Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

One of the reasons I watched this documentary is that I have a deaf daughter who herself attended a Catholic deaf school for a few years. The other is that I am an ex-therapist who used to work with sexual abuse victims and perpetrators (the latter, I came to realize are beyond the scope of therapy--hence my biggest reason for retiring from the field). Sadly, however, I cannot show this documentary to my daughter, as the folks didn't bother captioning the film--only what's being signed by the deaf folks being interviewed! This is ridiculous--how can they make a video that many of the victims cannot even watch and understand?! Crazy--and I can't think of a worse film to do without captions. Despite this HUGE problem, I still recommend the film to everyone--and perhaps deaf people could hopefully have an interpreter translate the film, though this is very unlikely. For this reason, the film loses a point.

"Mea Maxima Culpa" is a film that begins with a deaf school. During the tenure of a piece of human garbage (otherwise known as 'Father Murphy') at the school, he repeatedly sexually abused the kids. Not only did he victimize the most vulnerable population, within this group he targeted the most vulnerable--those deaf kids whose parents did not use sign language and/or had strained relationships. The saddest part of the film is NOT that the kids were abused by Murphy but the abuse by the Church--which repeatedly did everything it could to prevent Murphy and other pedophiles from being punished in any way. And, surprisingly, in this and so many other cases, the victims were threatened with excommunication if they came public*!! It's enough to make you want to toss something at your television and I found myself yelling at the film several times! In addition to the Murphy case, the film discusses a few other international cases (such as in Ireland, Italy and Latin America). And, it spends much of the time discussing the actions by John Paul and Benedict that impeded investigations and kept pedophiles in close contact with children.

Overall, this is a very well done documentary (aside from the captioning) and very, very compelling. It's hard to imagine anyone watching this without becoming energized--and that's a good sign of a documentary.

*In one case, the Church had a deaf adult sign a statement saying HE was sinful and was repenting for damaging the Catholic Church by 'lying' about the molestations. Many deaf adults are illiterate or nearly illiterate, so the notion that he had no idea what he was singing was very likely based on my experiences in the deaf community--plus they had no interpreter there during the meeting where he was asked to sign! Doing such a thing is further reason I found myself yelling out loud during the film. For shame!!

I just saw this documentary today after hearing about it from my wife, who did not see the whole film. We watched it together. I have never been Catholic, while she had been for a short period while attending an all girls Catholic High School.

What struck me most about the film was the reason that was given for Father Murphy's exit from St John's, for health reasons. Just this morning, Pope Benedict announced he was stepping down for health reasons. It makes me wonder if the release of this documentary had something to do with his decision. If he lives even half as long as Father Murphy did, after he left St John's, it would, in my opinion, give lie to that.

This film needs to be seen by everyone in the world and let them make up their own minds. I do give a lot of credit to the Dubliners that have stopped attending Mass. The documentary stated that they were down to 4% of the Catholics still attending. Good for them!

Very well constructed documentary.

Its first half focuses in detail on a notorious, localised case - the second half reveals a global picture that provides unsettling perspective.

A vivid, compelling exposé that I only wished lasted longer than its already near-two-hour runtime.

Absolutely recommended.

After looking at the world of NHL pugilists in last year's outstanding The Last Gladiators, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God finds director Alex Gibney returning to investigating abuses of power, a theme that has served him well in past efforts like Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room and the Oscar-winning Taxi To The Dark Side. This disturbing exposé on the problem of child and youth sexual abuse in the Catholic Church focuses partly on the stories of five deaf men who are thought to be the first individuals to ever publicly protest abuses by clergy in the United States, after they were victimized by Father Lawrence Murphy at St. John's School for the Deaf in the suburbs of Milwaukee during the 60s and 70s. Gibney also takes a broader view of the subject by looking at other cases of clergy abuse (notably in Ireland) and the systematic cover-ups of these crimes by the Catholic Church's top officials, whose unofficial policy on the matter is to "deny, minimize, and blame", according to one journalist interviewed. "Mea Maxima Culpa's" Latin translation is "my most grievous fault".

Although the five St. John's victims have been working for over three decades to call attention to the issue and seek justice for their suffering, their story gained traction after New York Times writer Laurie Goodstein wrote an article in 2010 about the Vatican's failure to defrock Murphy, despite the fact that they were presented with undeniable evidence of his crimes and received strong warnings from some American church officials. Murphy is believed to have molested over 200 boys at the boarding school from the 50s until 1974, when he was transferred to another parish. The Vatican was alerted of Murphy's behaviour in 1963 and did nothing. Actors Jamey Sheridan, Chris Cooper, Ethan Hawke, and John Slattery give voice to the victims, who use sign language with punctuated hand slaps to express the horrors they endured at the hand of Murphy and the shame that followed. Murphy's textbook predatory behaviour found him singling out what he perceived as the weaker students and further exploiting the fact that they faced an obvious barrier in communicating over the phone with their families. Three of the victims, including Terry Kohut, who sued the Catholic Church and named the current Pope in his lawsuit, were on hand for the world premiere TIFF screening I attended and gave their emotional reaction to it afterwards at the Q & A through a sign language interpreter. Just knowing that they were in the audience and reliving their pain while seeing the finished film for the first time added an extra significance and weight to the proceedings.

The investigations resulting from the Kohut lawsuit ended up leading to the discovery of secret Vatican documents that detailed many instances of sexual abuse cover-ups that reach to the highest levels of the Catholic Church, with Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) substantially implicated. In the years before being anointed Pope, Ratzinger oversaw a Vatican council that monitored sexual abuse cases in the Church, so his post-anointment claims of being unaware of most of what was occurring seem highly unlikely. How his and his predecessor's culpability and mishandling of these tragic cases hasn't been a much larger media story is difficult to understand.

That aside, overall media coverage of child and youth sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has, sadly, become an all-too-familiar story that one almost becomes numb to. Gibney rises to the challenge of presenting a fresh take on a much-discussed important subject with this well-researched and powerful film. My only real negative about it are the re-enactments that Gibney employs, even if they are artfully composed and beautifully shot, using plenty of religious imagery. Re-enactments are a staple of Gibney's work (not to mention Errol Morris'), but the stories he tells are usually compelling enough and, in my opinion, the end results are slightly diminished with this gimmicky device that feels like an imagination crutch for the audience.

I've gradually come to see the Catholic Church for what it truly is -- an archaic, oppressive, lying institution that's hopelessly out of touch with 21st Century realities, which destroys millions of lives around the world and has done unspeakable evil throughout human history.

The excesses stem not just a few bad apples. The root cause is institutional corruption. In Catholicism, according to Canon Law, everything flows downward from the very top. This means the Vatican ultimately bears responsibility for crimes against humanity.

Strong words? Hardly. If anything, those words aren't strong enough.

The Roman Catholic Church remains wielded to the Dark Ages. And its not just because a bunch of men chose to walk around in black robes speaking a dead language that went out of existence 500 years ago while waving containers full of ash dust, or nuns suppressing their own individuality in observance of unconditional servitude.

Look at the facts: Catholic policies towards women are degrading. Catholic commandments on birth control creates imminent poverty for millions who starve and die in developing countries. Catholic beliefs toward basic human rights are often are cowardly and self-serving. Catholic teachings on sex are Neanderthal. Catholic practices on economic and social issues are reprehensible. And Catholic teachings on so-called "morality" are duplicitous.

All this aside, the Catholic Church's policies and practices in the tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of sexual abuse scandals around the world involving priests is downright disgusting. Many heads need to roll -- starting with just about every Pope dating all the way back to the 4th Century. Indeed, the Vatican has been a collaborator in innumerable crimes and cover ups since the fall of the Byzantines.

The Catholic Church is an empire of corruption. This has nothing to do with matters of faith or a belief in God. It has everything to do with making the appropriate choices as to which institutions in our society deserve our reverence and trust.

The Catholic Church and the Vatican deserve neither.

That said, no one wants to read or hear about priests and sex scandals.

It's a hideous subject. It's certainly not entertainment. There's no satisfaction to be gained from subjecting oneself to the indescribable evils committed by members of the clergy. Contemplating these horrible acts against innocent children which have gone on for so long in so many places is painful to look at.

But look we must. And re-think everything we believe about Catholicism, we should.

HBO has just debuted a new documentary on this subject. The title is Mea Maxima Cula: Silence in the House of God. I had heard about this powerful film by award-winning director Ale Gibney, which runs about 90 minutes. Late last night, when I saw this program was coming up as the next feature show on HBO, I considered tuning in.

Then again, why would I have any desire to watch such a thing? I thought to myself -- why would I want to subject myself to something like this? Who in the world would willingly stop and watch people doing such repulsive things to children? So, I did what most probably do. I turned the channel.

But curiosity got the best of me. I found myself flipping back to Mea Maxima Culpa and watching bits and pieces of the documentary. As I watched, I began to realize this wasn't only a film about controversial subject. It was a story about politics and power. It was also a story about extraordinary courage -- those who initially stepped forward and told of what happened. I came to realize this was a masterful documentary that becomes increasingly more intense as the viewer gets absorbed into the story.

Essentially, Mea Maxima Cula focuses on several deaf adults who are now in their 60s and 70s. Back during he 1950's as children, they were sexually abused by priests in Milwaukee. Unfortunately, as we would gradually learn there were many more Milwaukees -- hundreds, if not thousands of Milwaukees around the world.

While the Vatican continues to lie, engages in cover ups, and postures itself as being above all the crimes committed at the parish level, this film indisputably links Rome with just about all the filth done by its faithful servants. Church hierarchy was far more than just an enabler. They have been confederates in these conspiracies for the past 1,700 years (watch the documentary -- the evidence is clear).

The Inquisition. The war on enlightenment. The Crusades. Pacts with fascism. Sex crimes and cover ups. Why isn't the Catholic Church being tried for crimes against humanity? I urge you to not miss this program.

A Final Thought: The word "hero" gets overused.

Worse, its often misapplied to athletes and celebrities in our culture who frankly do nothing to deserve such adulation.

Thank goodness there are real heroes in this world. Some of them appear in this film, as the brave men who were courageous enough to step forward and tell what happened.

Imagine the humiliation of revealing one of the worst things imaginable -- committing sex acts on children. Imagine what it took for these brave people who risked finger-pointing, hushed whispers, and public ridicule for the sake of justice? Why is this important? Why should you care? Maybe you won't.

But if hundreds of years of history, institutionalized corruption from top to the bottom, and a continuing conspiracy of denial from the Vatican doesn't sway you towards contempt for the Catholic Church, then nothing will.

Thank goodness there were men brave enough to step out of the shadows and one very dedicated filmmaker willing to shine a lens and a light into the darkest corners of the church's soul.

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