What does the ending of the movie Doubt mean?

Answer 1

I've read several opinions on what the ending of Doubt truly means. Many think that Sister A. was doubting if Father Flynn actually did anything wrong at all. Others think that Father Flynn was just a homosexual and that's why he related so well to Donald whom also had homosexual tendencies, not that he was molesting him. I'm sure there are many other explanations that others have thought of but I think most of them are wrong. Doubt is a movie you really have to read into. You have to take into account every detail of the movie. I don't think most people have done this.

Here is my interpretation of the ending. Sister A. was doubting the Catholic religion entirely. When Father Flynn resigned he was moved to another church and actually given a sort of promotion in the church. This greatly upset her because Father Flynn was an evil man and was moving up in the hierarchy of the religion she had devoted her life to. She had absolutely no doubt that he had molested Donald and many other children. I've gathered this through many scenes in the movie. For example, there is a part where they show how the priests spend their evenings and how the nuns spend theirs. The priests are eating and drinking like buddies in a bar. The nuns are sitting there very quietly and politely. You may say the nuns were like that because of sister A. This may be but I also think it was giving us a glimpse of how the priests in the Catholic religion are with each other. They're buddies, they protect each other. They protect each other for the wrong things they do. The other scene that supports this same theory is when Sister A. told Father Flynn she contacted his previous Church. When he discovered that she had contacted a nun and not a priest he became furious. Why? I think its because in the Catholic religion these priests have an understanding to protect each other in instances like these. He also screamed at sister A. that she had taken a vow of obedience, she was supposed to obey, essentially, the men in the Catholic religion. Sexist much? But that's a whole entire other issue. The point I am trying to make is that Father Flynn became nervous when he had thought Sister A. contacted a nun, instead of a priest, who would have protected him. I don't think he was afraid of his reputation being ruined because the only person who truly thought he molested Donald was Sister A. I think he left because he knew she would stop at nothing to end what he was doing. It makes perfect sense that the movie was about the downfall of the morality in the Catholic Church because of all of the molestation cases that have occurred in the church lately. The Catholic priests are protected even today, not just by other priests but by society now also. If there is someone who steps up and says the priest abused him then the priest is either simply moved to another church to repeat the same things or he is sent to a "treatment" center that is paid for with our own tax money. They don't go to jail like normal molesters. They are, to this day, protected, just like Father Flynn was.