UNITED STATES
The Star-Ledger

By Stephen Whitty/The Star-Ledger

Alex Gibney’s new film begins with dark shots of Gothic architecture, ominous figures moving through murky shadows and, in the background, faintly chanted Latin. It feels a bit like a monster movie.

It is, too.

Sadly, though, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God” is a documentary about real-life horrors – the sexual abuse (and coverups) that have tortured countless innocents, bedeviled the Catholic Church and caused many to question their faith.

The Summit-based documentarian, always a careful filmmaker, begins by focusing on a single, albeit monstrous case – a priest who, for decades, abused boys at a Wisconsin boarding school for the deaf.

But then, it slowly widens its gaze – to see similar horrors taking place in Ireland, in Italy, in Latin America. And to uncover a pattern of deceit that both denied the victims help and…