The Guys of St. Catherine’s : ABC’s ‘Have Faith’ Goes Its Own Way

It’s “Night Court” in a rectory, “Barney Miller’s” wacky police guys disguised in priests’ collars. ABC’s new sitcom “Have Faith” is about four Catholic priests--”guys” of God who love baseball, money, Motown and practical jokes almost as much as they love helping the zany parishioners who wander into their church.

For the most part, the priests are lovable, ultimately wise men with oodles of compassion and good intentions. But these are not your typical TV priests with all the answers and a moral to boot. These are men who’d probably look more at home alongside the bar at “Cheers” than up on the pulpit.

“I don’t think anyone wants to see a priest who is perfect because there is no such thing,” said Nat Mauldin, creator of “Have Faith,” which debuts at 9:30 tonight. “These characters are fallible, they have egos, they have personalities, they have conflicts. This is not a show about handing out the bread wafers and the wine. This is not a show about priests. This is a show about four guys who are priests, who come home from the church next door and they have a beer and they watch a basketball game.”

Real priests really do such things, according to Father Andy Herman, the show’s Catholic technical adviser, who goes over every script and every idea with Mauldin before they are committed to videotape.

“Priests do cut up,” Herman said. “The whole image of the priest as a sanctified, rigid stoic is not real and never has been. People have come to respect priests because they are showing themselves to be human.”

To many Catholics and others who have spent time with priests, the fact that they drink, tell jokes, dance, memorize batting averages--even, on occasion, make fools of themselves, like any other human being--will not come as much of a shock. But is the larger viewing public ready for a monsignor who sings Aretha Franklin tunes at the top of his lungs, who steals a suit of armor from a fellow cleric as a joke, who is tempted by a former girlfriend to break his vows of celibacy?

Is TV ready for a new sitcom about religion?

There have been a few exceptions, but generally, television has avoided shows about religion and politics--especially sitcoms. Conventional wisdom at the networks has been that if a subject is too controversial to bring up around the family dinner table, it’s probably not a good idea to try to build a laugh track around it either.

NBC’s Father Dowling is a bumbling detective, but he doesn’t get down on the floor to leg wrestle his old roommate from seminary school. Sherman Hemsley plays an egotistical deacon on “Amen.” Robert Blake’s priest from the 1985 series “Hell Town” used to shoot pool and threaten neighborhood thugs with physical violence, but he was all business. Gene Kelly did portray a lighthearted priest in the 1962 sitcom “Going My Way”--the last time, Mauldin said, that priests starred in a network sitcom. But unlike “Have Faith’s” Father MacKenzie, who oversees St. Catherine’s on Chicago’s South Side, he never kicked his feet up on his desk, looked around the office and wondered, “My God, what am I doing here? How did I ever get this job?”

Perhaps Sally Field’s “Flying Nun,” who was almost shot down as an enemy aircraft and inspired a pelican to fall in love with her, comes the closest to this playful portrayal of religious characters. And despite Sister Bertrille’s crazy shenanigans, that show was actually commended by some religious orders for humanizing nuns and their work.

Mauldin, 35, said he can get away with his affectionately irreverent portrayal of priests because the show religiously avoids making fun of any of the sacraments. There are no Blessed Virgin jokes, no quips about the Eucharist, no pratfalls in the chapel.

“We have fun,” Mauldin said. “We tickle Catholicism in the ribs once in a while. But the pulpit and all that other religious stuff is off limits.”

But aren’t the priests themselves part of the “religious stuff”? Aren’t the producers and ABC inviting trouble by throwing raucous, bumbling priests on screen week after week? Aren’t they asking for the wrath of the Catholic Establishment and Christian fundamentalists?

Just two weeks ago, for example, New York’s Cardinal John O’Connor, irate over local newscasters repeating and then laughing at Robin Williams’ “Fetal Attraction” joke from the Academy Awards, said that television had evolved from a wasteland to “a radioactive desert of filth.” And the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Assn., headed by the Rev. Donald Wildmon, plans to monitor television in the coming weeks for content it deems “morally offensive.”

“There will be all kinds of protests from all kinds of people,” predicted Father Herman, 41, a resident priest at a West Hollywood church. “But I’m willing to stand up for the show. To shy away from religion because you’re afraid that it will offend is a real bad trap. People who say that you shouldn’t touch God and all that on television or film--the healthy thing to do is to tell them to take a walk. They take religion and life way too seriously.”

Mauldin, who also worked on “Barney Miller” and “Night Court” and is currently developing the story for the sequel to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” expects to be “lacerated” simply for creating a comedy about priests. He said that after the first episode of “Night Court,” the producers received a scathing letter from a New York judge slamming them for portraying the judicial system in a frivolous manner.

While Mauldin is sensitive to such criticism, he is probably more interested in what the Nielsen families think. ABC has blessed “Have Faith” with one of the cushiest time slots on television: the half hour immediately following the megasmash “Roseanne.” Mauldin’s chances of making ABC’s starting lineup next fall might depend, he said, on whether the seven episodes of “Have Faith” can outperform “Anything But Love,” which has been airing after “Roseanne” for the last two months. Jaime Lee Curtis’ show did well, but failed to hang onto about 25% of “Roseanne’s” massive audience.

As was the case with “Barney Miller,” much of “Have Faith’s” humor is derived from the quirky outsiders who wander onto the regular set. On one of the first episodes, a middle-aged, lonely woman comes to the church to exorcise a demon who makes passionate love to her every time she falls asleep. “Do you know what that’s like night after night?” she asks the priests. Then realizing the absurdity of her question she adds: “Maybe I’m asking the wrong person.”

But as much as he loves one-liners, Mauldin is also interested in exploring some serious church issues. The Sanctuary movement, the role of women in the church, the priests’ sexuality, nuclear disarmament, even abortion, all could conceivably turn up on future episodes, he said.

“I’m not out to make any big statements on any of these issues,” Mauldin said. “But it’s much more interesting when there is some heat, when you make a show about something the characters really care about. I don’t think people should be offended by that.”

Father Herman said that no topic should be considered taboo.

“I’m sure it will be easy for certain people to pull out isolated lines out of context to condemn the entire show,” he said. “But I’m confident that the majority will realize that the priests are being portrayed in a positive light. I hope they realize that this is a good thing for us. There is a lot of crap on TV, but it also gives people a lot of hope. I laugh when I see this show because it gives me hope. It’s warm and funny and makes me think. I’m sure the overwhelming majority will be delighted with it.”