Back in the early 1990s, I had a chance to interview the late Father Ellwood “Bud” Kaiser about his unique career as a Catholic priest and as a producer in modern Hollywood, through Paulist Productions. Much of the interview focused on his film “Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story.”

One of the keys to the movie, he said, was finding a way a visualize the transformation that drove Day into ministry, the moment when the guilt she felt about an abortion earlier in her life was, through repentance, turned into a powerful source of energy to help the poor, especially the needy children and families she encountered on the streets of New York City. She went into a confession booth a woman burdened and trapped by guilt, he said. She came out a...