Review - Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House of God

Amazing, Heart Wrenching and Moving

Alex Gibney has been the driving force behind some amazing documentaries. Sure Michael Moore grabs the headlines, but people like Gibney really shake things up. Over the past seven years alone he has been involved with some of the best documentaries of the period. Films like Taxi to the Dark Sice, Casino Jack and the United States of Money, Frakonomics and Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer have come from the directorial vision of Gibney. Now he is set to tackle the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church.

 

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God has its United States premiere at the Milwaukee Film Festival. The film that starts with an emphasis on the case of Father Lawrence Murphy, a Catholic priest that abused children at the St. John’s School for the Deaf. Murphy is thought to be one of the first cases of its type where the victims actively protested the accused.

Over the course of the film, Gibney makes the case, when starting with Murphy, that the Vatican had knowledge of the abuses on all levels and refused to do anything about it. Instead of facing the criticism early on, the Vatican chose to hush up the accusations, and pay off the victims for their silence. But they will not be silent any more.

The film shows instances from the viewpoint of the victims of a man that preyed on those that couldn’t communicate with their families. Not only was it children that Murphy was interested in, but he “favored” those with parents who didn’t know sign language, so the kids could not tell the tales.

It’s a graphic look at a predator that deserved much worse in this life than he was ultimately given. It’s a look at a system that was more interested in preserving an institution, than protecting the innocent. There is abuse of power, corruption, and a film full of interesting connections – who knew and when?

Ultimately, the connection is made to the current sitting Pope, Pope Benedict XVI. Gibney’s trail shows that before then Cardinal Ratzinger was elevated to the highest office in the Catholic Church that he had knowledge of all of the scandals.

How will this film play with audiences? It’s anyone’s guess. But ultimately it will break your heart to witness the total lack of protection for the most helpless in society. Our children.

This makes two years in a row that the Milwaukee Film Festival folks have shared amazing documentaries with the fans of film. Last year The Interrupters was an amazing look at the topic of gun violence in Chicago and the US. This year, Gibney lets us experience his amazing film that lays out a strong case against the leaders of the Catholic Church.

As someone who was raised Catholic, it’s hard to watch. It’s hard to listen to some of the things that Father Murphy thought were ok. It’s hard to hear that so many leaders of the Church let things go on so long. But it has to be seen!

Your stomach will churn at what Gibney shares…but much like a hard to watch scene in a fictional movie…it’s the same feeling of sickness you have. Gibney knows how to tell a story, and lay it out in a manner that flows and doesn’t feel like a classic documentary. He uses voices of Hollywood talents like Chris Cooper and Ethan Hawke to tell the stories of those with no voice. And he will have you shaken by the end of the film.

This is a must see during the Milwaukee Film Festival or whenever it heads to your neck of the woods.

A-

NR

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

HBO Documentary Films

Director: Alex Gibney

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes