UNITED STATES
The Kansas City Star

February 1

By SARA SMITH
The Kansas City Star

It would be comforting to call the horrific violations recounted in “Mea Maxima Culpa” unthinkable.

But after decades of revelations about the epidemic of sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the ever-accompanying accounts of enabling church officials, a new documentary from Oscar winner Alex Gibney tracks the problem to its source.

“Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God” begins its enraging journey by introducing the crimes of the Rev. Lawrence Murphy, who molested hundreds of boys under his care at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee.

Along with the powerlessness of his prey, the failure to act by nuns, police, other priests and more than one archbishop allowed Murphy to assault deaf youths for more than 20 years.