Catholicism in the Culture – Jeopardy and Blue Bloods

As a Catholic, I like seeing instances in media that reference my faith. One regular contributor is the quiz show “Jeopardy”, which regularly features religious categories in the Jeopardy and Double Jeopardy question rounds. Yesterday, the Final Jeopardy category was “Catholicism” with this question:

A liturgical year begins on the first Sunday of Advent, which is the Sunday closest to the feast day of this “first apostle”

The answer is “St. Andrew”, which is neat, since my name is Andrew, and the feast of St. Andrew is today (November 30th)! Alex Trebek even referred to the feast day – neat again! By the way, no one got the right answer in Final Jeopardy….

The other prominent example is the TV series “Blue Bloods” on CBS. The main characters, the Reagan family, are practicing Catholics, and their faith definitely guides a lot of the development of the characters. One of the supervising producers/script writers, Siobhan Byrne O’Connor, is a practicing Catholic, and brings the faith with her in script development. The executive producer, Kevin Wade, is also Catholic and writes the dinner scenes where the Reagan family says grace before meals and discusses the issues of the day. I am glad that there is still a place for Catholicism in today’s media world.