While many were exuberantly young and faithful Catholics, others are not so young.  They have the advantage of seeing faith with a few more years under their belt. Father Wilfred (Willy) Raymond CSC heads up Family Theater Productions.  He is well respected in Hollywood for his ability to live out his orthodox Catholic faith in the midst of a culture that hardly seems to share the same ideas or beliefs.  He leads a storied group started by Father Patrick Peyton CSC whose cause is being considered for canonization. Father Peyton started Family Theater in 1947 and died in 1992.  It was at Family Theater where Father Peyton coined the phrase, "The Family That Prays Togther Stays Together." His vision involved seeing Hollywood as a place where Catholics could come to learn how to evangelize the faith through the medium of film and mass communications.  Pope John Paul II called Father Peyton “champion of the rosary.”  T he Congregation for the Causes of Saints opened his cause for sainthood in 2001.

Dave Hartline   What are some projects that Family Theater gets involved with in Hollywood ?

Father Willy Raymond  We have our “Prayer & Pasta” get together which features speakers on topics of interest to those faithful Catholics in the industry.  You are speaking tonight so you get to see what it’s all about.  In addition, there are over 5,000 billboards across the US with messages of faith that we help put up.  There is no charge to us because billboard owners often put up our messages while in between contracts.  It helps them not have a blank billboard and it helps us to get out a faithful message.  We also have RCIA for those in the film industry. It helps for them to be surrounded by others in the business who they know. Our big upcoming project is the Rosary Bowl which will be May 19th.  We will fill the Rose Bowl with a faithful audience, as was once done in other large stadiums, reciting the Rosary (more on that tomorrow in part II of The Tide Is Turning In Hollywood.)

Father Willy Raymond   Yes, I think many Catholics are aware of some of the more prominent stars who are faithful However, there are many rising stars who live very faith-filled lives.  Jim Caviezel is probably most known of the "newer" stars but there are many others. Eduardo Verastegui and Alejandro Monteverdi are two names the public really needs to look out for in the future.   Their film Bella will make a big splash later this year.  Eduardo and Alejandro, who are widely known in Latino circles, will be known to a much larger audience soon.  They are very faithful young men and will be great role models.  This doesn’t begin to touch the young men and women that you may not often see on television or in the movies. However, they have important jobs in the film industry and their faith is a great testament to the Church.

Eduardo Verastegui, Lead Actor & Producer Of The Highly Anticipated Film Bella (Toronto Film Festival Winner)  He Is  Holding His Personal Copy Of My Book The Tide Is Turning Toward Catholicism