A new DVD on the horizon is about an oft-forgotten topic and oft-forgotten souls: “Purgatory: The Forgotten Church.” Franciscan Friar John Clote, a Chicagobased filmmaker, delved into the subject to produce a comprehensive 75-minute film filled with authoritative information and inspiration. Clote, an investigative reporter before he entered the Conventual Franciscans, interviewed Cardinal George, great “friend of the holy souls” Susan Tassone and others. CNW: What inspired you to make this film? Friar John Clote: I’ve been interested in this subject for years. My mom passed away in 2008, and that experience of being a grieving Catholic, and having Masses said for her, made me think about how I would approach this in a film. I began praying in a eucharistic chapel in Arizona, praying for my mom and dad and all the people I knew who had passed away. I began thinking of people who weren’t like my mom, who had many people praying for her. She had lots of friends who were devoted, prayerful Catholics. I kept thinking of deceased people I knew who didn’t have these people in their lives. CNW: What did you learn in the process of making this film? Clote: There’s a spiritual connection that exists between the living and deceased: Earth, purgatory and heaven. The theological definition is “the communion of saints,” but there can also be a tangible component sometimes when the veil between this world and the next thins in varied ways, in beautiful ways that can lead one to believe or reconsider unbelief that there really is something beyond this world. In the film, we talk about neardeath experiences and the development of the church’s doctrine on purgatory. CNW: How has making this film changed you? Clote: It has reinforced for me the specific notion that our relationships don’t end here. The love and appreciation — even though we are missing people’s physical presence — doesn’t end, but translates into a higher form of communication through prayer. I believe the deceased in purgatory can hear us more clearly, understand us more profoundly and pray for us. CNW: What do you want people to take away from the film? Clote: Jesus Christ has unfathomable mercy and love for his creation and all of us, and we need only ask to be enveloped in that love. Purgatory is just another expression of God’s profound, unfathomable, incomprehensible mercy.