The Big Fray Over Father Ray

In its brief TV life, the new ABC drama “Nothing Sacred” has elicited cautious praise and vitriolic protest from Catholics.

Some have applauded the show for offering a humane window into the struggles and joys of the priesthood. Others have condemned it, pointing to inaccuracies and story lines that violate church teachings. In Orange County, as elsewhere, it has become a lightning rod for debate.

The show centers on the young, earnest, sometimes troubled and questioning Father Ray, who has thus far grappled with such contentious issues as abortion and celibacy. Two other resident priests--an aging conservative and a contemplative, energetic type--work alongside him in the rectory and parish community.

Though it competes against the highly rated NBC teen magnet “Friends” on Thursday nights, the priests have a following at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, where the show has been discussed in religion classes.

“Most of the kids who have seen it say they like it,” said Father Steve Sallot, the school’s rector. “Most of them are glad to see real-life issues get dealt with in the context of church. A lot of times, people think the church doesn’t deal with real issues, that priests are in church praying all the time and not dealing with people’s lives.”

The reception has been chilly, however, at Our Lady of Fatima Church in San Clemente.

It’s “a real attack on the priesthood and a very insidious attack on the church itself,” said parishioner Jerry Russ, who has helped circulate protest petitions after Mass.

On the national level, the reviews from Catholics have been similarly divided.

The New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has collected a reported 500,000 signatures on a petition protesting “Nothing Sacred” that it forwarded to Michael Eisner, chairman of Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC. More than a dozen sponsors have pulled ads in recent weeks, including Sears and Chrysler. But others have stepped up, according to ABC. “The show is sold out for the entire [13-week] season,” a spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, the Virginia-based advocacy group Viewers for Quality Television staged a “counter boycott,” calling for a letter campaign against companies that have withdrawn ads from the hourlong show. And, in an Oct. 4 editorial, the newspaper of the Los Angeles Catholic archdiocese took a stand: “The show should be allowed to develop before anyone passes final judgment.”

Father Arthur Holquin, the rector of Holy Family Cathedral in Orange and a priest for 23 years, also offered his qualified support after viewing the first episode.

“While there are indeed sections of the program which I would have presented quite differently for the sake of accuracy, on the whole I found the program both complimentary to the role of the Catholic Church and priesthood in American society today,” he wrote in a recent issue of the parish’s Sunday bulletin.

“I applaud their unwillingness to stereotype each priest presented as a monolithic type, but rather portray three distinct ‘styles’ of priestly ministry,” his letter said. “I have known and lived with each type.”

Responding to a particularly controversial scene in which Father Ray calls for the church to de-emphasize sins of the flesh, Holquin wrote: “Father Ray’s frustration with being seen as a ‘sexual traffic cop’ quite frankly mirrors the unspoken frustration of not a few priests who perceive this area of morality for many Catholics as the sole purview of sin.”

Holquin went on to acknowledge Father Ray’s struggle with celibacy as a relevant issue, cited gaps in realism elsewhere and suggested a later time slot for a show with “obvious adult themes.” He ended the letter by saying he expected to get letters from parishioners.

He did, seven of them. All but one supported “Nothing Sacred,” Holquin said, and a handful of others expressed verbal support for his comments, which, he pointed out, do not reflect the opinion of the parish or of the Diocese of Orange.

Msgr. Lawrence Baird, spokesman for the diocese, said last week that his office has fielded feedback on “Nothing Sacred” throughout its run.

“No one has called this office in favor of [the program],” Baird said. “I’ve had about a dozen calls and a dozen letters and they’ve all been opposed to it. One women wrote that she’s asking her own parish and surrounding parishes to protest the [show’s] sponsors.”

Baird’s personal opinion echoes those of his correspondents, he said.

“I just feel that the title of the show is the best description of the content,” he said. “It trivializes and degrades what is sacred and transcendent. It has a positive quality in that it recognizes the role of the priest in society and it’s good at indicating our fraternity, which is a wonderful possession. But it is not an accurate portrayal. It uses dramatic license and is hostile to the teachings of the church.”

At Our Lady of Fatima, Russ and about 1,000 other parishioners who signed Catholic League petitions were particularly disturbed by an episode involving Father Ray and a young woman considering an abortion.

“He said that abortion should be a matter of her conscience,” Russ said. “No priest would do that. And if he did, he certainly is not portraying the Catholic doctrine as it’s very clearly cited.”

He also cited as an affront the portrayal of the priest as an “uncollared social worker in sneakers.”

But the Mater Dei viewers welcomed the priests’ accessibility, Sallot said, except for a handful of students with “a very conservative or traditional background.”

“Maybe it’s because their generation has had a more humanized clerical experience, whereas with people who are older, priests were more distant and separate,” Sallot said. “They’re not shocked. They’re saying, ‘Gee, isn’t that a neat forum for these kinds of issues to be talked about, not just over the family dinner table with the Cosbys.”

Mike McGlinn of Costa Mesa, a student at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, agreed.

“I think it shows a human side to priesthood,” he said. “It shows struggle, and through struggle people often grow.”

He believes the show can be “a gift to Catholics.”

“Hopefully, the issues raised and the way that the priests deal with them will encourage Catholic viewers to dialogue with each other and share their interpretations of the show and their understanding of church teaching. Hopefully, it will challenge us to understand our faith better.”