04/09/2002 - Holy See's daily condemns The Magdalene Sisters calling it "a poorly drawn caricature"

Films that dig deep, explore, observe and judge were never popular. And when the subjects under scrutiny wear habits and have taken holy vows, things can really get unpleasant.
That is what happened to Peter Mullan after the screening of The Magdalene Sisters in competition at the Venice Film Festival. The catholic press launched a strong attack of condemnation and now the Vatican daily, “L’Osservatore Romano” has joined in. “This film is a poor caricature of a few examples of Irish re-education,” is how the newspaper’s film critic described Mullan’s second feature. “If the goal was to inform the Catholic church of the scandals engendered in a few psychopathic institutions in Scotland and Ireland, then this angry and rancorous provocation of Mullan’s was the wrong way of going about it.”
Mullan is on record as having said that he did not fear official protests by the Church and waxed ironic about “the number of much more important issues the Church is involved in”. If Mullan’s aim in making this film was to shake up the souls of Catholics and non-Catholics alike, the “Osservatore Romano’s” reaction show that he hit the mark.