Doubting Meryl

St. Thomas had doubted Jesus when He appeared in front of the apostles after He resurrected. To prove that it was indeed Him who had risen from the dead after three days, He showed them His palm which still has a wound from the nail when they crucified Him in the cross.

In this movie, it was the turn of Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius Beauvier to DOUBT if Father Brendan Flynn just has a soft spot for Donald Miller, the first black student of their school, or if the priest already has an 'untoward' fondness to the boy.


The root of her DOUBT is when Sister James told her that the priest called for Donald in the middle in the class, returned smelling alcohol and saw him put the boy's undershirt in his locker. Father Flynn was able to come up with an explanation that made sense to Sister James and said "I don't think Father Flynn did anything wrong." but Sister Aloysius just snapped: "You just want things to be resolved so you can have simplicity back."

And the case was really not resolved by telling it's audience if Father Flynn is guilty or not. Instead, there is a need to read between the lines in their confrontations to get a clue if Sister Aloysius is just a malicious, paranoid nun or Father Flynn really is a child molester. There are also some clues like the priest always wants the window to be opened but the curtain covers it, and that he wants his manicured nails to be long, as he showed his students "...long but clean."

And as Sister Aloysius warned the priest: " I will step outside the church if that's what needs to be done, till the door should shut behind me!" she talked with their superiors to tell them her DOUBTS. They hear her out and remove the priest from his post. Only to be transffered to another school with a much higher position.

Not attaining her conviction that she will fight Father Flynn and he will lose, she just cried at the arms of Sister James, though she already has her certainty, it will still remain as DOUBT.