The wit and wisdom of Susan Sarandon

Many people have written to me about the fact that actress Susan Sarandon, who grew up in a Catholic family and was in Catholic schools all the way through Catholic University in Washington DC, recently called Pope Benedict XVI a Nazi.

You can stop writing to me about this now unless we hear that she has apologized. Thanks in advance.

Really, friends. Do we care what Susan Sarandon thinks about anything having to do with the Church?

In matters Catholic, how good could her judgment be?

Sarandon has in the past freely chosen to accept the roles of mother of a child prostitute (Pretty Baby), had a lesbian sex scene (the Hunger), was a witch (The Witches of Eastwick) and seasonally slutty groupie (Bull Durham). Well… a gal gotsta buy groceries, right? This Catholic girl has also been a contributor to Emily’s List.

Still and all, she chose her path. No one was holding a gun to her head or menacing her family back in the day unless she joined up, played the Hollywood game, and betrayed her faith and Church.

Pope Benedict and his family, on the other hand, weren’t exactly dealing with the brutal Screen Actors Guild.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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28 Comments

  1. “Pope Benedict and his family, on the other hand, weren’t exactly dealing with the Screen Actors Guild. ”

    Good one, Father. She certainly needs our prayers. It is easy to pray for those we love; it is hard to pray for those that make us cringe.

    May God have mercy on Susan Sarandon and on the whole world!

  2. Chumly says:

    What bothers me about the comment is not that it was made but that there is no response to it. The comment went unnoticed at the event. Only the Catholic League will offer a criticism. Perhaps a perfunctory response from ADL or others. It will if anything help Sarandon’s career and most Catholics will almost assuredly continue to go see her movies. Anyone can offer almost any comment regardless of how absurd provided it makes the church look bad.

  3. Joe in Canada says:

    Susan who?

  4. Captain Peabody says:

    Who’s Susan Sarandon?

  5. marknelza says:

    Hi Chumly

    I have to agree with you. What infuriates me is this response by Catholics to roll over and let it go. She has not apologised and almost a week has gone by. Unless we make an issue it will fizzle away and in the near future someone else will try this knowing that they will probably get away with it.
    We launched a Campaign on Facebook to show support of the Pope in the face of this statement by Sarandan. This is the link http://bit.ly/qbLEkO
    The sad part is that we have had very little LIKES to show support. What we have had instead is Catholics making statements like: “We don’t have a squeaky clean past so we should just let it go.” Pathetic. I dare anyone to insult the Jews or the Muslims. Catholics, really, please, grow a pair…
    In closing, to show how pathetic Catholics can be: We launched an objection to a referee in South Africa and within 24 hours there was 35,000 LIKES. Shows our priorities doesn’t it.
    I’d like to change my log in name from “marknelza” to “highly annoyed”

  6. She’s not going to apologize, of course. That failure, too, will be on her conscience. We have the duty to call her, responsibly, on her offense against charity (not to mention truth), but we need not wait around for her response, as her response is not our responsibility. We just go on to the next challenge.

  7. APX says:

    @Captain Peabody
    Who’s Susan Sarandon?

    Her:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Sarandon

    You can usually find her movies on TV when a baseball game gets rained out, or some channel (Usually the Women’s Network here in Canada) is having a movie marathon of movies from the 80s.

  8. Tim Ferguson says:

    ahhh Mrs. Sarandon, visiting that hoary old chestnut that’s been proven so undoubtedly wrong – let’s just do the Time Warp again, shall we?

  9. Ralph says:

    “No, I’m not a nun, but I played one on TV”

  10. MissOH says:

    “Pope Benedict and his family, on the other hand, weren’t exactly dealing with the brutal Screen Actors Guild. ”
    After speaking with someone who was critical of Pope Benedict, essentially because he lived in Nazi Germany, I looked up his date of birth and the official start of WWII. He was 12 years old when the war started and we all know all middle school aged children are perfectly ready to start fighting brutal governments…
    So many are so clueless.

  11. tealady24 says:

    Just another aging actress looking for attention. What useless lives they lead.
    And don’t forget the decades she spent living with Mr. Wonderful Robbins himself. Why marry; after all, you could be looking forward to your 39th wedding anniversary on Saturday.

  12. Frank H says:

    I wonder if she has ever noticed that her initials are “SS” ?

  13. Jbuntin says:

    Good one Father… In the words of Ranger Bill, (from the story Hole in the sky)…” ’nuff said.”

  14. irishgirl says:

    Hi marknelza,
    I totally agree with you! And if I were logged onto Facebook (which I’m not), I’d definitely put in a ‘LIKE’! And I’m just as mad at Catholics who won’t stand up for the Faith and for the Holy Father when he gets attacked in the secular press. I also say, ‘Catholics, grow a pair….!’

  15. anilwang says:

    What bothers me is this Cult of Celebrity that actually cares what celebrities think, what celebrities wear, who celebrities talk to, what toothpaste celebrities use, which soft drink celebrities drink, etc.

    We need to be reminded that this is a form of idolatry. There is nothing to respond to. She is insignificant, except as her value as a human being.

    Now if she entered politics and promised to push her views, or if she was using her persistently influence to push her views, there would be something to push back against.

    But it’s a waste of effort to chase everyone who disagrees with you and argue with them. It’s also a huge distraction on the things that really matter, and makes us look belligerent to third parties who might be willing to side with us if “we weren’t so defensive”.

    Personally, I prefer a virulent anti-Catholic than a luke-warm cafeteria Catholic, since it’s easier to change misdirected rage that it is to wake up the slothful. The virulent anti-Catholic St. Paul instantly changed at Damascus into a zealous Catholic. An indifferent Catholic often needs a strong tragedy to wake him from his sleep.

  16. iowapapist says:

    Frank H: Thank you for your astute observation regarding the fact that Sarandon’s initials are “S.S.” Perhaps this is a harbinger of a made-for-t.v. movie starring Sarandon as a politically correct Eva Braun on a mission to emasculate German society (e.g. pressures Hitler into forcing Himmler to change his name to Personnler, etc.). I can even predict the title of the movie. “Goering My Way”.

  17. jarhead462 says:

    Susan SaranWrap (Tomalin)- Grew up in Edison, NJ.
    Shame on her. She has disgraced my home. (and we really don’t need any help doing that!)

    Semper Fi!

  18. APX says:

    @tealady24
    Why marry; after all, you could be looking forward to your 39th wedding anniversary on Saturday.
    She was previously divorced, so it might not have been an available option. Furthermore, according Wikipedia, she “no longer believes in marriage.”

  19. Marcy K. says:

    EWTN’s Host Teresa Tomeo had a great quote today on her blog, http://teresatomeo.com/take-it-from-teresa/sarandons-comments-need-a-makeover.html that I normally would have laughed at, “No amount of foundation or age defying makeup can hide the ugliness verbalized by actress and Revlon spokeswoman Susan Sarandon against the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. ” It is true. This is just another slur on the Church by a has-been actress who has no respect for God or the Church that she grew up in.

    I recently finished reading a book by Teresa Tomeo – “Extreme Makeover,” http://teresatomeo.com/books-and-media.html that talks about how the media and feminism have hurt women. Since Sarandon is a feminist to the extreme, maybe she should be called the Nazi. She is the one who needs the makeover because she is just ugly on the inside. She definitely needs prayers because she has really strayed far from the flock of Christ.

  20. Joan A. says:

    Susan over lunch with a reporter: “That Pope is a Nazi. A German, narrow-minded, misogynistic oppressor of everybody’s rights. He is evil just like the whole Catholic Church and I know because I grew up in it. No one can tell me about Catholicism, I am an expert on it and the Pope. Furthermore, I am an actress and therefore an expert on everything.”

    The Pope over lunch: “Msgr Ganswein, who is this Susan Sar…, hmm, Sarandon I hear of?”

    Msgr: “I have looked into the matter, Your Holiness. No one seems to care much about her. All I can find is that she is an American actress known for playing exceptionally bad movie roles.”

  21. iudicame says:

    Talk to the hand girlfriend!

    m

  22. Joe Magarac says:

    I agree completely with what anilwang said above, especially the notion that ” it’s a waste of effort to chase everyone who disagrees with you and argue with them.”

    Some here may see folks like the Catholic League’s Bill Donahue as Catholics who have finally “grown a pair” and started to fight back against those who mock or scorn the Church. I disagree. I think that fighting someone like Susan Sarandon makes Catholics look thin-skinned and petty. Better to brush her aside, like a fly, and focus on things that matter. Going after Susan Sarandon, or Madonna, or any of the long list of celebrities and public figures who say stupid things about Catholicism, just keeps them in the public eye and so rewards them.

  23. Dirichlet says:

    “They bark, Sancho; a sign that we’re moving forward”

  24. Archbishop Dolan chimes in on the Sarandon kerfuffle: http://blog.archny.org/?p=1945

  25. Imrahil says:

    Dear @Fr. Z, I think (no offense) that you have left out the best-made film with (to my discretion) wrongful intent – not just wrongful content – ever produced. Thelma and Louise.

    Dear @Joe Magarac: It is said: “What does the proud oaktree care if a hog takes pleasure in rubbing at her?”
    but
    pride has not especially a good reputation among personal habits… Let’s give our offenders the pleasure of having offended us. As images of God, they’re worth it.

  26. Martial Artist says:

    @Father Z,

    An excellent title for this post. Father, defining two of the attributes of its subject which are made most prominent by their abject absence.

    Pax et bonum,
    Keith Töpfer

  27. thefeds says:

    I have one brief observation to make… Has anyone ever seen Sinead O’Connor and Susan Sarandon together in the same room… at the same time? Just askin’…

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