According to her (Mother Julie's) opinion, the Mistresses
should not allow the pupils to read novels, or other works of
pure fiction, which are much more likely to harm than to be
instructive, for young people. "It is like trying to gather
figs from thistles", said Mère Julie. "When the fruit-laden
tree is near at the hand ... the only thing that the children
derive from it, as a rule, is an inordinate taste for this kind
of story, and a great disgust for anything sensible or the least
bit serious."
This quotation is taken from the book 'The Educational Ideas
of Blessed Julie Billiart', Foundress of the Congregation of
the Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur, written by a member of her
Congregation. Dated 1922, Longmans Green and Co. Translated
from the French. The original title of this little book, 'Les
Idées Pédagogiques de La Bienheureuse Mère Julie Billiart' is
one of a series of studies of founders and foundresses of religious
orders devoted to teaching, edited by M. Halcant and published
by P. Lethielleux, Libraire-Editeur, 10 Rue Cassette, Paris.
The words of Blessed Julie Billiart apply to fantasy films
so popular today. There is yet another one soon to be released.
Some argue that in these cinematic fantasies one can see Christian
symbolism. It is far better to nourish the mind with the reality
of the doctrines of our God-given Faith rather than to distort
His creation with the fabrications of man (often akin to Gnosticism.).
Some argue that visual fantasy is but innocent entertainment.
It is far better to entertain oneself and one's children with
the edifying stories of the heroes of our Faith- the saints
- who lived and died and set an example in the practical order
of how we must live in order to gain to the glory of heaven
rather than to fill one's mind or a child's mind with 'heroes'
who do not exist at all.
One should note that the Hollywood establishment has never
been a friend to traditional Roman Catholicism, and that anything
which they attempt to market under the guise of Christian fare
must be deeply suspect. Hollywood, like all liberal elite institutions,
wants a secularized, modernist audience. Films like Narnia,
with their thin veneer of religious ideas, are genuine attempts
to wean children from real religion, for they deceive the child
into thinking that emotion and sentimentality can take the place
of the sense of the sacred that only the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass can genuinely produce.