Netflix's "The Keepers"

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My parents and I have been watching a new documentary series on Netflix titled “The Keepers”. The series explores the unsolved murder of Sr. Cathy Cesnik who taught English and drama at Baltimore’s Archbishop Keough High School, and her former students’ belief that there was a cover-up by authorities after Cesnik confronted the priest at the school, Fr. Joseph Maskell, about his secret sexual abuse of several girls at the school. There is also a subplot that reveals that the Archdiocese of Baltimore was informed of Maskell’s first offense in 1967, but instead moved him from St. Clement School to Keough High School.

Let me know what you think about the series. I strongly encourage everybody to watch it.

Thank you, and God bless. 🙂
 
There is already a thread on this show. I saw The Keepers and it was very good.
 
Catholic1954 said:
I think I will skip it. It looks like 20% murder investigation and 80% the-same-ol’-Catholic-bashing-boost-the-ratings formula. 😛
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Same. It seems like Catholicism is now the only religion that everyone thinks it’s okay to bash 😦 😦
 
I actually did not find it “bashing”. I found it very interesting that the main accuser of Fr. Maskell seemed to have persevered in her Catholic faith despite her understandable anger and frustration with the Church officials.

My only complaint from a Catholic-bashing standpoint was that all of the clergy and religious interviewed for background purposes seemed to be “former” priests and nuns, but I presumed that was because anyone currently with an order was probably instructed by their Church authorities not to speak in or otherwise appear in this production. Also, having grown up in the Church during the 60s and 70s in USA, I’m already aware that many priests and members of religious orders chose to leave their orders during that time for various reasons. Not happy about it but it is a fact that it happened.
 
Heather914 said:
Same. It seems like Catholicism is now the only religion that everyone thinks it’s okay to bash 😦 😦
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It wasn’t bashing. It was about two murder cases that involved a Catholic high school
and a Catholic priest and the investigation. It was 7 episodes so it takes roughly 7 hours to watch. The murders happened in 1969. So almost 50 years have passed.
No one ever charged in the murders. A gripping presentation. The entire show was about the investigation and interviews with people still alive.
 
Shining_star86 said:
I binge-watched the series over the weekend and was left utterly disgusted. For years now, I have been very intrigued by the Catholic Church and have felt an urge to possibly commit myself to it because nothing else has ever made sense. But crimes such as what are depicted in the series keep me questioning. Unlike what one poster said about it being Catholic-bashing, well, I didn’t get that vibe at all. Speaking the truth is not anti-Catholic.

Now I know that this happens anywhere humans reside because we are all sinners, and it’s not only one religion or denomination. I’m just very concerned of the coverup aspect that continues to go on. How do devout Catholics such as yourselves not stop and wonder who all is covering things like this up? Does it not cause your faith to waver? Why even cover it up? That’s what I do not understand. Hope you guys don’t mind my questions 😊 and I don’t mean to derail the thread, but I’ve been wanting to post for a while and then this came up. 😊
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The sins of others does not cause my faith to waver.

We all need to pray much for the Body of Christ, the Church, to grow stronger, ourselves very much included. We have everything Jesus our Lord gave us…prayer, sacraments, grace, etc…
 
We also must remember that Satan is always attempting to destroy the Church. What better way to do it than by tempting priests to commit horrible crimes and sins and tempting others in the Church to cover up for them?

Staying in the Church and fighting against such evil by prayer and speaking out against it and supporting victims is a better way to fight Satan than by just giving up on our faith, which would let the devil win.
 
Catholic1954 said:
I think I will skip it. It looks like 20% murder investigation and 80% the-same-ol’-Catholic-bashing-boost-the-ratings formula. 😛
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Heather914 said:
Same. It seems like Catholicism is now the only religion that everyone thinks it’s okay to bash 😦 😦
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Nope. If you haven’t seen it, please don’t dismiss it. It is not Catholic bashing unless you are the type that thinks no one should ever have known what happened. If you think that the victims should have kept what happened to themselves, that is just heartless. “The truth will set you free.”

The people this happened are victims first of the abusers, next by the archdiocese that refuses to take responsibility for their part in it, and also they are victims of the public. People are accusing them of lying, of not putting a stop to it on their own, or getting angry with them for telling the truth.

And the truth is that evil men did evil things and were never held accountable, they were protected as if **they **were the victims.
 
Irishmom2 said:
Nope. If you haven’t seen it, please don’t dismiss it. It is not Catholic bashing unless you are the type that thinks no one should ever have known what happened. If you think that the victims should have kept what happened to themselves, that is just heartless. “The truth will set you free.”

The people this happened are victims first of the abusers, next by the archdiocese that refuses to take responsibility for their part in it, and also they are victims of the public. People are accusing them of lying, of not putting a stop to it on their own, or getting angry with them for telling the truth.

And the truth is that evil men did evil things and were never held accountable, they were protected as if **they **were the victims.
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Well said! I don’t understand why a Catholic would not want to be informed on
anything that involves the Catholic Church.
 
I enjoyed it for the most part, but of course there has to be the mandatory Catholic bashing moments. Like how the former Jesuit priest is now a Protestant. He goes on a tangent about how the Catholic Church focuses on works, rituals, rules, and superstitions rather than preaching the Gospel. That part caused me to steam up a little, but I expected something anti-Catholic to come up sooner or later. I myself am quite angry with the Archdiocese of Baltimore for continuing to this day to downplay the severity of Maskell’s crimes. So many priests played a role in covering Maskell that it makes me sick. I don’t remember if Archbishop Keeler had any part in the scandal, but if so he should not have been made a cardinal.
 
giuseppe96 said:
I enjoyed it for the most part, but of course there has to be the mandatory Catholic bashing moments. Like how the former Jesuit priest is now a Protestant. He goes on a tangent about how the Catholic Church focuses on works, rituals, rules, and superstitions rather than preaching the Gospel. That part caused me to steam up a little, but I expected something anti-Catholic to come up sooner or later. I myself am quite angry with the Archdiocese of Baltimore for continuing to this day to downplay the severity of Maskell’s crimes. So many priests played a role in covering Maskell that it makes me sick. I don’t remember if Archbishop Keeler had any part in the scandal, but if so he should not have been made a cardinal.
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I don’t think showing a Jesuit priest that is now Methodist is Catholic bashing. 🤷
And I must have missed the part where he said anything about superstitions. Just because the people interviewed are former priests or nuns does not make for Catholic bashing either. As someone pointed out earlier, current clergy may have been instructed not to participate. In most cases, if I recall, the nuns that are now “former” we’re only speaking about knowing Sr. Cathy and talking about what she was like.

So let’s not give smoke to something that has no fire. There is enough Catholic bashing going on in the world, and sometimes even on this very forum.
 
Yes, I also missed where the priest went on such an anti-Catholic tangent. The documentary didn’t really go into all the reasons why he switched to a different church, although it seems pretty clear from what happened both with Sister Cathy and with his current wife that he was seeking to be married rather than continue as a single, celibate priest.
 
Yes, that was the feeling I got too, that he wanted to serve God, but needed to have a connection, as in yes, a wife.
 
Irishmom2 said:
It has been days now since we watched the series, and we are all still disturbed by it. If you really want to see more of the same from the archdiocese, check out their web and Twitter pages. It is sickening what happened, and for them to act like all of these people made up their stories is just pure evil.

But I will state again, this is the Archdiocese of Baltimore, **not The Catholic Church. **The archdiocese is the group of people that are employed there, that were priests there, but the are not The Catholic Church. What they say does not speak for The Church. It speaks of their own blackened souls, not the **Truth **of The Church.
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There have been accusation of abuse in 24 states in the US. While it is comforting to think this is just a Maryland thing, it is not. There are victims of sexual abuse by priests across this nation. We need to acknowledge the wide spread nature of the abuse and pray for justice and healing. There are a lot of people hurting out there.
 
PeopleB4Things said:
There have been accusation of abuse in 24 states in the US. While it is comforting to think this is just a Maryland thing, it is not. There are victims of sexual abuse by priests across this nation. We need to acknowledge the wide spread nature of the abuse and pray for justice and healing. There are a lot of people hurting out there.
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You are missing the point of what I am saying. Even if it happened in every diocese, it is not The Catholic Church. The Church, meaning the Sacraments, Holy Eucharist and everything we believe as Catholics as found in the Catechism. There are evil people in all dioceses perhaps, the Church is our faith, not the people.
 
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