TV movies about Pope John Paul II

The network stations seem to be pretending to be EWTN (that's the Eternal Word Television Network, a cable station out of Birmingham, Alabama, run by a feisty, charismatic Franciscan nun and her community): Thursday night, ABC ran a two-hour movie based on the life of the late, great Pope John Paul II (born Karol Wojtyla). It was a little choppy and too concise, but it was still watchable. Tonight and concluding Wednesday night, CBS is running their bigger-budget, better-scripted and better-filmed offering, featuring Cary Elwes as the young "Lolek" and John Voight as the future Pontiff. Personally, I'm liking CBS's version a *lot* better; it's inspired me to start reading George Weigel's biography of JPII, and I can definately see why "Papa Benny" (Pope Benedict XVI) gave it his two thumbs up when the film was screened at the Vatican about a month ago.

It's been a while since I posted any news about Holy Trinity (German) Catholic Church, our imperiled old parish, mostly because there hasn't been any news. The church is slated to be closed on the 15th of this month, and I've been offering an Advent novena to keep it open and so that the Latin and the German Mass communities can always worship there. It's not too late for some of you to join it with me, if you're so inclined:

( Advent Novena )