A Tale of Two Priests

It’s been a good week in prime time for God.

On CBS, Sunday’s “Touched by an Angel” was especially poignant in saying goodbye to an artist with Lou Gehrig’s disease. After leaving behind something of himself for each member of his family, with the encouragement of the show’s angel of death, he died peacefully in the arms of his wife and oldest son. You had to be a rock not to feel the moment.

Then Monday found the Camdens of WB’s “7th Heaven” at their tender best in coping with the death of teenage Lucy’s girlfriend in a car accident, and discussing a special bond connecting young mourners. Another test of faith awaits in next Monday’s episode about a second youngster facing death.

And on Tuesday, TV’s newest Catholic priest continued his selfless activism while fending off a former girlfriend.

Here’s a guy to like and admire. He’s Father Tomas, the young Mexican American parish priest who is lusted after by Ann-Margret’s gorgeous redhead daughter in the new CBS drama series “Four Corners.” No traditionalist (at one point he has to be reminded by his mother to put on his collar), he’s a far cry from the cuddly Barry Fitzgerald and mellow-crooning Bing Crosby of “Going My Way.”

While browsing the Internet this week, I paused at the Web pulpit of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights to check its angry response to Father Tomas.

Amazingly, there was no angry response.

Claiming 350,000 members, the Catholic League is the group that has relentlessly savaged and urged advertisers to boycott ABC’s “Nothing Sacred,” one of prime time’s most interesting and challenging dramas, accusing it and its protagonist, Father Ray, of being anti-Catholic. That’s absurd.

Father Ray (Kevin Anderson) at times defies conventional church teaching. He’s waffled on abortion and even on the existence of God. And early in the season, he also wondered: “Why do people ask priests for help on their marriages? Who in the hell could know less about marriage than priests?”

Yet his basic goodness and compassion for the downtrodden--which he shares with Father Tomas of “Four Corners”--are glorifying comments on the Catholic Church.

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The conservative Catholic League also is no fan of “Nothing Sacred’s” benevolent feminist, the hip Sister Mo (Ann Dowd), derisively titling her “wondernun.” And its Web site this week featured its usual array of news releases lambasting “Nothing Sacred.” For example, it claimed: “Week after week viewers are treated to a parish community that is totally depressed, where the dysfunctional is the ordinary and where cynicism is a staple.” Utterly false. Cynicism, in particular, is what this series is decidedly not about.

There was also a diatribe on the Catholic League’s Web site against a side-splitting February episode of Comedy Central’s animated “South Park” that featured a satirical boxing match between a cartoonishly nasty Satan and a gentle Jesus, who was implored by a priest to “kick ass.” Actually, Jesus got his own kicked in this rumble, even though Satan ended up taking a dive and throwing the match so that he could collect on the bets he made against himself. Very, very funny.

Catholic League President William Donohue has quoted “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker as vowing that the show would be “the raunchiest thing on TV and it’s gonna piss a lot of people off.” Donohue said he saw right through that, insisting “it was Christians whom he [Parker] wished to offend.”

In truth, “South Park” has also mercilessly ridiculed Jews, and targets just about everyone, in fact, including gays, in parodies that range from unredeemingly crude to urbane and acutely sophisticated. The show’s message is not “blasphemy, sex and violence,” as Donohue charges, but that, when it comes to humor, nothing is inviolate.

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On “Four Corners,” Father Tomas (Kamar de los Reyes) so far is regarding his vow of celibacy as inviolate.

His predecessor in prime time, Father Ray, was severely tested on the premiere of “Nothing Sacred” when he nearly succumbed to the seductive allure of a former flame, going as far as arranging to meet her in a hotel room before backing out.

A steamier scene greeted Father Tomas in the Feb. 24 premiere of “Four Corners,” when he was awakened in his bedroom by the torrid, headstrong Kate (Megan Ward), whom he’d dated before turning to the priesthood. She was fully dressed, but he was shirtless. Although Tomas gave her no encouragement, she did not hide that she was still stuck on him, despite being engaged to someone else.

“I’m a priest,” he protested.

“Tell me you don’t want me,” she replied.

“You’re a beautiful woman, Kate.”

She kissed him, creating a moment of sexual tension, which he followed by telling her that he loved her and had always loved her, but adding:

“I do not love you most of all. Can you understand that? Can you grasp that concept? Is second place at all conceivable to you, Kate? Work on it. It isn’t as if you lost out to another woman. It’s God I love most. God. . . . It’s OK to finish second to God.”

The premiere hinted that Kate had yet to fully grasp anything, although she did have the smarts to dump her repulsive fiance. Not that her relationship with Father Tomas occupies center stage in this promising series about the struggles of Ann-Margret’s widowed matriarch, Amanda Wyatt, to sustain her ranch and her family solidarity in a Southwest region awash with migrant workers and burgeoning real estate development.

While Kate struggles with her feelings toward Father Tomas, Amanda’s son, Alex (Douglas Wert), is intent on joining the developers his mother is resisting. Meanwhile, her foreman, Sam Haskell (Raymond Barry), is helping his ex-con son, Caleb (Justin Chambers), stay out of the clutches of the town’s bullying sheriff (Tim Carhart). And Father Tomas’ mother, Carlotta (Sonia Braga), is trying to keep his sister, Eva (Dahlia Waingort), on track.

Although Ann-Margret looks too glamorous for this crowd, this is a good cast. It and stories generated by the locale, one unusual for TV, lift “Four Corners” above the ordinary. Especially strong is the theme of a region at a crossroads, having to make a difficult choice between economic prosperity and preserving the land and its natural beauty.

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Beyond that is the welcome effect of a rare drama series with prominent Mexican American characters, whether Carlotta (although Braga is Brazilian-born) or Father Tomas. The second of back-to-back episodes aired on premiere night found him hiding an illegal migrant worker who was on the lam for killing a man in self-defense. Father Tomas also was instrumental in reuniting the sympathetic fugitive with his motherless infant, whom the maternal Amanda was intent on keeping for her own. And in Week 2’s episode, he again championed the rights of an undocumented migrant worker.

Thus, Father Tomas is a people’s cleric, one of charity and commitment. Perhaps that’s why the Catholic League’s priest police haven’t gone after him. Or perhaps, with so many other targets looming, they just haven’t gotten around to him yet.

* “Four Corners” airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on CBS (Channel 2). “Nothing Sacred” airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. on ABC (Channel 7).