Procession: L'Espoir au Bout du Chemin

Every person - especially every practicing Catholic - needs to see this moving and emotional film. Beautiful in its depth, it shows the heartbreaking, painful journey of men abused as boys by predatory priests, and the uphill battle for justice. The scope of the trauma is vast, and it may shock you to see the continuing whitewash given it by the Vatican. Are those who still dutifully attend Mass and continue to put money into the coffers of the Catholic Church complicit in the ongoing coverup? That is a moral and ethical question each of us must ask ourselves.

Any documentary based on this subject matter deserves a ten. Any production that is presented by the victims themselves deserves a ten. Every minute viewed, every snippet of the traumatic experiences of these victims that is seen, all of it helps to raise awareness of what happened and what continues to happen within the priesthood. For decades, if not millennia, the priesthood has been the go to profession for sexual predators. Documentaries like these serve to remind us of that fact and should be seen by all those who want justice for the victims and who want the church and it's evil predators brought to account. 10/10.

This documentary tells the stories of a group of men that survived sexual abused when they were children. Although we could have heard about this topic a lot, this movie tries to focus on the power of telling (filming) our own stories as therapy: maybe they aren't actors or screenwriters but you can see their pain in each scene that is represented.

While clearly pointing out the crimes of the Catholic Church, I specially liked how respectful (and beautiful) the narration of the film was.

It is incredible to think that many members of the Catholic community still refuse to acknowledge the systemic rape of children in spite of waves of survivors coming forward with their abuse. Procession is one of the most powerful depiction of the lifelong trauma that historic child sexual abuse survivors have endured and their battle against great odds to hold the Catholic Church accountable for their complicity.

The cancerous spread of pedophilic priests in Kansas City is mirrored by Ballarat in Australia, where the Diocese of Ballarat admitted in a statement in 2019 that high-ranking clergy protected one of their own against prosecution for child sexual abuse claims. Even the children knew instinctively that what was happening to them was deeply wrong. Yet these men abused their power, paid no heed to morality and contradicted their own teachings.

The pain, shame and anger etched into the faces of each of these men are plain to see. As they recount their abuses, they briefly revert to the boys who were violated and there is a grief for the life they could have had instead. Alongside the depravity of their abuse, there is warm humanity in their brotherhood as they support each other towards healing. Michael said it best, "people do things for other people sometimes they don't do for themselves".

Pedophilic priests may go much further back in history and it is probably the promise of unfettered power that lured these self-important opportunistic parasites into pursuing priesthood. Hence ironically Catholicism becomes a bastion for amorality and synonymous with pedophilia.

The premise of Procession using drama therapy as a way to heal from sexual trauma was intriguing but I was cautiously optimistic. I can see now that this therapeutic approach was deeply impactful to all its participants and it impacted me as a viewer.

Each short story is powerful and disturbing. I was moved by all the stories. The raw emotion of the survivor who lives through the cake incident. His story is titled "Blatant Lies In The Name of The lord." I could really feel his rage.

All of the stories really highlighted the manipulation that took place. I can now better understand how memories get repressed.

I hope all of them can get some justice. To those who were denied justice, know that your participation in this film will help others.