Free When Satan Wore a Cross by Fred Rosen Page A

in both Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor categories because of a nominations anomaly. Fitzgerald won the Best Supporting Actor award.
    Father O’Malley proved so popular a character that McCarey, in the best Hollywood tradition of ripping yourself off, immediately penned and directed a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945). This time Father O’Malley (Crosby) winds up at some cool inner city Catholic school where he meets the gorgeous and chaste Sister Mary Benedict (Ingrid Bergman). Once more, McCarey had a hit, and Father O’Malley went straight into the Zeitgeist.
    So deeply was this impression of the “good” priest imprinted on the American subconsciousness that Francis Ford Coppola paid homage to it in The Godfather (1972). In the scene when Michael (Al Pacino) is on the phone and finds out that his father has been shot, behind him is the Radio City Music Hall marquee. Emblazoned on it in bright red neon is The Bells of St. Mary’s.
    As the 1970s developed, priests in fiction and film became more complex, guilt-ridden characters who find themselves up against satanic forces. While the theme was different, the priests still acted like everyone expected priests to act. In 1971 William Peter Blatty had a huge literary and popular hit with his novel The Exorcist . It told the story of a tormented priest who finds redemption exorcising a demon from a young girl. Among other things, the book featured a very dramatic ritual killing.
    The 1973 film version became nothing less than a popular phenomenon. Director William Friedkin, an action director who knew character, made sure to put in enough stultifying shocks to grab repeat audiences. It scared the crap out of people when fourteen-year-old Linda Blair’s head swiveled 360 degrees and out of her mouth came Oscar-nominated actress Mercedes Mc-Cambridge’s voice. People screamed in fear.
    The public interest in those who would mock the Church and shake it to the ground reached its apex in the most popular, frightening, and influential film featuring satanic worship and ritualistic killing, 1976’s The Omen (forget the 2006 remake). The plot, once again, is simple.
    In David Seltzer’s totally believable script, a secret cabal of Satan worshippers mock Catholicism in all kinds of ways, not the least of which is killing at birth the child of the American ambassador to the Court of St. James (Gregory Peck), and then substituting Satan’s spawn in its place. That he just happens to be a nice little dark-haired boy named Damien, helped make the story believable, including the ritualistic killings of said baby, a courageous Catholic priest, and a crusading though eccentric reporter. What really sold it was that under Damien’s dark hair was the sign of the Devil, “666,” a reference to Revelations 13:16 through 13:18.
    Except, of course, it is not true. From the Book of Revelation:
    Rev. 13:16. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.”
    Rev. 13:17. “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
    Rev. 13:18. “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six .”
    The number 666 is the mark of the “Beast” not Satan. Satan, however, sells better than the Beast. The public bought this stuff hook, line, and sinker. People lined streets in Manhattan in the middle of the winter of 1973 to see The Exorcist. The Omen ? Only five other films made more money in 1976, including Rocky at number one.
    Cut to Toledo, 1980. Thanks to the media, ritualistic killing was still very much on the public’s mind. Anyone with a motive could exploit those fears. As for how the public thought of priests, Father O’Malley was still the template. Priests might be guilt-ridden, like The Exorcist ’s Father