Month: January 2023

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The two sisters meet with Father Flynn under false pretenses and ask him what happened in the rectory. Aloysius says Sr. James smelled alcohol on Donald’s breath. He eventually relents and admits that Donald was caught drinking sacramental wine, and that if others knew, Donald could no longer be an altar boy. The next Sunday, Flynn delivers a sermon on gossip. Sister James tells him about the undershirt, and that she saw him putting it in the locker, which he says he did so as not to embarrass Donald any further. Donald approaches Father Flynn, who avoids him. Immediately, Donald is bullied by a fellow student, because of Father Flynn’s avoidance. The toy breaks. Flynn sees this, and comforts Donald, hugging him.  

Aloysius meets with Mrs. Miller, Donald’s mother, on Mrs. Miller’s way to work. She is surprised to learn that Sister Aloysius was once married, but her husband is dead.  She is concerned about Donald’s graduation from Catholic school so he can attend a good high school where he will not be bullied. She tells Aloysius that Donald’s father beats him because of “his nature”,  and that if his father knew, he would kill him.  For that the reason he came to the school in the first place as she also feared for his life in public school. She says that Flynn was the only man that was ever good to Donald. She asks her to do what she will, but to leave her son out of it. 

What is inconsistent about Sister Aloysius’ approach with deontology is that she believes, in this situation, that the ends justify the means, and even if they do not, she is so confident in her rightness, she is willing to be forced out of the church, and for her soul to be damned if it is necessary for the greater good, arguably because to question her judgment would mean questioning her entire identity/reality/rightness. Because of deontology’s presumptions of knowledge of this situation, determining what course of action is most consistent within its framework is difficult. One could say that a deontologist would gather more information, and then act based on the categorical imperative, but given Sister Aloysius’ isolation and specific place in society and the Church, that is arguably practically impossible, which is part of what drives her determination, in that she is powerless to affect change within the system, and is driven by desperation to act outside of it, as she then only herself will do the right thing.

Sister James will assist her, and only up to a point, which in and of itself is driven by her position over Sister James. The way in which Sister Aloysius treats Sister James, Mrs. Miller, and Donald is as a mere means manipulating them to serve her own ends, while denying their agency. This applies less to Donald, as a child who needs protecting, but by her manipulation which is arguably not out of pure duty, but simply a justification of her dislike of Father Flynn,given that she has been convinced of her knowledge of his wrongdoing, since he held another boy’s hand.

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 Can normative ethical theories have any universalizability in contexts where women do not have the ability to make such decisions? As with  the situation presented in the film, this raises questions about the epistemological presumptions of ethical systems like deontology which do not consider context and relationships, in contrast to care ethics, which takes relationships into account. What follows is a partial summary of the film for context, but reading the first post is also necessary. 

On a packed Sunday, at Saint Nicholas’ Church in the Bronx, the parish priest, Father Flynn speaks about President Kennedy’s assassination the year before, saying that it caused many to doubt, and have crises of faith, but that it also unified people over a shared sense of loss. A young nun, Sister James, listens intently, riveted. Sister Aloysius, the principal of the school, terrifies a misbehaving boy. Father Flynn finishes his sermon by saying that when we doubt, as everyone does at one time or another, we are not alone.  

 After Mass, Donald Miller, that Sunday’s altar boy and the school’s first Black student, tells Flynn when he grows up, he wants to be a priest too. Flynn says that he would make a good one, and shows him a toy, a dancing ballerina, and gives it to him. 

 That night, Aloysius asks the nuns what they thought of Flynn’s sermon. She argues that because Flynn was talking about having doubts, he must be having doubts because of something that he has done. She tells all the nuns to watch him. Sister Aloysius sees Father Flynn holding William, one of Sister James’ students’ hand, and sees him pull away. Because of what she has seen, Aloysius reiterates to Sister James that there is a chain of command that must be followed, and if she sees anything out of the ordinary, she needs to tell Aloysius, who will take it up the chain. 

 Later, Flynn calls Donald down to the rectory to see him. after Sr. James notices Flynn putting a shirt into a locker during the class. Donald has not rejoined the class yet. Sr. James tells Aloysius that Donald seemed frightened after coming back from seeing Flynn. Sr. James says she thinks she smelled alcohol on Donald’s breath when he got back from the rectory. Sister James says that her suspicions shake her faith. Sister Aloysius responds that “When one pursues wrongdoing, one steps away from God, but in His service.” Because Sister Aloysius knows that all the priests will take Father Flynn’s side, she says that they will have to handle it themselves.  

Deontology would process this moral matter in distinct ways depending on whether the accusations against Father Flynn were true. Either way, Sister Aloysius’ duty toward Donald is a perfect one. One could provide a justification for working within the system by going up the chain of command,  but neither  is not to imply that working outside established structures is necessarily in violation of the categorical imperative. 

However, some of the actions of Sister Aloysius are definitively in violation of the categorical imperative from after this point. We will explore this idea and its ultimate implications about how the rightness and wrongness of her actions would be judged within the framework of Kantian deontology in the next post.

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