Mea Maxima Culpa Explores the Corrupt and Forces a Personal Dialogue Concerning Faith

By Josephine Maria
Fempop
October 4, 2012

http://www.fempop.com/2012/10/04/mea-maxima-culpa-explores-the-corrupt-and-forces-a-personal-dialogue-concerning-faith/


It is extremely rare that a film makes me question anything about my life. I went into Mea Maxima Culpa expecting to hear another sad story, in another town, about something so far removed from me that I would come out, write a review, and move on. Instead, Mea Maxima Culpa made me question everything I know about the Catholic administration in my hometown of Milwaukee. Then it kept going.

I am not Catholic, and there is no clergy or administration who I have ever given my confidence or total trust. The intimate relationship a person has with their priest or minister is foreign to me. However, my family at large are devout Roman Catholics. It was not until this film that I realized how ingrained in me was the assumption that the Catholic hierarchy was doing what it thought was best, and would never allow harm by one of its members to continue. My assumption was wrong.

In cases of assault and rape, we often forget that men can be the victims. Mea Maxima Culpa is the story of 4 men fighting against their abuser, Father Lawrence Murphy. The place where these men were assaulted as children, along with hundreds of other, took place at a school for the deaf that was a couple of blocks from my childhood home. By the time I was growing up there, Father Lawrence had retired and died a year before my family moved- without going to court. The trail doesn't stop there.

The story is told by the victims themselves- in sign. They explain their confusion, their assaults, and their difficulty communicating with people that could have helped them while the assaults were happening through hand motions, vocal cues, and interpreter voice overs. Suddenly, every skin on skin noise made by the impassioned signing, whether on purpose or not, takes on hyperbolic meaning. Everyone understands the victims, now.

The film's director, Alex Gibney, winds a tale from Milwaukee to abuse cases throughout Europe, until we end at the Vatican itself. Members of the clergy explain the conspiracies and private acknowledgment (masked by public silence) that ends at the Pope himself. We are brought back in time, with clips of Pope John Paul II. My family is not only Roman Catholic. It's also Polish. Pope John Paul II was everyone's Pope, but he was supposed to be just a little more our's than anyone else's. Yet, in this film it is revealed that he shielded sex offenders. I never expected a movie about Catholic clergy to feel so treacherous to my person, but I am still struck by the emotions Mea Maxima Culpa pulled out of me.

After being carried through the terror, heartbreak, and breach of trust of those abused by the Catholic church's ministers, we are given a little bit of hope. The point of this documentary is not to bash the Catholic church into a non-entity. The message of every clergy member that spoke was clearly from a place of faith in their God. However, the Catholic clergy are corrupt. At the end of the film, "the Church" is defined not as the Pope and his arms through the clergy, but instead as the Catholic congregation. "The Church" has always been its followers, and they are encouraged to take back their ministry. While this is a story slanted towards religious people, it is secular in its messages of hope and empowerment in a horrifying series of events.

At the press showing, there were less than 10 audience members. Mea Maxima Culpa is showing at the Milwaukee Film Festival this Friday, Octover 5th, at 7 PM. It is also playing in the Chicago International Film Festival next week. No matter where you live or what your faith is, this film is an extremely important movie in a difficult time.

The Jeffrey Dahmer Files began playing at the Milwaukee Film Festival yesterday. The film documents the stories of those that came in contact with Dahmer during his active years as murderer. What is it about Milwaukee that we have a legacy of serial criminals to show for ourselves?