If you haven't seen TNT's sci-fi series The Librarians, the season four premiere "The Librarians and the Dark Secret" might not be the best place to start. The show centers on "an ancient organization hidden beneath the Metropolitan Public Library dedicated to protecting an unknowing world from the secret, magical reality hidden all around." The season four premiere, which aired on December 13, saw the group trying to save the Library of Alexandria by stopping a secret sect of the Catholic Church determined to use the library's cornerstones to destroy it.
The first murder committed by a Catholic priest came 12 seconds into the episode. It was not the last.
At one point in the episode, the evil priests are described by one of the team members, played by John Larroquette. They are the "Heretic Order of Shadows, a sect hidden deep within the Roman Catholic Church," he explains, "The symbol represents the fire that destroyed the Library Alexandria. The order was formed in the 1700s as a revolt against Age of Enlightenment. And the Order of Shadows' primary purpose, its reason for being, is to reestablish the Dark Ages."
While it's true that many Enlightenment philosophers were against most organized religions, especially Catholicism, those religions were hardly trying to reestablish the Dark Ages. Catholic Churches were actually a driving force behind education, including the creation of universities.
In this scene, just a few minutes into the episode, we see again how respectfully the writers have created dialogue for the Catholic priests as another one commits murder.
Ranger: Hey, what in the goddamn hell do you think you're doing? Oh, sorry, Father. I didn't see the--
Priest: - It's quite all right.
Ranger: Look, this is park property. You can't go smashing it with crow-- Hey, what's that you got there?
Priest:Tell me... Do you believe in God?
Ranger: Um, yes.
Priest: Good. It's time for you to meet him.
Really? This is almost comically bad dialogue, but it's really something that our culture is willing to go after Christianity (Catholicism specifically) over and over again without fear of retribution while being respectful of and differential to other religions. We've recently seen Trump-nominated Catholics subjected to what nearly amounts to a religious test for appointments. Some seem to be trying to reestablish a dark period in our history when Catholics were widely discriminated against.
The Librarians picked a strange thing to attack them on, however, Catholic schools educate children around the world, including in outreach and missionary programs for kids who can't afford private education. Priests aren't going around hiding secret maps so that libraries will be destroyed to keep us in the Dark Ages while also going into communities with scholarships, educational opportunities and, you guessed it, books. The Dark Ages? Hardly. Maybe it's time these librarians read a history book.
