"The Magdalene Sisters" is a film about the lives of 30,000 Irish women who passed through the Magdalene Laundries run by Catholic Nuns that established in the 19th Century. The women who worked in these institutions had been branded as sinners, for having had children outside Marriage, or for having left their abusive husbands. Once they were inside, they remained there for life, working unpaid for every day of the year, except Christmas Day.
When they died, they were buried anonymously."The Magdalene Sisters" is based upon atonement. Atonement comes from the roots At-One-Ment, meaning to be At-One with something. For example, if I am displeased with my brother for something he's done, then he must seek to please me in order to be "at one" with me.
Atonement is usually attained through repentance. Repentance is being sorry for something, and then forgiven.The release of this film brought major concerns to the Church. "Why people should have to suffer so much for forgiveness?" The answer portrayed was that fornication was a mortal sin, meaning you would have to confess and obtain forgiveness for the sin before dying, or you would be eternally sent to hell.
However, one of the foundation beliefs in God is that he is all loving.This brings into question "Why he would want people to suffer so much to be forgiven?" There is no answer for this. Most Christians believe that God can forgive easily and one does not need to suffer much, if at all, to receive his/her forgiveness. Lastly the main concern to the Church, was regarding "Why the Church punished the girls so much?" when it is regarded as loving.
The film gave an impression that the nuns thought they were being loving by helping the girls obtain forgiveness for their sins, however, the audience of the film saw it as cruelty.I think the cruelty shown towards the girls was wrong. My reason for this is that only God knows whether someone has been forgiven or not. The church cannot decide that the girls have to work for the rest of their lives in order to obtain forgiveness, for God may have forgiven them as soon as they committed the sin, due to perhaps feeling bad about it and acknowledging they did wrong.
However, whether they be forgiven or not, they should not be forced into the laundries. Every human has rights to freedom, and working in a laundry 364 days a year is not freedom.However, a lot of people hardly understand God, and of course, nobody has witnessed of what he is capable of. It is very common, that the few people, who strive in their religion with all their capability, become to discover more about God's attributes. These people pay attention and realise how much God forgives, without even being asked. We hear about how many pure hearted people die in pain, and the news of this often sways people's beliefs.
They assume "How can God make such a good person suffer, especially if he is all loving?" However, we only come to realise upon thinking, that the last section of that person's life spent in pain, wipes away any sins they may have committed, and while it may seem like a large amount of pain, when comparing it to the punishment of the world, it is incomparable. It is because God is all loving, that he chooses to make that person have a small amount of pain in this world to be forgiven for those sins, than to have the drastically larger amount of pain in the next world.People say that the film is too negative and gives a wrong impression of the Catholic Church. Personally, I believe that it true as it only represents a minority.
It is rather like the situation with terrorism. While only a minority of extremist "Muslims" who follow their own version of "Islam" involve themselves in terrorism, the whole of the Muslim community is prejudiced against because of their irresponsible actions. It is a similar case with the Laundries. While only a small amount of Catholics involve themselves in this torture, the whole of the Catholic Church may be prejudiced against because of it.
However, there have been interviews with some of those who used to work in the laundries, and many of them have stated that the film in an understatement of how the laundries used to be. Many of the scenes could not have taken place in the Laundries; for example, the girls could not have seen the outside world at all, neither were they allowed private conversations and the beating was many times worse.I found the film very effective. It portrayed things in a brutal manner.
The ways in which the girls escaped was dramatic, and displays how tight and vicious the security was.To conclude the film has more benefits than drawbacks. My reason for this is that it awakes people to see that there are misguided people in every religion. It awakes people to question what is happening to them.
Are priests really men of God? It makes people question their faith and their actions.
