User Reviews

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.

This film does a fine job of documenting the groundbreaking, courageous and tenacious efforts of a group of deaf men to expose a pedophile priest who ran a school for deaf children and preyed on those children for many years.

The nature of the crimes and the pervasive lack of action by the catholic church to discipline the criminal priest and aid his victims is truly disgusting. Similar circumstances in Ireland are also reviewed where priests were well known to have abused children in their churches and yet they were never appropriately disciplined either by the church or turned over by the church to the civil authorities. It is extremely important that these heinous crimes and the institutional resistance in the church to deal with them are made known by films such as this one. The story of how these men who courageously pursued their search for justice prevailed despite tremendous church inaction and resistance is inspiring.

My only quibble with the film is when it uses contemporary dramatizations to give viewers a feeling for what it would have been like to have been a child in these environments. These are not so much dramatic re-enactments as brief glimpses very much at the periphery of the actual abuse. Still, I thought they were unnecessary as the testimony and documentary footage provided ample information and were more than enough to make my blood boil.

Do see this film and support it for the important work it does in exposing a very serious abuse of trust by an institution of tremendous power that still doggedly refuses to hold itself accountable for so many horrendous crimes.

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!!

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.

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.

www.nolandalla.com

I only heard about this film recently, although at the time of his resignation I had heard that the Pope had gone in relation to revelations within a film. This was just a suggestion of course and it may not even have been this film but what made me come to this was mainly that I heard it mentioned in a list of documentaries from Gibney. His documentaries have been well worth watching and on that basis I wanted to watch this one. The film looks at the child abuse scandal within the catholic church, focusing specifically on a handful of cases involving deaf children and slowly working its way up to the highest positions within the organization of the church.

As a journey it is one that is hard to watch from start to end. The details of the abuse are very difficult to listen to – not just the words but the realization of how completely alone these boys were, how utterly predatory their abuser was; we all know it occurred but to hear it from these victims made it all the realer to me and all the more sickening. As the film goes on we continue to get details, not so much over the abuse but over the action (or rather, inaction) of the church. It moves key players into the frame, discussing the structure of treatment centers, protection of priests and really doesn't leave much doubt about how much was known and by contrast how little was done. It is very hard to watch and it is mostly structured very well to not only build the story so effectively but also to shock and upset even after so much of this issue is known.

It doesn't totally manage to close the loop and once it reaches the top and loops round to the original story again, it doesn't quite have the structural impact as a whole that it did in specific moments. This is a very minor failing in comparison to how effective it is for the majority of the running time, but it does leave the film feeling that the final knockout punch is missing – which of course it is. The footage is well edited together and Gibney's narrator is mostly restrained and well pitched. It is a very hard watch at times though, but the subject matter is well worth the feeling of anger, injustice and sense of total exploitation that it will leave you with.

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.

MEA MAXIMA CULPA, a documentary uncovering child abuse in the Catholic Church, holds few surprises; there can't be many people left on this planet who AREN'T aware of the Catholic Church's dark, secretive and controlling nature. Yet as it stands this is a harrowing piece of film-making, one that reaches into the darkest depths of human existence in its search for the truth.

It begins with accounts of child abuse back in the '60s and just gets worse from there. Just when you think that Father Murphy, the man at the centre of these allegations, is the true villain of the piece, you find out there are even worse and more unsavoury characters: the ones who do everything in their power to hush it all up. Alex Gibney uncovers a sinister conspiracy that goes right to the highest echelons of power; forget the fantasy worlds of Dan Brown, this stuff is the real deal.

Hardly an enjoyable watch, but then this is one of those documentaries that everyone should see to get an idea of how things are, no matter how cynical it makes us.

What good is a movie about DEAF people if it isn't captioned? I was really looking forward to seeing this documentary as it presents a view about a particular group of individuals that are hidden behind the scenes of the issue of sexual abuse within the church. I could not watch it. At first it shows students in an oral/aural setting in school so I waited to see if it would then go on to interviews in ASL (American Sign Language). Indeed it did, the individuals who were interviewed used ASL but if there were questions being asked, the interviewer was not on screen signing the questions to them. Then it goes on to show interviews with another individual and church scenes and there is no open or closed captioning. This is an important issue that needs to be seen/heard and is finally brought out into the open audience and yet without captioning, it is closed to the very community to which it is addressed. I am very disappointed that I was not able to watch this documentary because it has not been made accessible to the Deaf community by providing captioning for us. This is 2015, there is no reason why captioning could not be provided for this documentary.

This is an excellent documentary on how the Catholic Church has let down its people. Child Sexual abuse has long been a problem in the Church. That's not to say that other religions have had their problems too. It focuses on how sexual abuse, especially in deaf community and it was so rampant. The film gives great insight on how the Catholic Church succeeded in creating a massive cover up. It evens show how Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger played a vital role in covering up the abuse happening worldwide. The film may make you bitter, even angry, but for those of us who are Catholic it's an amazing outpouring of sadness. I found myself doing more research on this subject. The victims in the film pour out their heart and souls, and even though they were deaf and they signed their lines, you are offered the opportunity to hear what they are saying with excellent guest star voices. Even the use of photography where the zoomed in on the hands signing was awesome, I felt their grief through their sign language. The cinematography is excellent and the use of old film footage makes you feel like you are there. In my opinion a must see film, especially if you are Catholic. It sends a clear message that the Church has a long road ahead in rebuilding its trust with its congregation.

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!

Alex Gibney's movie is an extremely well researched documentary about pedophilia in the Catholic Church. Sexual abuse by priests went on for a long time. But, nobody had the courage to speak openly about it. The power of the Church in Catholic countries was too overwhelming. If you criticized the clergy, you could lose your job. Alex Gibney's movie illustrates the silence on and of the Church with the unacceptable behavior of a priest in a School for the Deaf in Wisconsin, a formidable sexual abuse of power. For a long time, all complaints were swept off the table. But, when the facts were openly exposed in the media, a flood of new abuse cases followed, which would cost the Catholic Church billions of dollars. Alex Gibney's movie is an indictment of even the top of the Catholic Church. All complaints about pedophilia in the Church went to the desk of the former pope Benedict XVI, when he was dean of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. He did nearly nothing with them. This scandal shocked the whole Catholic Church. It lost the trust of its parishioners, leaving its churches nearly empty. Moreover, the number of vocations fell dramatically. In one word, the Catholic Church is dying. Alex Gibney's dramatic movie is a terrible document about one of the greatest religious scandals ever, which put even the pope, the representative of God on earth, in a very bad light. A must see.

A documentary is only as good as its subject matter, and Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God is a phenomenal examination and magnification of sexual abuse in the Catholic church, specifically at the St. John's School for the Deaf in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The film interviews four deaf adults who claim to be molested by Father Lawrence Murphy when they were young, and continued to be molested until they graduated high school. They've kept quiet until now, apparently.

When Terry Kohut, Gary Smith, Pat Kuehn, and Arthur Budzinski first arrived at St. John's, they marveled at the delicate, castle-like infrastructure and beautiful statues of Jesus Christ that stood proudly in the yard. They met the likes of several schoolboys their same age, made friendships, became close to the nuns, and even enjoyed the company of their priest, Father Lawrence Murphy. The men reflect on how they strove to meet Murphy's standards and tried ever so hard not to disappoint or upset him.

Then the unthinkable happened; all four men, at separate times, were lured into Murphy's office and were told to either unclothe themselves or pleasure themselves in the presence of Murphy himself. The boys cooperated, as good Catholic children so often do, and immediately knew something wasn't right. Later on, they saw him molesting other boys, entering their bedrooms at all hours of the night and molesting them while they lay in bed. We're told that Murphy specifically singled out kids whose parents couldn't sign so they couldn't communicate with them and tell them what happened. Many of the children, when they received visitors from family, had to communicate through Murphy, so no word was ever even spoken about it.

Even when the children sucked up the gumption to tell their parents, they didn't listen. Many thought of priests/popes as aesthetically and morally "perfect." They were the men of the Lord and how could they dare commit the atrocity that is child molestation? This went on for many years, as Murphy continued to molest deaf children and those already ill-equipped of formal communication. The boys had to find ways to tell people on the outside the horrors that went on in St. John's and actually made "Wanted" posters for Father Murphy, urging he was a "serial child molester" and needed to be stopped. Such courage from children should be admired, not silenced.

After about fifty minutes of exploring the horrors in St. John's, director Alex Gibney shifts the focus to molestation and sexual abuse in The Vatican, and how the broken laws of the monumental church say that a priest convicted of molestation must be removed from his site, "rehabilitated," then sent back into another community perhaps having not learned a single thing. It explores how Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI's involvement with the questions raised about priest molestation and how the legislation should be adjusted or kept the same.

The facts brought forth in Mea Maxima Culpa (which, in English, means "My most grievous fault") are appalling and disturbing. It was news to me that after being convicted of molestation, Cardinal Bernard Law was sent to another division of The Vatican, where he resided in a luxurious and illuminating palace. Is this what we show people what happens when you harm and endanger children? Even commentary on the issues by Popes shows they are more concerned about the well-being of the priests than the actual victims of the tragedy. The first statement they make is how they are horribly ashamed of the man committing the atrocities, rather than the young, corrupted youth who were on the receiving end. It becomes depressingly clear that they are more concerned about the church's name and well-being than the thousands affected by this.

Alex Gibney, who also narrates the picture, is one of the smartest and most prolific documentarians working today. His Oscar-winning feature, Taxi to the Dark Side, exposed the Bush administration's acts of torture in the ongoing "War on Terror." His film The Last Gladiators details the lives of hockey enforcers that put their life and safety on the line in order to protect the team as a whole. His newest feature, We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, magnifies the controversial event of Julian Assange's website that is known for leaking confidential documents of the U.S. Government. Gibney is not just a brave soul, but one that does the job Frederick Wiseman would continue to do if he was younger. That job is exposing shady institutions and reading between the headlines in order to formulate a compelling feature. He is one of the smartest - if not, the smartest - documentary filmmaker in the business today.

Lisa Rinzler's cinematography is akin to that of a horror movie revolving around the church and The Vatican. Reenactments of events are always shown in shadow, with a disturbingly bleak layer of black covering most of the screen, the interviews with the four men are conducted behind a pitch black backdrop, with light shining on their torso-area in one of the most stylistic approaches to an interview I've ever seen. The whole film has an eerie vibe, especially for a documentary about something as allegedly innocent as the church. From a stylistic/aesthetic standpoint, the picture is beautiful in its depiction of the terrible.

If anything, we can say that we as a society have greatly moved past the senseless, empty-headed "godlike" worship of priests and popes, and are aware that many priests' actions have led to children having incomprehensible problems and lasting trauma due to sexual abuse and torment. Mea Maxima Culpa may inspire sickness, outrage, hatred, and condemnation towards the Catholic Church in The Vatican but, most importantly, now we know more about this issue and we must try to repair it. All it took were a countless amount of unfortunate children and a brazen documentary.

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.

Firstly just to express total solidarity with the deaf men of Milwaukee Wisconsin who suffered at the hands of serial child sex abuser Fr. Laurence C. Murphy. Secondly to say I'm an Irish Catholic and knew the singing priest Fr. Tony Walsh - 'Fr. Elvis' - as a boy. A number of pedophiles accessed my family, sexually grooming and serial abusing and in the Dublin of the day the culture of pederasty was pervasive. Thirdly allow me open by asking people to consider Fr. Murphy's excuses - offered in therapy:

A). 'There was rampant homosexuality amongst the boys. I fixed the problem'; B). I thought if I played around with a kid once per week they would have their needs met'; C). I thought I was taking their sins on myself'; D). It was self-education for them they were confused about sex'; E). Would feel penis. If erect would masturbate them'; F). Afterward I prayed and went to confession'.

The man felt he was doing good not evil. How then was his moral compass so distorted and disorientated? Would cyber porn producers and users of child porn today offer better excuses? - we've heard them and know them to be equally self-serving and delusional. Being homosexual was universally taboo up until the 1980's and it was considered better to be sexually disorientated or sexually dysfunctional with a view to a life of celibacy, secular or priestly. But for all their crimes no perverted Roman Catholic priest that I am aware of was ever charged with the crime of rape and murder common enough among pedophiles and rapists. Now this may be difficult but consider modern porn and its rapaciousness. Consider the fact that most porn is not only about the objectification and exploitation of women but also about their brutalization. Pedophilia is rampant and causally peppered through main stream cyber porn which rapidly descends from relative eroticism to utter abomination.

So what has happened is that consent is all that's is required to make sexual abuse permissible today even if the person is a minor; even if the woman simply signed up for sex and not the brutalizing desecration of her body; even if the sex was consenting but the permission to broadcast & circulate was not. Cyber porn is so controversial that Google maintains it is not responsible for acting as the international traffic cop and seemed curiously resigned to compromising its own browser Google Chrome with its competitors search engines. Because Google understand the corporate tornado on the horizon, cyber porn being a record - in most instances - of sex crime, knowing that many of the victims will sue. It makes me feel like signing up for a course in Swedish rape law because this makes the Juliann Assange case - which involved the charges 'Sex by surprise' and 'Sex with too much asking', - seem like a great idea. How about 'Sex with brutalizing & degrading consequences'; 'Sex for the purpose of making porn without consent'; 'Sex with adolescents too stoned & too immature to know the implications of what they were doing', and 'Sex for the purpose of sexually re-orientating and dis-orientating the victim'? So what has happened is that we have simply changed the definition and function of sexual terrorism from repression to 'sexual liberation'. The Catholic Church has stood up to the plate, paid the price and yet the accusatory finger still points towards the past. But the Church must reform the celibate model of priesthood which according to former Benedictine Richard Sipes 'Selects, cultivates, protects, defends and produces sexual abusers'.

This is a marvelous and sympathetic movie about a wonderfully courageous group of deaf men who show us the meaning of the word solidarity. It provides a valuable and necessary understanding of the errors of the past without seeking to agitate, animate or radicalise. But one must ask the Director Alex Gibney to consider the far more perilous issue of cyber porn and modern sexual values and just where we are heading with the rate of homosexuality rising towards 25% in Cosmopolitan & Metropolitan areas where stable 'straight',and monogamous family units are rapidly becoming vestigial. Judging from cyber porn there are those so liberated that it is a wonder they are not permanently incontinent. Can a woman really have animalistic sex with two men hung like donkeys and ever hope to function properly again; and why do women cast themselves in the role of sexual gladiators? In terms of the police phrase used in the documentary to describe pedophilia in the Catholic Church 'Noble cause corruption', might not those advocating the GLBTQ, Libertine and Hedonist agendas consider whether the term now also applies to their sexual crusade?

At the Sea of Tiberius as Jesus watched St. Peter leap from the boat with almost nothing on he knew St. Peter had sexual issues and was at least immodest in that most sublime of Biblical scenes from John 21 titled 'The Restoration of St. Peter'. He had also chastened the Disciple Nathanael at the time of his recruitment, three years earlier, for spending too much time under "The Fig Tree", (John 2: 48). And yet Nathanael is at the scene at the Sea of Tiberius to witness the risen Jesus prepare a meal for his followers and take St. Peter aside, to chasten and prepare him for the way ahead. Please God Pope Benedict XVI's successor Pope Francis is up for a restoration of the priesthood. And as a secular adult community surely we can also rise to this debate given that we see fit to rise to just about every and any other kind of bait? Let me conclude by offering a quote from the retired gay Archbishop of Milwaukee Most Reverend Rembert Weakland (1977-2002) for this is by far the wisest statement to emerge from this challenging documentary:

We're a Church of imperfect people. Jesus wasn't afraid of humanity and we shouldn't be either'

No one killed or molested anyone in the name of Devil.But it's trillions who is victim of religions.And how horrific is this when all the evils are priests who talks about stupid morals everytime? This is the most tensing documentary I've ever seen.Felt sad and angry many times.Only flaw is that they're comparing victims as people of God.God is just a delusion created by Criminals and Rapists.Dont compare the victims with that.

"Noble Cause Corruption" was mentioned in this documentary. It is the idea that good intentions purify the act. And if you're just as sickened by such a notion as I am, then you have an idea of how you will feel throughout this documentary.

In 1990 HBO released a movie titled "Judgment" which was about a Louisiana priest who'd been abusing boys. That was probably the earliest movie released addressing the elephant in the room.

In 2006 there was a documentary done by Disarming Films titled "Deliver Us From Evil." It was focused on a priest named Oliver O'Grady who was abusing boys in the Sacramento, California area from the 70's through the 90's. In that documentary Father Tom Doyle, a Canon lawyer and historian, said:

"The system, the monarchical, hierarchical, governmental system, that the people in charge of the Roman Catholic Church, from the pope on down, firmly believe it was willed by Almighty God-- is the reason why Roger Mahoney (a cardinal having knowledge of Oliver O'Grady's actions) is believed to be substantially more important and better than the children who were ravished by Oliver O'Grady."

Alex Gibney, who has done some excellent documentaries such as "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," "Taxi to the Darkside," "Casino Jack and the United States of Money," and others, brings us "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God." Mea Culpa is a latin phrase meaning "through my own fault," whereas mea maxima culpa means "through my own grievous fault." This film is a plea to the Catholic Church to admit their mea maxima culpa.

Per Richard Sipe, a monk and therapist interviewed, "The system of the Catholic clergy... selects, cultivates, protects, defends, and produces sexual abusers." And I think those are the best words to frame what the victims were up against.

"Mea Maxima Culpa" focuses on Father Lawrence Murphy who was abusing deaf boys in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as far back as the 1950's. Again we hear about abuse and the Roman Catholic Church's attempts to cover it up. Even though I'm well aware of the Church's sins, I still watch these films because these victims deserve to be heard.