gumako

Monsignor Wicks had fostered a 'flock' that was so angry and afraid- all because he believed that they needed to be strong in order to, as what one of the priests had wrongfully assumed the basis of Father Jud's actions at the beginning of the movie (punching a deacon), to fight the world.

Fight the world outside of the church- who were different, who had sinned, who weren't holy or devout enough. Grace, Wick's mother a.k.a the 'Harlot Whore', was one of them. The myth surrounding her death set the tone and legacy of this church and how it treated sinners.

Once she died, the church had stopped being about God, with the symbol of Christ- the cross- broken and never replaced.

(Like come on, you step into a church and there's no cross? That says SO much!)

From then on, at the center was never Jesus. It was Wicks and his hateful rhetoric, passed down from his grandfather's mistreatment of his own mother.

(Do NOT get me started on how religion was used to entrap and pit women against each other for the sake of piety, blaming women for the sins of men, i.e naming the jewel 'Eve's Apple' as a symbol of temptation and sin.) (Also can we talk about how we only saw Prentice Wicks' body in the crypt? Grace wasn't even buried with him in this family crypt but Wicks was? Even in death she couldn't even be in proximity to Eve's Apple!)

But Father Jud never bought into Wicks' teachings.

Father Jud as a character is so interesting. He had looked to God after having killed a man in the ring. He had sinned. No doubt. But he found forgiveness and salvation in God and wished to share that with others. That was why he became a priest.

That was what he had tried to do with Wicks' 'flock', but they were too hung up about Jud's past sins as well as too afraid of Wicks to follow this other path- one where they would have to contend with their own sins and imperfections and forgive themselves.

There's this constant theme of forgiveness that comes to a head in the final confession.

Martha had hate in heart when she had committed those acts, much like Father Jud did when he had been a boxer, and in those last moments begged for forgiveness.

And when it came time to confront what she had done to Grace: goading her and helping foster the myth of this sinful, demonic woman who had destroyed the church after she had died, she let go of that hatred and saw Grace for who she was-

A woman who had been trapped in shame, looking for a way out.

"That poor girl"

Grace's story was the foundation for Wicks' teachings, perpetuating his mothers' shame in order to trap others in theirs. That's where he held power. That was what the church had been to him.

But after the events of the movie, now with Wicks gone and the church re-opened, they could start anew. Father Jud built a new cross and even renamed the church.

'Our Lady of Perpetual Grace' I couldn't ignore that when watching it in the theaters. Like, even naming the character Grace was done with great intention. A woman named after the thing she had needed the most. The thing she didn't receive until many years later after her death.

The place that had trapped her for so long, having been ruled under her father's thumb, now a place where people can seek forgiveness and wouldn't be judged. Where they are welcomed to come if they wish.

Renamed to Perpetual Grace. Whether or not it had been a conscious decision by Jud to name it after her, who knows?