Movie I Must See October 1, 2006 Jill Just watch the trailer. It looks… intense. The Johnny Cash song? Wow. I will definitely post a review as soon as it hits New York. Trigger warning: About the Catholic Church pedophilia scandal.
‘Intense’ is the least of it. I saw it at a recent film festival, and I don’t think I’ve ever been as disturbed by any documentary as I was by this. The details of the abuse was appalling enough, but absolute contempt displayed by all levels of the catholic church to the victims of one of its own, was horrific. How it still dares claim any moral authority over anyone, on any topic, is utterly beyond me.
I’m gonna put money on conservative Catholic bloggers haviing a royal flip out over this one, crying about how everyone is out to destroy the Church. I would also put money on the director either being Catholic or raised Catholic. I’m hoping that Call to Action and other Church reform groups put some energy behind this film to help get it out across the US.
Putting my lawyer hat on: At the end of the trailer, one priest at a deposition is asked, “If a child were raped, do you think that’s something you would remember?” His counsel says, “object, instruct the witness not to answer.” Now, I don’t know the circumstances, but I think that instruction is improper. Generally, instructions not to answer are proper to defend a privilege, or in circumstances where a motion for protective order could be made. That didn’t sound like either to me. The question, having the form “if that happened, is that the kind of think you would recall?” is a classic follow-up to an incredible “I don’t recall.” (For example: Q: Has anybody ever given you a cash payment in excess of $100,000? A: I don’t recall. Q: Is that the kind of thing that, if it had happened, you think you would remember it?) Friends of mine have said they learned it working for regulators and for prosecutors’ offices; and I learned it from seeing other people ask it. If a witness received that instruction in my deposition, I would mark it for a ruling and call the magistrate at the next break — maybe even stop the deposition to get a ruling, which I have done.
I’m gonna put money on conservative Catholic bloggers haviing a royal flip out over this one, crying about how everyone is out to destroy the Church. I wouldn’t put that money down too hastily (unless it’s qualified with “some”). It depends on the conservative Catholic blogger. Amy Welborn’s a fairly conservative Catholic blogger (at least on issues like abortion) who’s been pushing the sex abuse scandals for years, and she doesn’t even blame it all on those gay people. Rod Dreher’s another who might be flipping out more about what it reveals about the Church than about how everyone is out to destroy the Church. And the blogger at Whispers in the Loggia was, just today, on the Vatican’s case for complaining about the recent BBC documentary after refusing to talk while the documentary was being made: Repeat: When the church doesn’t cooperate, refusing to offer even a cup of tea and some background, a “culture of secrecy” looks even more like… a culture of secrecy. And then, too, the fact that the documentary exposes Cardinal Mahony, whom conservative Catholic bloggers see as too liberal and therefore love to hate, may make some conservative Catholic bloggers more sympathetic to it than they would be if a different bishop were being gored. On the other hand, I’ve also run into conservative Catholics, in the Catholic blog comboxes, who’ve been amazingly ready to cut the Church a break on some of these cases (or at least to think that it all comes down to those liberals and that “lavender mafia” of gay priests), so I wouldn’t lay money down that some won’t have that royal flip out. I would also put money on the director either being Catholic or raised Catholic. I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
Sure enough, Amy Welborn comes out somewhat favorably disposed to Deliver Us From Evil, but some of her commenters are convinced the BBC commentary (also coming out now, also about the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church – same one Whispers in the Loggia was talking about) is a biased anti-Catholic hit piece.