"I wish I could believe like you," Sister James tells Sister Aloysius (because then maybe she would be able to sleep). But the trouble—as Sister Aloysius eventually confesses—is that her belief isn't exactly one that allows her to sleep at night either. And so enters Father Flynn. While one idea of "truth" consumes Sister Aloysius and multiple "truths" tear apart Sister James, in Father Flynn we see both an acknowledgment of truth and acceptance of uncertainty. Throughout the film, Father Flynn defends his reputation and his actions with almost as much power as Sister Aloysius uses to attack him. He cites kindness, understanding, and the need to bring the Church into a new age. He even challenges Sister Aloysius to remember that we all have sinned and all can be made free through confession and repentance. Does he have a specific sin of abuse to confess to? Maybe, maybe not. But even if abuse did not occur, bits and pieces of what might be, what has been, and what does occur give enough other potential reasons for Father Flynn to also be in doubt himself, not about that actual nature of his actual actions, but rather about his own identity within the Church and potentially the nature of the Church itself.

However, unlike Sister Aloysius and Sister James, Father Flynn's response to doubt is to acknowledge that there is a truth greater than what he will ever fully comprehend and to join with those around him also struggling amid confusion and trying to find the truth. As he says in his opening sermon in the movie, "When you are lost, you are not alone." As he pushes Sister Aloysius to believe throughout the movie, just because they are members of the clergy does not make them any less susceptible to sin or any more of an authority on truth than anyone else. And even as he finds his world driven more by uncertainty than what he believes to be true, as he tells his church, he moves forward with the faith that "the power that propels me does so with superior knowledge as to what's best."

From the beginning of the film to its end, the one truth that never comes under question is that doubt will always be present. In the face of doubt, we can stubbornly cling to self-righteousness and intolerance. We can allow doubt to tear down every truth we have ever known and every value we have ever held dear. Or instead, we can recognize that in doubt is actually a valuable reminder of our own infallibility and an ever present nudge to not embrace truth blindly but to seek it with discernment. And although it may require a leap of faith, if in our doubt we trust that there is a truth that will never change and a hand above us always leading us toward that truth, as long as we continue to seek that truth, we need not fear even the most profound or unsettling doubts life may send our way

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