:12
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When I first heard about this film, it was several months
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back, and actually some of the film makers I got in touch with
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and I got to see some sneak peeks of some of the scenes of
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the movie. This was even before the
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trailer, and I remember watching those scenes and being so
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captivated and fascinated because I had heard of Saint
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Francis Cabrini. I have been to churches named
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after Saint Francis Cabrini, and I had never really understood
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her. I knew she had done all this,
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like social work and missionary work, and she'd come to the
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United States in New York in the early 20th century.
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I knew some of those biographical details, but I
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didn't really get her. And I love the Saints.
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I love Mother Teresa. I love Saint Joan of Arc.
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I love St. Teres of Lesieux, I love Saint
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Catherine of Siena, Saint Teresa of Avila.
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But I never really got her. And watching those scenes
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originally triggered my curiosity.
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And since then, I've gotten to learn a lot more about her.
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Some of the big stats about Mother Cabrini that you might
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not know, You know, again, you don't walk into a museum about
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American history and see her in it.
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But she founded over 60 institutions, orphanages and
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hospitals, primarily to serve some of the poorest of the poor
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in early 20th century America. She particularly worked with
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immigrants, particularly Italian immigrants.
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She came from Italy herself. And this was at a time a lot of
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people don't realize this, but there was rampant poverty,
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especially among immigrants and many orphans who are left to
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fend for themselves. They were limited social
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services, limited hospitals, schools, places for food, places
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for shelter for those that were so poor.
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And there was tremendous racism against Italian, Italian
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immigrants. This really strikes close to
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home for me too, because I am the daughter, the proud
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daughter, third generation of Italian immigrants. 2 of my
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great grandfathers and two of my great grandmothers immigrated
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here from Italy and they experienced charge ship
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obviously coming. One came as a very young woman
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who was literally a mail order bride.
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Another one came as a young man at 16 years old who had nothing
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and just showed up and worked really hard to and build a life
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here. And so I got to imagine watching
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this film, their experience, and Mother Cabrini was working in
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their midst. Now, they didn't come to New
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York. Mother Cabrini came to New York.
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They were actually landed in Boston.
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But the story of the immigrant was really, really resonated
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with me because, you know, you don't see a ton of movies about
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the Italian immigrant story. The other thing that I want to
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call out that really shook me was Mother Cabrini was doing her
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work in New York City around the time that another woman was
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doing work in New York City and that other woman was doing
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opposite work to Mother Cabrini. So Mother Cabrini is there to
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bring the faith of Jesus Christ, to bring the faith of the of the
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church and the love of Jesus Christ to those that were in
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need on the streets of New York. Margaret Sanger was in New York
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around the same time spreading her vision which was ultimately
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anti child, anti God and anti life.
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Margaret Sanger was sleeping around.
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She was promiscuous. Mother Cabrini was celibate.
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Margaret Sanger hated God, she was angry with God for her
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childhood, what she endured in her life.
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Mother Cabrini was in love with God.
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Margaret Sanger wanted to change the world by ultimately
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advancing contraception and later on abortion.
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Mother Cabrini wanted to change the world by advancing love of
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the child and love of marriage and love of the family.
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So you see this incredible dichotomy between the
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institutions that Mother Cabrini and Margaret Sanger built.
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Margaret Sanger built planned Parent, had the biggest abortion
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chain in the United States, killing 1000 children a day.
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And globally, one of the biggest political proponents of
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abortion. And Mother Cabrini built an
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institution and that have hundreds of institutions that
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have grown from it that serve the poorest of the poor.
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Hospitals, care for mothers, care for families, our
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orphanages, our schools that are doing opposite work for the
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Kingdom of God. So it's just incredible to me to
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see what path will you choose and the choices that Mother
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Cabrini made to change the world for good.
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So the life of Mother Cabrini really stands in sharp contrast
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with the life of someone like Margaret Sanger.
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But I also thought as a film, the film Cabrini stands in
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contrast to a film like Barbie. Now, I'm not going to dish out
14:13
hate on Barbie. You guys have seen me talk about
14:15
it before in the podcast. I thought there a lot of issues
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with the film. There were some cool things with
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the film, but ultimately Barbie's journey right as the
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heroine, you could say of Barbie was one of self discovery,
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discovering herself and then choosing to live in the real
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world, right. Well, Mother Cabrini's story and
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the story in the Cabrini film is one of service of others.
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She is not so much a focused on discovering and figuring herself
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out. Well, that can be an honorable
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thing to do and we should do that in our lives.
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You know, we need to understand and have some self knowledge.
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But she was unreservedly focused on loving God and changing the
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world for the sake of love of other people.
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So yes, we have to start with self knowledge.
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And in a sense, Barbie was kind of about that and self reality
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of like, yes, this is who I am. This is I'm a human, I'm a
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woman. Being a woman is good.
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That was kind of the Barbie story.
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But Mother Cabrini takes it one step further to not just say
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this is who I am, but to say this is what I was made for.
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I was made for service. I was made to passionately go
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all out on behalf, not just of A cause, but on behalf of other
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people, souls that I can serve and a God that I love
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passionately. And that that heroine, through
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the unlikely person of a of a little religious sister, is so
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beautiful and so compelling and is what made this film come
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alive for me. So let's watch a few of my
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favorite clips. So early on in Mother Cabrini's
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journey, she wants to go and change the world.
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She wants to serve the poorest of the poor.
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She has this missionary zeal, right?
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And she needs permission to go to.
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At the time, she wanted to go to Asia, to go to China, to serve
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the poor that are there. And so she has to seek
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permission from her religious superiors.
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And ultimately, Mother Cabrini gets the opportunity to talk to
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the Pope himself. Now, already, this is pretty
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rare that you get the opportunity to talk to the Pope
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yourself when you're just a priest or a religious or a nun
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or a sister. But Mother Cabrini had a
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particular ask. She wanted permission to go and
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found a new institute. And so she's ultimately getting
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to sit down with the Holy Father himself, which is really
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beautiful. And they have this very candid
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conversation. And he's kind of prodding her a
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little bit. Like what's behind your
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intentions and your motivations? This is a famous quote in the
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movie. That kind of the movie begins
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with that, where she says that the world is too small for what
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I intend to do, and she did say something very similar to that.
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Another version of the quote is this.
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The world is too small to limit ourselves to one point.
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I want to embrace it entirely and to reach all its parts.
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The word ambition is used in the film sometimes to describe
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Mother, but really it is this holy ambition that she had to
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reach everyone in the world. And I loved seeing that
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passionate zeal come up again and again in the film because
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that is what I think we're called to.
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We're called to go big or go home for the Kingdom of God, to
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give our whole hearts, our whole selves, all of our talents, all
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of our time for the Kingdom of God in service of others.
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And her passion and her zeal for that throughout the film was
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truly inspiring. So I loved seeing this.
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The Holy Father is telling her you were rejected by three
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orders for weakness of constitution.
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We can serve our weakness or we can serve our purpose, not both.
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And I absolutely love this line. It's beautifully written.
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We can serve our weakness or we can serve our purpose.
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And you see throughout the film her struggling with her health,
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which is a historical fact about her life.
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She had a near drowning accident as a child and she had a poor
18:08
constitution, as they called it, probably damage in her lungs
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throughout her life because of it.
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And she persevered Despite that often debilitating condition
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that she had. And I I think that idea of we
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can serve our weakness or serve our purpose is again, the focus
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of the feminine. Is the feminine focus on myself,
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my own needs, my own comfort, my own self exploration?
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Or is the focus on purpose, the purpose of loving others and
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serving others? And you see scenes throughout
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the film of Mother Cabrini choosing other people over her
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comfort every time. It's not about her own comfort.
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It's not about her own desires. It's about a purified desire
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that she has to serve other people and love them.
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Well, Mother Cabrini chose celibacy, but she was very much
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a mother. She was a spiritual mother.
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And you see her spiritual motherhood play out during the
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film in many scenes. And it was really beautifully
19:01
done. In one scene, Mother Cabrini is
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telling another one of the sisters that she needs to pick
19:07
the nicer materials for the orphaned children's clothing
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because they are they deserve the dignity.
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I love this scene because it really shows that her motherly
19:15
tenderness and her care for the dignity of these children came
19:19
out even in the smallest of details.
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In another scene, you see Mother Cabrini mothering these two
19:23
young boys who were involved basically in a gang, and they
19:27
were wanting to steal from people on the street to try to
19:30
make a living for themselves. They were trying to be tough,
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and they actually try to steal from Mother Cabrini.
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And she has this incredible way of dealing with these two very
19:38
young boys who are acting so tough and violent.
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And she says, hey, we have amazing food at our house.
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You should come and see if you want to just steal our bread.
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You can have the bread, but you're not going to get the
19:48
delicious dinner that we've prepared.
19:50
And you just see this motherliness in her where she's
19:53
not treating the boys as threats, she's not treating the
19:56
boys as violent gangsters, She's treating them as like her son,
20:00
that her sons, that she's in a way disciplining and loving and
20:04
disciplining in a way to guide them towards the right decision.
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Surprise, surprise, the two boys on the streets of New York show
20:10
up at Mother Cabrini's orphanage for that dinner and end up
20:14
becoming part of the family. And yet another scene one of the
20:16
little boys, Paolo. Pulls out a gun that he had kept
20:20
hidden to try to shoot the pimp that was coming after Victoria
20:24
to try to kidnap her and bring her back into a life of sex
20:27
slavery. Well, in this scene, as this
20:29
little boy is holding this gun to try to defend this poor
20:32
woman, Mother Cabrini says to him, this is not how we do
20:36
things. And you have this incredible
20:38
moment where there's huge potential for violence.
20:42
He's trying to harm Victoria. The little boy is trying to kill
20:45
him, the pimp and you know, she is the mother.
20:48
She is the mother Cabrini of the household.
20:50
And she's telling her child even in that moment, we don't kill.
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We don't kill. That's not the it's not it's not
20:57
the solution. And again, I just see this rock
20:59
solid, nurturing, protective, but faith filled motherhood that
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mother Cabrini exhibits. One other scene where you see
21:07
Mother Cabrini's motherhood. I mean, there's so many of them
21:10
is when she is sitting down with Victoria after Victoria kills
21:14
her pimp in self-defense. So he was trying to kill her in
21:17
the streets at night. She stabs him and she's crying
21:20
to Mother Cabrini that she's so dirty because she was a
21:23
prostitute and because she did kill her pimp.
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And Mother Cabrini looks at her and helps restore profoundly her
21:29
her worth here. She says there's not enough
21:37
water in the world to make me clean.
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He says what? When I look at you, do you know
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what I see? He.
21:50
Says I see a strong woman. He says that she sees courage
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and says that she says it glowing all around you.
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So she offers encouragement to Vic.
22:07
And. Says that it takes a lot of
22:08
courage. To.
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Become where you're meant to be, and then she says.
22:27
And then she says we are both survivors.
22:28
And I think there's a powerful implication here because Mother
22:31
Cabrini as a survivor of a near death drowning accident as a
22:34
child, and she's in a way, in a way, she's saying your sin,
22:38
Victoria, of being involved in prostitution isn't so much your
22:41
sin. You were prostituted as a kid.
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This is something that you didn't choose from a very young
22:46
age, but now, of course, you have the power to choose and you
22:48
can reject this life. So I think that's very powerful
22:51
that she almost takes a solidarity with Victoria to
22:54
basically say you're not dirty the way that you think you are.
22:57
A lot of what has happened in your life was not your choice.
23:00
It was actually done to you. But then she goes on to say we
23:03
now can make choices and you can choose who you want to be.
23:06
And I think that is such a powerful and beautiful blessing
23:10
that she's ultimately giving her to say that's not who you are.
23:12
Who you are is how God sees you. Don't you conscious?
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And her last words to Victoria are, we don't get to choose how
23:19
we came into this world, but God gives us freedom to choose what
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we do with our life, how we live in it.
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So it's very beautiful for her to say you can overcome the
23:27
challenges of your childhood. Now, you know, you could ask,
23:30
well, why didn't she say in that moment, Jesus Christ, his blood
23:33
covers you? And I think the reason that she
23:35
didn't say that, possibly the reason the screenwriters didn't
23:38
choose to have Mother Cabrini basically say God Forgives you,
23:42
Victoria is it's unclear what Victoria's sin was.
23:45
If you're forced into prostitution as a little girl,
23:48
if you're held captive by a pimp in prostitution, and then if you
23:51
kill your pimp in self-defense as he's trying to kill you, did
23:55
you commit a sin? Did you commit a sin?
23:57
And so I think that might be the decision, the reason for why
24:00
that scene was played that way, that no, this is not Victoria
24:04
the evil prostitute. She's a sex trafficked victim.
24:07
And Mother Cabrini is acknowledging that to her and
24:11
giving her a new view of herself to say, now you have the freedom
24:14
to move forward that God has given you, choose who you want
24:16
to be, choose to follow God. So one of the scenes that that I
24:20
really loved in the film was when Mother Cabrini leaves in
24:23
the night. So Mother Cabrini has just
24:24
gotten to New York with just a handful of her religious
24:26
sisters. She's trying to start an
24:28
orphanage. She has very few resources.
24:31
And she sees just the tremendous suffering of especially the
24:35
children around her. Because you had a lot of
24:36
children who lost their parents or who were abandoned by their
24:39
parents. And they're literally St.
24:40
children. They're just running around
24:43
looking for shelters, sleeping in gutters, sleeping underneath
24:46
the the ground, in sewers. Some of them die from exposure.
24:50
I mean, it's like a third world country in the streets of New
24:53
York. Now, today we don't see that as
24:55
often. There's still homelessness, but
24:57
usually children. You don't see that kind of raw
24:59
poverty for your for an average child on the streets today.
25:03
Back then in New York, we didn't have the hospitals and the
25:06
social services that we have today.
25:08
Mother Cabrini hadn't started her work yet.
25:11
And so there was a tremendous amount of suffering on the
25:13
streets of New York. Child labor was a thing.
25:16
There were not laws to govern and protect children.
25:19
It was a serious problem how children were treated.
25:21
So Mother Cabrini goes out at night.
25:24
Well, her other sisters are asleep to go and basically
25:27
search for children to go find children on the street that she
25:30
can care for. And she ends up going into the
25:33
sewer system where children would sleep to stay warmer
25:36
underground. And you see her walking into the
25:39
sewer system where there's also other nefarious activities
25:42
happening, like this whole basically complex of underground
25:45
tunnels under the streets of New York.
25:48
And she suddenly falls down. She gets dizzy, and you see her
25:51
fall down into the water, into this shallow water because of
25:54
her frailty, because of her condition.
25:56
Well, Good Samaritan picks her up.
25:58
She ends up getting taken to a hospital, and she ends up
26:00
finding her way back during the daytime the next day to the
26:03
sisters. And so we're going to see the
26:04
scene now. They're obviously very worried
26:06
about her. She's here.
26:14
While the sisters see her outside the window and they get
26:16
excited. The cinematography here is so
26:19
beautiful. The set here is so beautiful.
26:28
She walks in. Were you mother OK?
26:37
Don't worry about me. There will be a time, there will
26:48
be a time when I'm away. That's why you have to learn to
26:57
face your fears, to not just carry on, but to lead and to
27:08
demonstrate you can do all things, all things in Him who
27:18
strengthens us, whether I am here or not.
27:31
So I love these lines from Mother Cabrini because obviously
27:36
she's quoting scripture. You can do all things in Him who
27:38
strengthens you. This is also one of the rare
27:41
moments of the film where you get to see her specifically talk
27:44
about God. I wish I'd seen a lot more of
27:45
this. We'll talk about that in a
27:46
moment. But she says face your fears.
27:49
Do not just carry on, but lead and demonstrate that you can do
27:53
all things in Him who strengthens you, whether I am
27:57
here or not. And I think that's so powerful
28:00
because she's basically telling them this is not about me or my
28:03
leadership. Yes, I'm your mother's superior,
28:06
but you're going to need to lead to in your own lives, in your
28:09
own hearts, lead yourself towards God and you're going to
28:12
have to lead others towards God and that you can do this with
28:15
the power of Jesus Christ. This is not about me.
28:18
This is about you relying on strength from God to serve
28:20
others. And it's such a great lesson of
28:22
leadership here, right? Because you know, the leader,
28:26
what is the goal of leadership? To help other people become who
28:29
they're meant to be, right? And find their purpose.
28:32
And it's not about the leader. The leader is the servant.
28:34
That's the message of Jesus Christ our Lord.
28:37
And so she's, she's emulating that and she's witnessing that
28:41
to these sisters. And then she's also telling them
28:44
that you can do this to God's strength.
28:45
So I really love that. And then she says this at the
28:48
end. This is a beautiful place to
28:53
live in. Now we need to fill it with
28:56
children. So I love that it's a beautiful
29:00
place to live in. Let's fill it with children.
29:01
This is their like, janky, rundown orphanage that they're
29:03
trying to fix up to put children in, to help them and give them
29:07
dignity and care. So anyways, love that clip.
29:10
Another aspect I really loved is the indomitable determination
29:14
that Mother Cabrini shows throughout the film to
29:18
accomplish the mission. This really resonates with me
29:20
because in my experience, you know, starting live action as a
29:23
teenager and building work in the pro-life space and forging
29:28
paths that I didn't know I could forge, All of that I've only
29:32
been able to do by God's grace and by having belief, belief
29:37
that it's possible. And there is a very powerful
29:39
scene in the film where Mother Cabrini wants to build this huge
29:42
hospital, first class with beautiful facilities and top of
29:46
the line services for both the wealthy and the poor.
29:51
And she's meeting with a group of gentlemen who may be able to
29:54
be involved in the project. And she's asked, how are you
29:56
going to do this? It's going to cost so much
29:58
money. And she responds.
29:59
Begin the mission, and the means will come.
30:03
I propose purchasing this property and renovating it for
30:07
400 beds with services fine enough to attract the wealthy.
30:12
The fees we earn here we used to fund the needs of the immigrant
30:17
with nothing, who will also be treated by the finest doctors.
30:25
But you don't even have the funds to sustain the hospital in
30:27
five points. We begin the mission and the
30:36
means will come. This mission begins tonight in
30:44
this room with you gentlemen, or does not begin at all.
30:53
I think that's such a powerful show of faith, and it's the
30:57
faith that we are required to have all people, all Christians
31:01
to say God has given me a purpose.
31:03
I have but one life to live it. It's for his Kingdom and in
31:06
service of souls. And I'm going to begin the
31:08
mission. I'm not going to wait for
31:10
everything to line up perfectly. I'm not going to wait until I
31:13
have this this easy path in front of me, but I'm going to
31:16
forge the path by the power of God. everylife.com is America's
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31:51
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checkout for 10% off your order. So cinematography was amazing.
31:57
Production was absolutely incredible.
31:59
The acting was also amazing. You have some amazing moments
32:03
and scenes that are so inspiring and so compelling.
32:06
You see her getting up again, fighting through her own
32:08
struggles, getting up again and serving and serving and serving
32:11
and serving others. Right.
32:12
OK, what I do wish the film showed more of you only saw tiny
32:18
glimpses of was the interior life of Mother Cabrini.
32:22
Because the reality is you don't become a Catholic St. by just
32:25
being a social worker. You don't become a Catholic St.
32:28
by just being a do gooder. You become a Catholic St.
32:31
because you passionately love Jesus Christ.
32:34
And when you do good works, you do them out of love for Jesus
32:38
and through his power. And I'm not saying that it's
32:41
possible to do good works without Jesus, because I think
32:44
any good work, anything good or true or beautiful in the world
32:46
is from God ultimately. But the reality is you can be a
32:51
Catholic St. and be locked in a prison cell and not be able to
32:54
do any good works physically out in the world or to make any
32:57
difference physically on the world, just through prayer and
33:00
just through your own spirit being open to the love of God.
33:04
And the reality is Mother Cabrini did not accomplish what
33:08
she did in her life. Those 60 plus institutions that
33:12
she founded and overcoming hardship and, you know, dealing
33:16
with the bureaucracy and the racism and the craziness and and
33:20
the suffering, quite frankly, without prayer, without a deep
33:25
personal anchoring in her faith. And she lived a life of prayer.
33:30
And I know this because of her own writings that I've read.
33:32
And I'm going to read some of these in a moment.
33:34
So there were several moments in the film where you saw her
33:37
reflecting. So it's not like the film didn't
33:39
have her reflecting. You know, it's not like it was
33:41
just about her activism. It was there were reflective
33:44
moments. So you saw her having flashbacks
33:46
to her childhood when she thought about the near death
33:49
accidents that she endured and how she needs to persevere from
33:52
it. And then you saw certain moments
33:54
when there are struggles where she would look at her reflection
33:56
in a mirror or she'd look at her reflection in a window and she'd
33:58
have this moment of sort of silence of of contemplation of,
34:02
OK, you saw her kind of gathering up resolve to keep
34:05
going. And I wish we had seen more or
34:09
understood more through the filmmaking of her just total
34:13
reliance and her her really close personal intimate love
34:17
with Jesus Christ, because I know that's what animated her.
34:21
But we didn't really get to see much of that.
34:23
And listen, I know the film makers had a tough time.
34:26
They had two hours Max to make a film with.
34:28
They had to tell this whole lengthy drama about how she got
34:31
to America, how she started her work there, the challenges she
34:34
faced, the people she was serving, some of the politics of
34:36
the city. Like they wanted to get that all
34:38
in there, right. But I do think there is a
34:40
decision made of making this about a strong woman, which she
34:43
is a strong woman. She's a St. but she's a strong
34:47
woman with a total tenderness that is totally reliant on Jesus
34:54
Christ. So that's why I shared showed
34:55
that clip earlier of her saying you can do all things in him who
34:57
strengthens us. Because that was a moment where
35:00
you saw that and I loved it, but I wish I'd seen more of it.
35:04
I wish I'd seen more of it. In addition, I think that
35:07
there's some maybe, you know, dramatization certainly around
35:12
her kind of having to deal with bureaucracy, especially in the
35:15
Catholic Church. And yes, of course there's
35:17
bureaucracy in the Catholic Church.
35:19
It's designed to be, you know, a sacred institution founded to be
35:24
Jesus's bride, but it's founded to be populated with human
35:28
beings that set up structures where discernment is a lot of
35:32
the process of big decisions a church makes.
35:34
And sometimes that discernment process, you know, of starting a
35:37
new order or approving a new initiative can take years or
35:40
even decades. But I thought that there are
35:43
times when they almost wanted to overemphasize some of the drama
35:47
between her and the Bishop or her and this person or that
35:50
person in the church. Because the reality is, if you
35:53
look at her personal writings, Mother Cabrini often spoke so
35:57
warmly and gratefully of archbishops and bishops who
36:00
supported her and the Holy Father who supported her and
36:03
helped her. So I felt there was sometimes an
36:05
acrimonious relationship between her and the hierarchy, which I'm
36:08
not saying there wasn't, and there weren't struggles.
36:11
But we didn't get to see as much of that tenderness that I would
36:14
have liked to have seen where I know there were many times in
36:16
her life that she got the support that she needed, and she
36:19
couldn't have done it without that.
36:21
The last thing I would just say that I saw really emphasized in
36:24
the film, which I was like, oh, I wish maybe other things were
36:26
emphasized more. Again, overall, big fan of the
36:30
film, but was when there were a lot of men and it was like men
36:34
versus Cabrini, you know, all of these bad men, the mayor out to
36:38
get her and the cops out to get her and the hierarchy out to get
36:42
her. And they didn't, you know, they
36:43
were racist or they were misogynist or whatever.
36:46
And there were only two men in the film who were really
36:49
supporters of hers, which was a doctor and a newspaperman,
36:52
right? And, you know, I'm not saying
36:55
that she didn't deal with misogyny, and I'm not saying
36:57
that she didn't deal with racism.
36:59
I'm sure she did. You don't actually pick up a lot
37:02
of that from her personal writings though.
37:05
What you pick up is that she actually collaborated with a lot
37:08
of men and women to do the amazing work that she did.
37:11
So again, it's a biopic. It's a Hollywood film.
37:15
They're trying to create that structure of a film of, you
37:18
know, overcoming obstacles. So they might want to, you know,
37:21
double down on intensifying drama and maybe finding drama
37:24
where there isn't as much. So I totally get the film making
37:27
decisions that may have been made here.
37:29
But that being said, I wish we had seen more of the
37:34
collaboration and the diplomacy really, that she had with many
37:39
people in New York who were in political power as well as in
37:43
the hierarchy of the church. All right, so I wanted to end
37:47
this review with a couple things that I think you should know
37:51
about Cabrini beyond the film. What I love about the film, in
37:55
addition to what I said earlier, is that it is now going to get a
37:58
lot of people curious about this great St.
38:01
It certainly did that for me. When I first heard about the
38:04
film again, I had heard of Cabrini.
38:06
I had sort of had a working knowledge of her to some degree,
38:09
but I didn't really get her. So watching the film made me
38:11
want to learn more about her and so I started to read some of her
38:14
writings. So I do want to share a couple
38:16
quotes that I found from her journal entries that she wrote
38:19
to share with her sisters to encourage them in their
38:22
missionary work. So this is Mother Cabrini
38:24
talking about prayer. She says prayer is a great
38:27
comfort and works. Truly it is the life of the
38:29
soul, though its effects are not always visible.
38:32
Of the many graces that proceed from prayer, some are known to
38:35
us and others not. All.
38:37
The glory of the King's daughter is within of her preciously
38:41
embroidered dress. Of her immense riches we see but
38:44
the fringe in heaven. Prayer will be explained in all
38:47
its pomp and majesty. Pray, then, daughters, pray with
38:50
unlimited faith in every need, in every difficulty, And do not
38:55
become wary if in our short lives we do not see the effects
38:58
of our prayers. Have a faith, a lively faith,
39:01
resting always assured that not one of our supplications will be
39:04
rejected. And then here's another 1 I
39:06
loved. We trust to your prayers, dear
39:09
daughters, pray, pray much without ceasing.
39:13
Make your prayers efficacious by sacrifice, which you can
39:17
practice hourly by a perfect observance of the rule which
39:20
imposes certain acts of self denial and to which I invite
39:24
all, for Jesus wishes this of you.
39:26
So there's a profoundly deep interior life that these sisters
39:30
are all practicing while they're out busy building orphanages in
39:33
schools and hospitals. And again, this is like the
39:36
hidden life of Mother Cabrini. That's even beyond the film that
39:40
I encourage you to explore. So go check out Cabrini.
39:44
Take your friends, take your family, be inspired, be
39:47
encouraged. Let's patronize beautiful films
39:49
about Catholic Saints so that we can see more of them about the
39:53
heroes of our faith. And also, let's celebrate a
39:57
different showing of femininity. A femininity that is on fire for
40:03
love of others, that is both tender and strong, and that
40:06
draws its love and its strength from God as its source as
40:11
opposed to from self discovery and the world and its own power.
40:16
It's a countercultural message for a culture that's starving
40:19
for it. A huge thank you to Angel
40:21
Studios for distributing Cabrini and for partnering with this
40:24
episode of the Lila Rose Podcast.
40:26
Don't forget it is out in theaters today.
40:28
You can buy your tickets at the link in the bio or wherever you
40:31
buy tickets. Go check it out.
40:33
This is how we see more beautiful films like this made
40:36
of great Saints and heroes. Thanks so much for watching this
40:38
episode of the Lila Rose Podcast.
40:40
Don't forget to subscribe to the show.
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