The Journal

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Essays, criticism, journal entries, and prose presentations on cinema, theology, and the recovery of the Catholic imagination. Long-form, unhurried, in our own voice.

Featured · Founder's Letter

An Interrupted Vocation, Resumed

A founder's letter on the long pause between Beatific Vision's first season — MMX to MMXII — and its resumption in MMXXIV. On the work of law, the formation of a family, the maintenance of conviction across years of apparent silence, and the deliberate architecture of an enterprise built for perpetuity.

Ryan C. McCarty · Anno Domini MMXXVI · ~ 1,500 words
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Recent Entries

Director's Note · II Anno Domini MMXXVI

On Restoring “The Most Beautiful Thing This Side of Heaven”

A director's note on the 2011 documentary — its subject (a Solemn High Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Kansas City), its makers (Canon Avis, Father Fongemie, Father Harkins, Doctor Csanaky), and the rationale for restoring the original masters and re-releasing the film in 2026 as the inaugural feature of the resumed Beatific Vision catalog.

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Archival Note · I Anno Domini MMXXVI

The Seraphim Screenwriting Competition: A First Attempt

An archival note on the 2011 Seraphim Screenwriting Competition — the first nationwide Catholic screenwriting contest, advertised in Script Magazine and Creative Screenwriting, with a guaranteed greenlight on the line. Why the prize was not awarded that year, what the contest taught about the upstream pipeline, and what we are persuaded the resumed enterprise might do with it next. Includes the original 2011 trade-press advertisement as primary-source documentation.

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Editorial Note

The Journal publishes new entries as they are written, on the unhurried schedule that long-form writing requires. Three further entries are presently in preparation: a critical essay on Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest, an interview by correspondence with a Catholic film composer, and a theological essay on the sacramental imagination in cinema. Subscribe to be notified when each is published.

Coming · MMXXVI

The Journal of Catholic Cinema

A quarterly print and digital journal, publishing serious criticism, archival recovery, theological essay, and original Catholic film theory. Published in association with the Catholic Film Institute. First issue forthcoming.

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Editorial publication services rendered under the BEATIFIC VISION® mark · USPTO Class 41