Is James Bond Catholic?

A minor debate has arisen on the internet in the wake of the latest James Bond epic, Skyfall. Has the legendary secret agent now revealed himself to be Catholic?  For in Skyfall  the ancestral manor house of the Bonds has an elaborate priest hole. These were of course hideouts to shelter Catholic priests from the persecutors in the 16th and 17th centuries. More ambiguously, in the vicinity of this  house stands an abandoned chapel (the estate has been unoccupied for decades). The interior is suitably barren for a Presbyterian meeting house – but there does appear to be a most un-Kirk like stand for votive candles in the corner.

It would not be all that surprising to me that Commander Bond turns out to be RC . And if he is such, he is most certainly pre-conciliar Traditionalist. For has he not always embodied a clear ethic of good versus evil on contrast to the mediocrity and ambiguity of this age? He is uncompromisingly anti-communist. His concept of the gentleman seems to be a distant descendant of the era of Astaire and Cary Grant. Obscured by all the technology on display in his later films is his chosen role as a defender of traditional life in all its forms against modernity – as embodied by a series of high tech villains seeking world dominion, usurious economic gain ( Auric Goldfinger) or just simple mass destruction. This contrast between the ancient values of traditional England and the destructive force of modern technology is very clear, for example, in the novel – not the film – Moonraker. Skyfall returns to this theme: Bond only receives a revolver and a radio transmitter from “Q.” And at the end he must do battle against the overwhelming ground and air forces of his adversary armed only with a hunting knife, a pistol, a couple of shotguns, a few sticks of dynamite, a couple of propane tanks and of course a certain Aston Martin…