A star of both the big and small screens, Jim Caviezel is also well-known as a man of deep Catholic faith and a respected performer. But in the summer of 1991, he was a struggling young actor in Hollywood, confused, unsure of where he was going or what he should be doing.
Then he saw this billboard on Sunset Boulevard:
That led him to a frail, elderly Irish-born priest, who heard his confession. Unknown to Caviezel, he had encountered Father Patrick Peyton, the “Rosary Priest,” founder of Hollywood-based Catholic production company Family Theater Productions — where I now work as a blogger, video producer and Social Media Manager.
Caviezel celebrated his birthday on Sept. 26, and to commemorate that, video editor James Zambrana and I found a clip from the Family Theater archives, recorded at FTP’s 2007 Rosary Bowl gathering (click here for the full video).
Titled “A World at Prayer is a World at Peace” — another saying of Father Peyton, along with the one on the billboard — the event from May 19, 2007 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, was sponsored by Holy Cross Ministries, Family Theater Productions, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Knights of Columbus.
Click here for Caviezel’s moving testimony from that day.
The Holy Spirit was indeed at work for Caviezel on that summer day in 1991 — since Father Peyton died the next summer, at the age of 83. Click here to learn more about him, and about the movement for his beatification and canonization.
And while you’re at it, follow Family Theater Productions on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We’ve got one major digital production underway and more to come (and check out my Facebook reality series, “This Old Chapel,” about the remodeling of our office chapel, complete with tabernacle — yes, we’re a production company with a priest for a boss and Jesus in the house).
Images: YouTube/Facebook screenshots
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