For many of the world’s 1.5 billion Catholics, the church is still sacred even though its image has been badly marred by scandals involving priests who sexually abuse minors. Yet this problem with Catholic clergy is ancient.
“Mea Maxima Culpa” (My Most Grievous Fault) is Alex Gibney’s latest documentary. It aims to shed light on the sex abuse scandals that the Vatican tried to keep hidden.
On Feb. 4, the film began airing worldwide on the HBO TV channel as Pope Benedict XVI resigned, casting doubt that his departure was strictly related to his ailing health.
The story comes from four deaf men who were molested as boys by a priest in St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the mid-1960s. It made their school years full of pain and hatred. For the deaf students, the Rev. Lawrence Murphy was the only adult who could communicate with them because only he knew sign language. Since the students at St. John’s had no sex education, they didn’t know how to prevent abuse. Instead they suffered in silence.
After graduating from St. John’s, the documentary’s subjects went public with their allegations. But Murphy’s reputation was spotless. The four talked to police and published leaflets describing Murphy as a molester, but the priest maintained his innocence. Murphy allegedly abused more than 200 children for the 24 years he ran St. John’s.
One of the most outrageous parts of the film shows that people close to the Pope were devils in disguise. Alex Gibney exposed Pope’s John Paul II’s fundraiser, the late Marcial Maciel Degollado who covered up his sexual abuse of under-age boys for years.
Pedophilia in the church appears to be endemic and global.
Gibney claims that the weak papacy of Benedict XVI did little to combat the situation. Serving as a cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger in 2001 ordered all cases to be transmitted to the Vatican’s office. But the Church cared more about the reputations of priests than the suffering of victims.
Eventually, the Catholic Church picked a small Caribbean island where the Brothers of Paraclete mission treats troubled priests at a cost of $50 million over the last 24 years.
Another segment uncovers singing priest Tony Walsh in a Dublin archdiocese. He had molested children for more than 20 years before being caught. In 1980 he was convicted and sentenced to 123 years in prison.
Gibney focused on deaf victims of sexual abuse as a way to symbolize the church’s silence.
Now the persistent and awful problem of pedophilia among clergy is Pope Francis I’s problem to fight.
The movie can be watched here: www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/125302/Mea_Maxima_Culpa_Silence_in_the_House_of_God/
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]
