It’s a cliche to say that priests and nuns aren’t portrayed well in movies nowadays.

Just mention a priest in any crime drama and you’ve got a suspect on your hands.

We could have loads of fun remembering how ridiculously priests and nuns have been portrayed in movies lately. But instead of focusing on the negative, we here at CMR have decided to focus on the positive portrayals of priests in movies.

But we’re having some trouble. Well…lots of trouble.

Uhm…there’s not a whole lot of positive portrayals of priests and nuns. Hmmmm…priests or nuns portrayed well in movies? Uhmmm…hold on…I’m thinking….

Well we’ve always got Karl Malden in On the Waterfront, Bing Crosby in the Bells of Saint Mary, or the nuns in The Sound of Music. After that things get a little…sparse.

So let’s limit ourselves to the modern era of film making starting in 1970. What movies can you think of since then where priests or nuns were portrayed in a positive light?

The few that jump to mind are the priests who have to fight the devil. Hey, anyone looks goods next to the devil, I guess. You’ve got the exorcists in “The Exorcist” as well as Tom Wilkinson’s portrayal of a priest in the “Exorcism of Emily Rose.”

The young priest in Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” was portrayed as persistent and good if a little naive.

Ben Cross in “The Assisi Underground,” Amy Adams in “Doubt,” and Jeremy Irons in “The Mission” was pretty good.

I’m done after that. Can you think of anymore because this list seems woefully short?