Catholicism: The Pivotal Players

In 1928 Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released after serving four years in Tegel prison for the murder of his girlfriend Ida. After settling into his old apartment, he visits Ida's sister Minna and rapes her. In a flashback, Franz kills Ida with a cream whip after correctly suspecting she's about to leave him. Franz encounters and drinks with old friend Meck, where he meets Lina Przybilla, a young Polish woman, who moves in with him. He receives notification from local police that he's barred from certain districts and surrounding municipalities, under threat of a fine or imprisonment. Placing himself under the supervision of a charity called Prisoners' Aid, to which he must report once a month while remaining in employment, Franz is able to stay.

Franz, after several fleeting encounters, has finally become reacquainted with his former pimp Eva, who feels a deep affection for him, and has paid the rent for his old rooms in his absence. Meck introduces Franz to Pums, the ringleader of an illegal enterprise, and his right-hand man Reinhold. Tired of his woman, Fränze, Reinhold wants Franz to take her off his hands. Franz has her come over and has sex with her. She returns to him after she's unable to find Reinhold. Reinhold then employs the same plan with his current woman, Cilly, whom Franz accommodates after provoking a row with Fränze.

Christ demands a decision. Will we serve him or some other master? A soldier who became a mystic and eventually the founder of the Society of Jesus, commonly called the Jesuits. St. Ignatius’ decision to give his life over to Christ without reservation gave rise to a movement that would not only transform lives, but also changed the world.

From where does the cultural regard for human rights emerge? What informs the Church’s teaching concerning the dignity of the human person? This 16th century scholar who became a Dominican friar represents how the Church has engaged the culture as the advocate for the least among us and provided a social theory that accepts as foundational the inherent dignity of the human person.