It's been a long time since the Catholic Church has been able to bask in the projected glow of inspirational films like "Going My Way" (1944) or "The Shoes of the Fisherman" (1968). While every religion from Buddhism to Judaism to Scientology has been criticized, satirized and parodied in movies, it's arguable no faith has taken as many body blows as Catholicism in recent years, in part because of the church's firm stands on social issues such as abortion, homosexuality and birth control.
In the spirit of his surrealist predecessor and countryman Luis Bunuel, Spain's Pedro Almodovar has poked at Catholicism in films prior to "Bad Education," whose plot hinges on the abuse of a schoolboy by a priest. But unlike Bunuel, who was censored for anti-Catholic missives like 1965's "Simon of the Desert," he has mostly escaped criticism by the church, perhaps because his films have courted controversy on so many levels.
Here are some films that have been cited as especially offensive by the Catholic League; look for more criticism when Ron Howard's adaptation of the best-selling "The Da Vinci Code," whose plot hinges on a conspiracy involving the marriage of Jesus, is released next year.
•"The Magdalene Sisters" (2003): A documentary called "Sex in a Cold Climate" inspired director Peter Mullan to make this film about three women who were among the many kept in isolated servitude by the church in the 1960s, usually at the behest of their families, in Irish asylums that earned a profit via their laundry facilities.
•"The Crime of Father Amaro" (2003): Gael Garcia Bernal, who stars in "Bad Education," also starred in this Spanish-language drama about a priest who becomes involved with a teenage parishioner and whose sin is used to divert attention from far greater moral and criminal corruption within the church.
•"The Order" (2003): This supernatural thriller about a priest, played by Heath Ledger, whose faith is severely tested by the discovery that a Satanic cult is at work in the Vatican, is only one of a number of recent films exploring the same theme. "The Reckoning," "Lost Souls," "Stigmata" and "Bless the Child" offer other variations on the premise.
•"Dogma" (1999): Regular mass-goer and professed believer Kevin Smith was widely denounced for this over-the-top comedy starring Linda Fiorentino as an abortion-clinic worker and the last descendant in Jesus of Nazareth's bloodline whom God calls on to save the world from destruction. Chris Rock, as the unknown 13th disciple, descends from heaven to give her a hand.
•"Priest" (1994): The rift between the Walt Disney company and its subsidiary Miramax began more than a decade ago when Miramax acquired this English drama about a priest whose struggle to separate his love for God from his love for another man is complicated when he learns of the church cover-up of an incident of incest.
•"History of the World: Part I" (1981): Though Mel Brooks is an equal-opportunity satirist, he did for the Catholic church what "The Producers" did for show business in a segment of this anthology-comedy that turned the Inquisition into a song-and-dance spectacle.