Father of Mercy is set during a time more innocent and yet more horrifying than any most of us have ever known. The physical and mental torture of war is movingly juxtaposed with the warm friendship between Don Carlo and the close knit group of students at Gonzaga Institute who later join him on the front line as soldiers. The innocent trusting children Don Gnocchi helps have been injured by war in strikingly similar ways to many adults who seem unable to move beyond their suffering.
Truly a coming of age film, the “boys” and the priest both must rethink their assumptions and discover what life no longer devoid of suffering means. After the war, Father Gnocchi opened a children’s home for orphaned amputee children. By trying to heal the bodies and souls wracked by a war he himself experienced firsthand, Father Carlo Gnocchi heals a nation.
Today there are over 75 hospitals and clinics operated by the Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation in Italy serving special needs children, terminally ill cancer patients and the elderly.
Don Carlo Gnocchi will be beatified by Pope Benedict XVI this Sunday, October 25, 2009.
I wrote this review of Father of Mercy for the Tiber River Blogger Review program, created by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods. For more information and to purchase, please visit Aquinas and More Catholic Goods.
Tiber River is the first Catholic book review site, started in 2000 to help you make informed decisions about Catholic book purchases.
2 comments:
Sounds like this was a heavy movie. Yet it also sounds like it had a good message (or maybe more than one).
It was an excellent movie and yes, it was "heavy", but hopeful. That is the best kind!
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