By Bruce Nolan
The Times-Picayune
April 12, 2008
http://blog.nola.com/mikescott/2008/04/jason_berrys_vows_of_silence_t.html
"Vows of Silence" is New Orleans writer Jason Berry's tale of sexual abuse and coverup in the Catholic Church, adroitly transferred to film from his 2004 book of the same name and updated with fresh reporting on developments since then.
The film will screen Monday, April 14, at the Prytania Theatre. It is one of 50 films being shown throughout the city through April 20 as part of New Orleans' fifth annual International Human Rights Film Festival.
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| Jason Berry Photo by Ted Jackson |
Berry has been digging in this minefield in one way or another since 1990, when his "Lead Us Not Into Temptation" proved to be the first deep excavation of the time bomb of priestly sexual abuse ticking toward detonation 12 years hence.
Berry has other lives as well — jazz and cultural historian and novelist come to mind — but his expertise on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church kept dragging him back into the muck as a reporter — and that led to another major development in the sex abuse story in "Vows of Silence."
"Vows," both book and documentary, deals with overseas sexual abuse and institutional coverup. Berry and his co-author, the late Gerald Renner, a Connecticut newspaper reporter, describe the worldwide growth of a highly orthodox religious order of Catholic priests, the Legion of Christ, and expose on-the-record charges by nine men who assert that the order's charismatic founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, sexually abused them as youths in the order's seminary.
Like the book, "Vows" covers the aging Pope John Paul II's relative passivity in the face of the charges. It also describes the Legion as a controlling, manipulative organization, making friends in high places in the Vatican with its orthodoxy while enforcing on its seminarians an oath never to criticize Maciel.
Neither the book nor the film contains rebuttal from the Legion, which does not engage Berry directly but has responded furiously through its many friends and institutional outlets.
"Vows" extends the book by reporting the ultimate fate of Maciel after the death of his protector, John Paul. It also lets the viewer meet some of Maciel's accusers — and uncovers new ones, including an athletic, All-American-looking Legion ex-priest named Christopher Kunze, who breaks down describing what he understood to be a jarring and wholly unexpected sexual pass by the revered Maciel, whom he had always called "Our Father."
Another fresh detail: Ex-Legionnaries based in Rome describe being dispatched by the order to befriend promising young American seminarians being trained at the North American College — a breeding ground for future American bishops — and to provide written reports on their progress in that mission. These efforts reportedly include an attempt to befriend the son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, all in the name of securing the Legion's future with the next generation of church leaders.
People who have been following the Legion and its affiliated lay organization, Regnum Christi, will see Berry's work smoothly transported to a new medium, with new material.
Others will see the whole story told for the first time.
"Vows of Silence" will be screened on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Prytania Theatre, 5339 Prytania St., (504) 891-2787.
For more details on the film festival, visit www.nolahumanrights.org/ or see Times-Picayune movie critic Mike Scott's blog.
Bruce Nolan can be reached at (504) 826-3344 or bnolan@timespicayune.com
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