An Eerie, Provocative Documentary Exploring the Devastating Impact of Church Pedophilia: "Deliver Us From Evil." Remarkably Well Made and Told. Brings Home the Life-Long Pain of Victims and a Rather Unconvincingly "Repentant" Ex-Priest. Extraordinarily Insightful Considering the Ongoing Epidemic of Pedophilia Revelations Yet Again From Within the Male Hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
Directed by Amy Berg
BuzzFlash.com's Review (excerpt)
Academy Award Nominee
"A devastating investigation into the pedophilia scandals tearing apart the Catholic Church, Deliver Us From Evil begins by looking into one priest, Father Oliver O'Grady, who agreed to be interviewed by journalist/filmmaker Amy Berg. O'Grady's genial calm is at first ingratiating, until he begins to describe his crimes with an unsettling sociopathic detachment. But O'Grady's blithe interview is only half of the story, as the documentary also unveils how church superiors covered up O'Grady's crimes and shuffled him from diocese to diocese in northern California, finally placing him in an unsupervised position of authority in a small town, where he sexually assaulted dozens of children; the video deposition of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney is a grotesque portrait in brittle denial. What makes Deliver Us From Evil crucial viewing, however, are the remarkable interviews with a few of the victims (now adults) and their parents, whose stories are wrenching and riveting. With the support of a priest seeking to reform the church, two of the victims actually go to the Pope, seeking some form of help in addressing O'Grady's crimes. This stunningly potent documentary combines raw feeling with lucid and persuasive discussions of the reasons for--and disturbing breadth of--this crisis within the Church."
"Oliver O'Grady is a **** who preyed on girls and boys for almost thirty years, was sentenced to fourteen years in prison for his crimes, served seven, and is now living in Ireland where he doesn't need to register anywhere as a sex offender (and indeed, the family he's currently living with knows nothing of his past - although I gather they do now), and lives in semi-comfort from an annuity provided to him by the Catholic church.
Oh, and he was a priest. A Catholic priest.
Oh, yeah, and his diocese was fully aware of his pedophilia, may have been aware of it prior to his donning the robes, and shuffled him around from parish to parish, in one instance even promising the police that in his next position he would not have contact with children. On that last one, they lied. His "next position" placed him in full charge of nearly half a county of Catholics.
What was most surprising to me while watching this documentary, presented evenly and without prejudice by Amy Berg (and nominated for an Oscar for Best documentary), was that I was only mildly surprised by most of the information presented. At the end of the film we are told that a bishop who held several positions of office in the diocese during O'Grady's "tenure", Bishop Mahoney, now presides over a diocese where there are more than five hundred and fifty (yes - 550) pending charges against priests for pedophilia. And O'Grady's annuity is likely a payoff for his silence. Were he to testify to what HE knows regarding what the DIOCESE knew (they claim to know little), we assume that the diocese, Bishop Mahoney, and countless other heads would roll. How comforting to know that an organization beset with pedophiles can still buy itself a bit of peace and quiet.
The documentary is comprised of a number of interviews with victims, victim's family members, depositions given by Bishop Mahoney and a Monsignor, commentary from lawyers for the victims family, a theologian, a psychologist specializing in priest abuse, explanations from Thomas Doyle (a former priest who was fired from two positions presumably because he spoke up for the rights of the victims), all of which is interspersed with a long interview with the **** himself: Oliver O'Grady.
O'Grady will strike you as charming and affable, and until you hear evidence given that he physically molested an infant (this means insertion, and not with his finger), you're almost willing to buy his reformed act. You'll hear testimony from victim's families that he charmed his way into their homes, even sleeping with a parent on one occasion, to get closer to his victims. It seems that he spent more time maneuvering and grooming his victims than he did ministering - he admits he wasn't much of a counselor, something for which families often turn to their priests. In the end, he will appear insouciant.
While I said that not much surprised me, it doesn't mean the material didn't move me. The comments from one father brought tears of rage to my chest. He railed against the priest, against the church, finally denouncing his belief in God (to which his daughter, the victim, cried), and one can hear the guilt pounding in his soul. His family allowed O'Grady to spend the night at his house, and while everyone else was asleep, O'Grady was in their daughter's bedroom, molesting her, starting at the age of five. I tried to imagine what that would feel like, and couldn't.
One wonders what it will take before real reform in the Catholic church occurs. If it happens tomorrow, it's too late, but for the thousands who aren't being protected right now, let's hope."
*******
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