The Rev. Timothy Safford, an Episcopal priest in Philadelphia, used the recent passing of screenwriter/novelist Bud Schulberg, to examine what it takes to be a saint.

Schulberg, who was a prolific writer, is perhaps best known for penning the screenplay to “On the Waterfront.” In that movie, a Father Barry, a priest played by Karl Malden, becomes convinced that apathy is a sin, as guilty of cruelty as the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus on the cross.

As Safford explains, early in the movie, Barry pronounces last rites over the longshoreman Joey, who had just been thrown off a roof by a couple of goons because he was going to testify about the mob corrupting his local union.

“Edie,” Father Barry says, “I do what I can. I’m in the church when you need me.”

But Edie replies: “You’re in the church if I need you?'” she cries back. “Did you ever hear of a saint hiding in a church?”

By the end of the movie, Father Barry stands over another dead body lying in the belly of a cargo ship, killed by the mafia, because he too was going to testify. Barry tells the longshoremen listening that this death is another crucifixion of a righteous man, just like Jesus crucified at Calvary. “And anybody who sits around,” he preaches, “and lets it happen, keeps silent about something he knows has happened, shares the guilt of it, just as much as the Roman soldier who pierced the flesh of our Lord to see if he was dead.”

A stevedore shouts, “Go back to your church, Father!”

“Boys,” he shouts back, “This is my church!”

Safford concludes: “Wherever we find ourselves each day — in our offices, at the kitchen table, on the streets and in the stores — is our church, demanding the saintliness sustained by the weekly remembrance of the life, death and resurrection of our Lord.”