BishopAccountability.org
	Review of the DVD " Vows of Silence" By William Cleary Voice from the Desert May 5, 2008 http://reform-network.net/?p=1647 Author Jason Berry has just produced a film on DVD, available for purchase and public use entitled Vows of Silence on the life of the late Marciel Maciel-Degollado. This one-hour production documents how a gifted but deeply troubled Mexican boy a hundred years ago, though observed in compromising actions early in life, how this boy through his gifts of immense cleverness with individuals and officials rose in the Church to be an intimate friend and lunch companion of the pope, a favorite consultant with Cardinals, a founder of a religious order, and one of the church's most successful fund raisers in history, building churches, seminaries, shrines and schools throughout the world. The documentary is roughly based on the book "Vows of Silence," written by Jason Berry and religion reporter Gerald Renner of the Hartford Courant. Both Berry and Renner began writing about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the 1980s, and are interviewed in the film. In 1992, Berry published "Lead Us Not Into Temptation," a book about a priest in Louisiana guilty of widespread sexual abuse. The new documentary chronicles the life of Rev. Maciel from youth to death, along with the stories of those many men who claim he abused them, then absolved their "sin," all vowed to silence. It ends with the 2006 communiqu from the Vatican that formally finished the investigation into claims of sexual abuse by Maciel, but also ended Maciel's career. The communiqu commanded Maciel to end his own ministry, never offer public Mass again, and spend his last days in penance and silence. He died in 2006, but is staunchly defended by his "Legion of Christ" and his many devotees. There are some 650 ordained priests among the Maciel Legionaries, 2500 seminarians worldwide, and 50,000 pledged laity belonging to his "Regnum Christi."
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