Documentary producer glad to have access to tell seminarians' story

Published: 2005-02-08

CINCINNATI (CNS) -- When Carol Marin and Don Moseley of Marin Corp. Productions set out to produce a documentary about seminary life, they essentially had two goals in mind. They wanted to demystify what goes on behind the walls of the institutions that prepare men for the priesthood, and to examine why, in one of the most difficult periods in the history of the Catholic Church, a man would still choose this way of life. Marin, along with those who appear in a new documentary focusing on the Athenaeum of Ohio at Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West in Cincinnati, are pleased with the results. The program, "Keeping the Faith: Becoming a Priest in Today's Catholic Church," debuted Feb. 1, on the Discovery Times cable channel. Depending on viewer reaction, it may be picked up by the larger Discovery Channel. The first seminary the producers approached declined to participate, noted Marin, an award-winning broadcaster who has worked as a correspondent for numerous national news programs. But Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati and Father Gerald Haemmerle, then rector at Mount St. Mary's, approved the project. "We are most grateful they let us in," Marin told The Catholic Telegraph, Cincinnati's archdiocesan newspaper. "They had every reason to say no, but we were given virtually unfettered access to ask what we wanted to ask and see what we wanted to see. It took tremendous courage on their part to give us the kind of access they did."

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