Alex Gibney examines church abuse in ‘Mea Maxima Culpa’

NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Alex Biese
@ABieseAPP

It all started with one case.

With his latest film, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney gives voice to the students of St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee, Wisc. who were sexually abused by the charismatic head of the school, Father Lawrence Murphy. The film premieres at 9 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 4 on HBO.

In telling the story of four of Murphy’s victims — Terry Kohut, Gary Smith, Arthur Budzinksi and Bob Bolger — Giney unravels a centuries-old conspiracy to cover up church abuses leading all the way to Rome.

Gibney, who lives in Summit, said the inspiration for his film came from a 2010 front page article in the New York Times by Laurie Goodstein.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.