Anti-Catholicism on Film, 1911

PRIEST ATTACKS THE FILMS.
Happened in Picture Show and Was Shocked by “Story of the Nun.”
Special to The New York Times


HUNTINGTON, L.I., July 8— When the Very Rev. Dean John C. York, rector of St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and Dean of Nassau-Suffolk, arose at a motion picture show here last evening and denounced the film which had just been shown, the audience gasped its surprise.

“I consider it my duty to protest against that series of pictures,” said Father York. “Both as man and priest I voice here publicly my protest against the display of pictures that are unrepresentative, untrue, and essentially immoral in their teachings. Such pictures are a menace to the morals of the community.”

“The Story of the Nun,” was the subject of the film to which Father York took exception. It showed a young girl who had been forced against her will to take the veil. Later, garbed as a nun, she was shown in a room with an elderly priest, whose attentions threw her into such a frenzy that she cast the crucifix to the floor, smashing it. The priest called the Mother Superior, and the young girl nun was sentenced to be entombed alive. The walls were being cemented about her when rescuers saved her.

The picture was too much for Father York, who happened to be in the show because he had gone there to see the manager about leasing the building for an entertainment. After making his protest he hastily left the place.
John Rinas, manager of the show, disclaimed all responsibility for the pictures by saying that they had been passed by the National Board of Censorship, and that he did not even know what the pictures would be until they were thrown upon the screen.

The New York Times, July 9, 1911


NOTE
Most silent films are lost, because the nitrate film then used was extremely unstable. During those early years, most were what are called “one-reelers,” about 10-12 minutes in length. Before the rise of the studio system, many small productions were created by a variety of persons and groups. The above referenced film seems to fall in this category. (There were even some short-lived Catholic film companies.)


The film referred to above is clearly based on an 1836 book titled The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk. Allegedly an autobiographical account, the book depicts nuns as clerical sex slaves imprisoned against their will in cloistered walls. Long proven as spurious, the book was reprinted in England as recently as 1997. In 1911, there was a big concern with what was called “white slavery,” women of European descent being kidnapped and forced into prostitution.

At that time, another wave of anti-Catholicism was sweeping the nation. One Protestant minister called it an “anti-Papal panic.” In state legislatures around the country, “convent inspection” bills were introduced, allowing government officials to enter a convent to “make sure” no women were being held against their will. In some places, including Arkansas, they were passed but later repealed. This was also the period when an anti-Catholic newspaper titled The Menace reached a nationwide circulation of 1.5 million.


Father (later Monsignor) John B. York (1862-1943) was born in Brooklyn and ordained in 1887. From 1894 to 1914 he was Pastor of St. Patrick’s Church in Huntington. Until 1957, the Brooklyn Diocese covered all Long Island. The diocese was divided into deaneries, local subdivisions headed by a dean. While there, he became close friends with President Theodore Roosevelt, whose home was in Oyster Bay. Monsignor York later moved to St. Brigid’s Church, Brooklyn, where he served until his death in 1943.