NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter
Brian Roewe | Feb. 2, 2015 NCR Today
A documentary detailing the often-difficult experiences of people who spoke out about clergy sexual abuse to church leaders and civil authorities is set to make its New York City debut.
The film “A Matter of Conscience” Confronting Clergy Abuse” will be shown Feb. 5 at the Cardozo Law School in Manhattan. The film originally premiered Oct. 4 at Boston College, where its producers John and Susan Michalczyk are professors. John is also co-director of the BC film studies program.
The documentary shares the stories of individuals who reported issues of clergy abuse, the stonewall responses many received, and their ongoing efforts to advocate for survivors of abuse.
Participating in the film are numerous members of the Catholic Whistleblowers group, which formed in May 2013 as a support network for those exposing abuse and advocating church reform on the issue. Among those featured are Fr. James Connell of the Milwaukee archdiocese, Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle, Notre Dame de Namur Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, and Anne Barrett-Doyle of BishopAccountability.org.
For many of the whistleblowers, the decision to bring abuse to light posed serious repercussions, often resulting in marginalization from the church.
“Some were ostracized, removed from their positions, and deemed disloyal. Others were looked at as traitors to their religious order or Church for breaking the code of silence,” the producers said in September.
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.