Basta! and Still Not Enough!
By Kay Ebeling
In a memorable segment of the film, Basta, Bernie McDaid tries to deliver a letter to a Vatican office. Dozens of other people enter as the Guards nod them in, but Bernie is left gesturing and pointing to papers in his hands. The caption reads “for 45 minutes, while negotiating, Bernie watches as people simply walk in.” On screen the guards look like Punch and Judy dolls as they keep blocking Bernie from entering the building. "Basta! No Pity, No Shame, No Silence" documents years of Vatican runaround experienced by two survivors of pedophile priest Joseph Birmingham of Boston trying to communicate with The Vatican about the extent of the pedophile priest crisis. The film covers two trips to Rome in their effort to talk to a Pope. “At the second screening a survivor in his fifties stood up, talked about his life briefly, then mentioned for the first time in public that he was a survivor,” said Gary Bergeron who put together the film. “I still meet Birmingham survivors who I knew personally who I didn't know were Birmingham survivors, they had never come forward before.” “And we're just talking about one priest.” After realizing there were dozens of other victims of Birmingham, then hundreds of victims of other priests in Boston, Bergeron and McDaid made their first trip to Rome, documented almost by accident on footage then used in the film. By 2010 the world knew that around the United States there were tens of thousands of victims of thousands of priests, so McDaid and Bergeron went again to the Vatican. Both times all they wanted was to talk to the Pope or someone close to him about the crisis. Both times were met with arrogant disinterest. So in 2013 Bergeron started going to his local cable public access station and taught himself editing, for which he shows real talent in this first documentary. “I was at that facility from February until August five to six days a week, full time, 10 to 7 during the week, Saturdays half days.” The result is “Basta, No Pity, No Shame, No Silence,” which portrays the frustration of these two pedophile priest victims experienced trying to communicate with Catholic hierarchy, which many others of us will be able to identify. Bergeron used an inherent storytelling skill and produced a DVD that makes me want to watch it over and over again, if for nothing else just to look at the faces. In the film, in the first 30 seconds we catch a cardinal in a lie. Footage shows Roger Mahony of L.A. saying, “This handful of priests that we had to deal with wouldn't fill up half of one of those pews.” Then Gary uses a graphic to type out the fact that 508 priests were identified in L.A. alone during the one year window in the SOL for lawsuits in California in 2003. Right off the bat in the film we catch a cardinal in a lie. Cardinal Ratzinger wouldn't see them Bergeron’s voiceover on the film says, “A form letter from Cardinal Ratzinger said they were aware of the situation and they were doing everything that they could. It's irony to me that one of the men who wouldn't see us, Cardinal Ratzinger, would be the next pope. We had no idea." As we lead up to the scene where McDaid can’t get past the guards, we see Bernie on the phone over and over again calling and calling, on pay phones and emailing from a local computer cafe, to set up a meeting. We see Gary trying to send a fax: “This is about the tenth time they've given me the wrong number.” Bernie: “It was that brother guy. No wonder you can’t meet the pope, he's completely hidden.” Then we see the Swiss Guard in their colorful garb keep blocking Bernie McDaid from entering at the same time as they're nodding and waving the tourists and any others to go on and enter. ----------------- One part of the pedophile priest phenomenon that fascinates me is the similarity in how the experience affected the victims. Gary Bergeron says at the beginning of his film Basta: “At 39 I realized that I had moved 22 times in 21 years,” ( Me: I just moved the fourth time in three years and am anchoring myself down with heavy furniture to keep from moving again right now in 2014 ) Bergeron continues: “Running. Running to find something or running to hide from something.” ------------------ Back to 2002, trying to get in to a Vatican office building. DIALOGUE FROM THE FILM: Gary: The Vatican Press agent is saying they're unaware that we're here. That's after they've been notified by the U.S. Embassy. Bernie: And we're here every day. Gary: Every day, five six times we've been at that door. Then we cut to Gary in what appears to be news clip from 2002 “So he could see my face, remember my face.”
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