HBO: Mea Maxima Culpa

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I belonged to church and school that had the first major case in Massachusetts-Father Porter.

Living in that community, there was this feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

I knew some males even though they had not spoken about it yet… Some had left the church and it was difficult for me to understand why but I knew they had major resentment against the church.

Remember these cases took place in the 50’s,-80’s-most early on when there was this silence in the community as well as the church that this didn’t happen anywhere (in neighbors, in schools) it was never spoken about.

That said after these stories broke,there were incidents when the group called SNAP would come in to other churches in close neighboring cities, that were not even involved-had no cases and they would picket our masses. I was one of the few that would picket against them because it was uncalled for.

It was difficult to watch day after day, these cases come forth in our newpapers. I don’t think we will stop movies or books so I just hope they try to be accurate. It is a sad part of church history that needs to be told and will continue to be told so it never happens again.

This was a small percentage of priests but they do major damage and the real scandal is that there was a covered-up-that is why the anger is. so intense.
 
Alex Gibney libels the Pope
HBO will air Alex Gibney’s movie, “Mea Maxima Culpa,” tonight. Bill Donohue accuses him of libel:
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It’s too bad Pope Benedict XVI doesn’t sue Alex Gibney for libel. In an interview posted today on The Daily Beast, he calls the pope “a criminal.” He is accusing Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now the pope) of covering up the deeds of Father Lawrence Murphy, a priest who molested deaf boys in Milwaukee in the 1950s. Indeed, today’s New York Times advertises the HBO show by saying there was a “cover-up from rural America to the Vatican.”
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The charge that Ratzinger was involved in a cover up is libelous. The fact of the matter is that no one contacted the civil authorities about Murphy until the mid-1970s (following a probe, the case was dropped), and it wasn’t until 1996 that the Vatican was contacted.
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Instead of dropping an investigation—the statute of limitations had long expired—the Vatican ordered a trial. Not only was Cardinal Ratzinger not at the trial, his name was never even mentioned. We know this because of the presiding judge’s testimony.
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Moreover, it wasn’t until 2001 that Pope John Paul II asked Cardinal Ratzinger to police these matters, and when he did, he moved expeditiously and fairly. An honest rendering of these events would conclude that no one at the Vatican has ever taken these cases with greater seriousness than Joseph Ratzinger.
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Gibney says he was inspired to do the film after reading an article by Laurie Goodstein in the New York Times. That being the case, Gibney should tell us where in Goodstein’s reporting she said that “Vatican delegates” (whatever that means) were aware of Murphy’s abuse “as early as 1958.” That’s what the film says, and it is pure bunk.
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The mark of a Catholic hater is to take dirty laundry and then add to it by offering a conspiratorial account. That’s what Gibney has done.
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Contact Gibney: pag@jigsawprods.com
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catholicleague.org/alex-gibney-libels-the-pope

Sex, Lies, and HBO Documentaries
 
Why is it that the first thing posted here regarding this issue is some kind of defensive argument to defend the indefensible and paint the men responsible as victims?

The barn door is closed, the horse is out. Everyone knows who knew, how long they knew and how they put the image of the Church and their own power ahead of innocent children. Everyone knows how long they looked the other way and allowed this to go on. I’m sick of hearing the whining and the excuses: “oh they didn’t know any better”, “that’s how everyone handled it” and my personal favorite, “look at all the other people who do it that aren’t Priests! Nobody ever talks about them, they just pick on Catholics!”

There will never be healing until everyone stops trying to rationalize and equivocate and excuse behavior that everyone involved KNEW was wrong-or they wouldn’t have spent so much time and energy trying to cover it all up.
 
Seeker1961 said:
Why is it that the first thing posted here regarding this issue is some kind of defensive argument to defend the indefensible and paint the men responsible as victims?

The barn door is closed, the horse is out. Everyone knows who knew, how long they knew and how they put the image of the Church and their own power ahead of innocent children. Everyone knows how long they looked the other way and allowed this to go on. I’m sick of hearing the whining and the excuses: “oh they didn’t know any better”, “that’s how everyone handled it” and my personal favorite, “look at all the other people who do it that aren’t Priests! Nobody ever talks about them, they just pick on Catholics!”

There will never be healing until everyone stops trying to rationalize and equivocate and excuse behavior that everyone involved KNEW was wrong-or they wouldn’t have spent so much time and energy trying to cover it all up.
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Nobody is defending priests who had commited crimes, but if anybody reports on such things when claims are made they have to be factual. Film puts blame on Cardinal Ratzinger when there is no evidence he was to blame
 
originally posted by seeker1961
Everyone knows who knew, how long they knew and how they put the image of the Church and their own power ahead of innocent children. Everyone knows how long they looked the other way
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In the Massachusetts cases it was clear that someone knew but who -Cardinal Medeiros was the head at the time of most of these scandels. He died in 1983. The first major case -Fr. Porter did not come out until 1990.

It was a time when these kind of things were never spoken about, not brought up anywhere. Coming from a culture where we speak about such things on a daily basis, it is difficult to image the 50’s, 60’s, even early 70’s.

Some men were sent away and thought to be “healed”

People who do nasty thing things spent a great deal of their time trying to hide them.

It was a cover-up but by whom and how many I don’t think we know. We may never know. That also fuels the anger.
 
Catholic World Report analyzed this film, which apparently may not be entirely accurate and begins with:*Mea Maxima Culpa is an anti-Catholic broadside masquerading as a documentary. *

.
 
_Abyssinia said:
Nobody is defending priests who had commited crimes, but if anybody reports on such things when claims are made they have to be factual. Film puts blame on Cardinal Ratzinger when there is no evidence he was to blame
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Oops, I duplicated your link. Well, the more the merrier. :o Good resources.
 
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