Vincent Nguyen Period 1 Good and Bad Movie Extra Credit The movie that I watched for this

assignment is called Padre Pio: Miracle Man that was produced in 2000. This movie is about Francesco Forgione (given the name Padre Pio after he joined the Franciscan Capuchins) who was lived from 1887 to 1968 in Italy. It started off with an inquisitor from the Vatican coming to the monastery where Padre Pio was staying to investigate him. Padre Pio starts to tell his story since childhood of how he had visions of Jesus and Mary. He later on joined the Capuchins to be a priest, serving the poor. In his 50 years as a Franciscan friar, there were many interesting incidents such as receiving the stigmata, prophesying the papacy of John Paul II to the pope himself before he became one, etc. Later on the Vatican launched in investigation on Padre Pio and declared him as a Saint in 2002 by Pope John Paul 2 himself. Some criteria/qualities/actions that were considered as good in this movie are praying to God, devoting one s life to God, 3 evangelical vows, charity work, repenting from sins and most importantly is to be humble. In the beginning of the movie, the little child Francesco prayed to God to heal a little boy from a deadly disease and the boy was cured. Devoting one s life to God such as joining a religious order to become a priest, brother or nun was greatly valued in this movie. When joining a religious order, for a person to be fully accepted they must take the 3 evangelical vows of obedience, chastity and poverty. Obedience means to accept and do God s will through obeying and respecting the request of the religious order through the religious superior. Chastity here means to not engage in any personal romantic affairs with anyone but to live a pure chaste life, available to love everybody equally. Poverty means to live a very simple life, not owning any properties in order to live a non-materialistic life. Doing charitable work is highly favored in this movie. Some examples of charitable works shown in the movie was feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, burying the dead. Padre Pio organized and fundraise enough funds to build a charity hospital to treat patients with

diseases. Repenting from sins is highly praised in this movie because there are many scenes when the people are confessing their sins to a priest whenever they commit a sin/crime. Lastly, the virtue of humbleness and humility is greatly mentioned throughout the entire movie. Padre Pio s life is a true example of humbleness; whenever other people show gratitude to him and praised him for his deeds and assistance, Padre Pio always tell them to also remember to thank God, because it is all God s doing, not his. Some of the criteria/actions that were considered as bad/evil in this movie are using God s name in vain, disobedience, lying, bearing false witness, worshipping pagan gods and sorcery. At the beginning of the movie when Padre Pio was doing a miracle, one of the farm workers accidently used God s name in vain out of shock and was immediately scolded by Padre Pio. Disobedience when in religious vows is considered as a great offense in this movie because the person is not keeping to the statements that he vowed to live by. Lying is another action that is condemned in the movie. At one point in the movie when Padre Pio was talking to a few people for advices of building the charity hospital, there was a man that lied about his education and experiences, his lies were immediately revealed by Padre Pio and the man immediately apologized for his sin. Bearing false witness is also similar to lying in regarding making a false witness accusation of someone, as a lady in the movie accused Padre Pio of sorcery which was false. Lastly, worshipping pagan gods and sorcery is considered as evil in the movie because it goes against the first commandment (I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods besides Me) and in the same sense sorcery is worshipping the devil, thus contradicting the first commandment. This was explained in the movie when Padre Pio was wrongly accused.