“What do you do when you’re not sure?” This question, posed by Father Brendan Flynn, the new progressive priest at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in the Bronx, NY, in 1964, has seldom crossed the mind of Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the stalwart principal of St. Nicholas’ adjoining Catholic school. Sister Aloysius is fierce in her convictions and devoted to running a well-functioning school, even if that includes harboring a mistrust of the children who attend it. Her no-nonsense leadership soon comes into conflict with Sister James, an enthusiastic young nun, new to the school, who teaches history as if she is performing on a Broadway stage. Sister Aloysius warns Sister James that her desire to please puts the discipline and education of her students at risk and stresses the importance of paying attention to the happenings of her eighth grade class.
Following Sister Aloysius’ advice, Sister James keeps her eyes out and begins to believe that there might be something seriously wrong afoot. Sister James brings her concerns to Sister Aloysius, telling her that she fears that the relationship between Father Flynn and Donald Muller, St. Nicholas’ first and only Black student, is perhaps too intimate. Under questioning from Sister Aloysius, Father Flynn claims that he is simply acting as the boy’s protector, shielding him from what would otherwise be relentless torment from his white classmates. However, Sister Aloysius suspects that Father Flynn is spinning a lie, acting solely as his own protector and using to his advantage the Catholic Church’s tendency to take a powerful man’s word as truth.
Sister Aloysius is sure she is right—or at least she wants Father Flynn and Sister James to believe that she is. Father Flynn is sure she is pursuing a personal vendetta against the modernization of the Chruch amid the rapid change of the 1960s. In her efforts to right a perceived wrong, Sister Aloysius must work to break down the institutional hierarchies that have allowed the abuse of power—and children—to run rampant in the Church. Yet, certitude is taught to be a form of pride and, while Sister Aloysius knows certainly is her path to the truth, she also risks it being her doctorial undoing. With Father Flynn hailing doubt as a powerful tool to bond oneself with their fate, there is an underlying sense that, "the truth makes for bad sermons” and Sister Aloysius quietly wonders if, perhaps, it is not God’s work that she is doing.
—Fiona Selmi