On January 26, 1957, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan was the site of a new opera by noted French Catholic composer Francis Poulenc. Dialogues des Carmélites (Dialogues of the Carmelites) was based in part on a screenplay written by the Catholic writer Georges Bernanos and inspired by Gertrud von le Fort’s German novella, Die Letzte am Schafott (” The Last on the Scaffold“). The new work presented a seemingly odd choice for its subject…