"Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House of God" Documentary Blames Vatican For Handling Of Abuse

[rug]

Reuters | By Andrea Burzynski Posted: 11/16/2012 12:27 pm EST Updated: 11/16/2012 12:33 pm EST

Four deaf Wisconsin men were some of the first to seek justice after suffering childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a priest, and a new documentary about the Catholic Church's poor handling of such cases stemming from the Vatican seeks to make their voices heard.

"Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God" explores the impact of the Roman Catholic Church's protocol as dictated from the Vatican for dealing with pedophile priests. It opens in U.S. cinemas on November 16, and will air on cable channel HBO in February.

Though American media coverage about child sex abuse by clergy has been extensive since a slew of cases came to light in Boston in 2002, Oscar-winning documentary director Alex Gibney wanted to connect individual stories with what he sees as systemic failures stemming from the top of the church.

"A lot of individual stories had been done about clerical sex abuse, but I hadn't seen one that really connected the individual stories with the larger cover-up by the Vatican, so that was important," Gibney told Reuters in an interview.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/mea-maxima-culpa-catholic-child-abuse_n_2143748.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

1. That is the real problem, even worse than the pedophilia, bad as that is

Everyone in the hierarchy, from the Pope on down, seems to have overdosed on stupid pills. They think that they are defending the Church by denying that there is a real problem, or by covering it up or by blaming everyone else. In fact, they are damaging the Church's reputation. Apparently, they have forgotten that what made Nixon resign the presidency was not the Watergate break-in itself, but his attempts to cover up the break-in.

As an example of how the Vatican is allowing those responsible for the mess, the former Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law, is living in gracious retirement in Rome, and did not have to face a court in Massachusetts; even though he could have been indicted as an accessory after the fact in several of the clergy abuse cases.

[rug]

2. They have strived to become politicians and managers at the expense of their priesthood.