The Judas Iscariot Lunch
THE JUDAS ISCARIOT LUNCH’ will be broadcast on RTE 1 in a prime time slot – Monday 18 July at 21.35
Following a sell out premier at the Dublin International Film Festival and at the recent Galway Film Fleadh , ‘The Judas Iscariot Lunch’, a new feature-length documentary, will be broadcast on RTE 1 on Monday July 18th at 21.35
Link to website and trailer
www.thejudasiscariotlunch.com
Link to Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/thejudasiscariotlunch/
The documentary, directed by Teresa O’Grady-Peyton and produced by TJ O’Grady-Peyton tells the story of Columban missionary priests “who took the brave, honourable, and risky decision to leave the active ministry and set out on totally different and difficult life journey”.
They were branded ‘Judas Iscariots’ by Pope Paul VI.
“We never saw it like that … we see ourselves as pioneers!”
The ‘Judas Iscariot Lunch’ is a story about faith, religion, love and
life after the priesthood.
13 Irish ex-priests speak candidly about how they came to be missionairies in East Asia, the Pacific and South America in the 1960’s and 70’s. Immersed in their new situations, these young idealists resonated and developed much broader ideas about God, their own humanity and needs, and about faiths, cultures and economies.
This documentary, often funny, sometimes sad, is beautiful, raw and thought-provoking.
This was a fantastic programme. I was sorry when it came to an end.
A very serious matter treated with empathy and some great humour.
Looking at who the team were it is easy to see why it turned out so well.
http://www.thejudasiscariotlunch.com/#!team/znwvn
Lots of material for reflection.
You can catch up with it here until 17 August next.
http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/the-judas-iscariot-lunch-30004143/10599684/
Watched film on RTE tonight Absolutely superb,honest and true Congrats to all involved and especially to all those brave men who most definitely spoke from the heart and experience of a time past Thank God !!!!!!!!
It was a fine programme about fine men. However, I was a bit disappointed that there was little or no explicit reference to the faith lives of these men post ministry. Some of the men said they are no longer believers. Surely however some of them are still practising catholics? It would have been interesting to hear how things played out for them subsequently faith wise.
I watched this last night. What a wonderfully thought provoking program! It gave a fascinating insight into the various routes that people took to the priesthood in the 1960s and how they struggled in the 1970s particularly with celibacy and especially in the Philippines which had a very different sexual ethos from Ireland, a country full of beautiful women where the population basically regarded celibacy as a bit of a joke and many women had no reservation in trying to attract priests.
What I would love to see now is a counterpoint program done along the same lines with priests who stayed the course talking about how they dealt with the issues.
I spent 4.5 years as a student in St Patricks Kiltegan 50 years ago. Fortunately I left after a few months of Theology studies. Everything in last night’s program resonated with me: relief, guilt, lack of direction for my life in the ‘real world’. Thanks for the best TV program in years. I am only sorry I didn’t record it
As a child I never connected with religion as taught by the Christian Brothers. To me as a child, who suffered corporal punishment on a daily basis, I could not reconcile a loving god with brutalisation.So I deliberately turned from their message and their education. Needless to say my early education suffered as well.
Recently, as a sixty year old man, I completed my Honours Degree. The academic and financial support I received from various religious people such as the Oblate Fathers, the Holy Faith and the St Vincent De Paul has been magnificent. The men on this program and the religious I have met throughout my degree, and other people like them, are the type of people the church should turn to for guidance in the modern age.
Their humble, honest and courageous humanity could become the modern bedrock upon which a pertinent Catholic Church could be reconstructed for all people.
I am very lucky that in my lifetime I have seen religious human beings place humanity as a priory before their religion. My thanks to you all.
Terrific program. Brian Smith was the only one who mentioned his secondary school(in Mullingar, a place outstanding in is adademic rigour and its narrowness and obsession with Gaelic football) as having set him on the path he took to Dalgan. I remember it well…
I can identify fully with the sentiments expressed in the programme. The best thing I did in life was to get married and have a family. The second best thing was to join the Oblates. I have had unreserved support and friendship from the Oblates during active ministry, but even more so since I left. As in the programme I also left home at 13. 25 great years as an Oblate priest in London. and 27 years happily married.
Just watched this programmed on the rteplayer and it was an excellent programme – explaining, in hindsight, their reasons for entering, for ministering and for leaving. One of the best programmes I’ve watched in a long time. It was so truthful and honest it spoke from their hearts to ours.