Minha Máxima Culpa: Silêncio na Casa de Deus

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!

Never a film-maker to shy away from trying to make sense of a somewhat catastrophic event or subject matter, Academy Award winning documentary film-maker Alex Gibney tackles the subject of paedophilia in the Catholic church. From the bottom, where apparently celibate priests have free reign over their own church relatively unsupervised to take confessions inside a broom cupboard and prey on children while they sleep, to the very top, where cardinals cover-up or ignore the problem, and the Pope fails to acknowledge the many flaws in their beloved system. It's a film of two halves, each powerful and expertly crafted in their own right, but failing to come together into a cohesive narrative.

The first half is the most powerful and heart-breaking. Throughout the 1960's, priest Lawrence Murphy sexually molested in the region of 200 young boys. At the St. John School for the Deaf in Milwaukee, four men tell their own unique and frightening stories of the abuse they suffered and the lack of help available. Similar to many families in this period, their families could not sign and therefore could not understand their cries for help. Signing to the camera and narrated by actors Jamey Sheridan, Chris Cooper, Ethan Hawke and John Slattery, the four men's disabilities become a metaphor for the years of silence endured by other victims of no handicap, who over the course of time have heard their cries fall on closed ears, especially when it came to calling out for justice or at least an explanation from the Vatican itself.

When the film shifts into its second phase, it becomes more conspirational and less human, throwing us facts and archive imagery as Gibney looks under every rock he can find. What he uncovers is hardly surprising - a huge Vatican cover-up and the relocation of many priests finding themselves under scrutiny from the locals were covered in somewhat less detail in Amy Berg's unsettling Deliver Us From Evil (2006) - but he is searching for some kind of explanation. Hearing of abuse cases dating back hundreds of years among the priesthood, it seems the Vatican see the problem more as an inevitability. It often feels like Gibney is clutching at straws, trying to find a link to every corner of the corridors of power, and the absence of any spokesperson from the Vatican is an admittedly unsurprising disappointment. But it avoids the pitch-fork waving approach, and tells us of a very real problem for which we have few answers for.

If Dan Brown had written a novel about a cover-up in the Catholic Church on the scale depicted in this film, it would be treated as a great work of fiction. The trouble is, it's all true and that's the most shocking thing about it. It is a very well made film that has a compelling flow to the narrative and this is helped with some nicely chosen musical backdrops. The only thing that lets it down is a lack of balance, but then, as it says in the film, the Vatican refused to be interviewed for this film. Not that they could have put up any defence. I found it a gripping watch that did get a little emotional at times. Well worth a look whatever religion (or not) you are.

SteelMonster's verdict: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

My score: 8.8/10

You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.

From acclaimed documentarian Alex Gibney, comes a potent examination of the history of sex abuse and paedophilia within the Catholic Church. Told through the eyes of victims, Gibney follows the murky trail of sex abuse from Wisconsin all the way up to the Vatican.

This is not for the faint hearted or easily disturbed. That we may understand the term 'documentary', speaks volumes of how successfully Gibney has reinvented the genre, creating something that is as much horror as it is non-fiction. We are plunged into the dark recesses of traumatic experience, and exposed to the sheer scope of institutionalised child molestation. Revelation after revelation, horror after horror, we witness very real and powerful emotion on screen, producing a 'documentary' that enthrals and terrifies.

The inclusion of Terry, Arthur and Gary, 3 victims integral to the first known case of protest against clerical sex abuse in the US, is a genuine masterstroke. This level of realism is perhaps expected of the documentary format, however, Gibney's overall production results in something much more effective. From confession-booth like interviews to complex animated graphics, Mea Maxima Culpa is educational yet highly creative. Aside from the cinematographic merits and qualities of story-telling, significant effort is made to defrock hidden truths of organised child molestation and the lengths taken to cover it up. The trail from the pulpits of Milwaukee to the highest echelons of the Vatican is made to seem more concrete than ever before.

Verdict: Expertly constructed and magnificently told, Mea disturbs ones very core. Gibney has exquisitely created an amalgam of documentary and horror with a profound respect to the stories of its protagonists. Prepare to be infuriated, terrified and astounded without rest. Essential viewing.