BBC documentary 'Sex crimes and the Vatican'. Italy row over Church abuse film (BBC)

Italy row over Church abuse film

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6678753.stm

Pope Benedict says sexual abuse by priests has created deep wounds
An Italian politician has sparked a furore by urging state broadcaster Rai to block the transmission of a controversial BBC documentary.

The programme, aired in the UK in October, investigates the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church.

Italian journalist Michele Santoro has asked to purchase the rights to the film to broadcast it on his talk show.

But Mario Landolfi, who heads Rai's parliamentary oversight committee, has asked Rai to prevent its transmission.

The programme, Sex Crimes and the Vatican, has been Google Italia's most popular online video choice since a version with translated subtitles was put online.

The Catholic newspaper Avvenire says that the bloggers who posted the documentary online have committed "wicked slander".

'Preventative censorship'

Mr Landolfi, of the right-leaning Alleanza Nazionale party, said the programme should not be screened "to avoid public service television becoming a media execution squad ready to open fire on the Church and the Pope".

His intervention has drawn the wrath of other politicians who attacked his attempts at what they called "preventative censorship".

"Neither the oversight committee nor individual politicians have the right to ask for a preventive censorship of any journalists or topic," said lawmaker Giuseppe Giulietti.

Mr Santoro, a left-leaning journalist, wants to air the documentary as the centre-piece of his discussion programme, "Year Zero".

The investigation examines a secret document which sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse scandals within the Catholic Church.

Crimen Sollicitationis, it says, is a Latin document penned in 1962 and imposing an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation and any witnesses.

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Sex crimes and the Vatican

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Italy row over Church abuse film

• BBC documentary 'Sex crimes and the Vatican'. Row in Italy.

BBC documentary 'Sex crimes and the Vatican'. Row in Italy.

Italian Catholics fume at bloggers

Spreading 'rumours' of priestly child sex abuse

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39750

By Nick Farrell: Monday 21 May 2007, 14:29

ITALY'S LEADING Roman Catholic newspaper has slammed bloggers for spreading 'slander' about priests sexually interfering with children.

The Beeb ran a documentary in October about a church cover-up of sexual abuse but it was banned in Italy, where the church still has a fair bit of power. However, bloggers copied it and stuck it onto Google video and circulated it on the Internet. The video is numero uno in the Google video charts.

Newspaper Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian Conference of Roman Catholic bishops, hit out at the web publication in a front-page editorial headlined "Infamous Slander Via Internet". Of course they got it completely wrong, since the documentary was published it would be 'defamation', not 'slander'.

What has got them all upset was that the Beeb found a secret document written in 1962 that set out a procedure for dealing with child sexual abuse within the Church. It made the child victim, the priest and any witness swear an oath of secrecy, which smacks a little bit of attempting a cover-up.

British Catholic bishops slammed the Beeb when the documentary was aired saying that it should be "ashamed of the standard of the journalism used to create this unwarranted attack on Pope Benedict". It seems that Mr Benedict was involved in policing the policy when he was in charge of the Inquisition and it was not changed until fairly recently.

It is not clear what it was changed to, as the policy is still secret.

In the US the church is having to flog buildings to pay for out of court settlements with sexual abuse victims. µ

L'INQ
Reuters

Italian TV urged to scrap BBC film accusing Pope of abuse cover-up

http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2084212,00.html

·Bishops say sex crimes programme 'fit for dustbin'

Complaints in Britain after Panorama broadcast
John Hooper in Rome
Monday May 21, 2007
The Guardian

The head of the parliamentary committee that oversees RAI, Mario Landolfi of the formerly neo-fascist National Alliance, said yesterday that he had written to the director-general urging him not to allow screening of the documentary. To do so would be to turn the public network into an "execution squad ready to open fire on the church and the pope", he said.

The row has blown up at a time when the Catholic church in Italy is bringing its weight to bear in public life more than at any time since the demise of the country's Christian Democrat party. Last weekend, lay groups brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on to the streets of Rome to protest at a move by the centre-left government to give legal rights to unmarried couples, including same-sex couples.

Reports in several Italian newspapers said yesterday that the producers of a programme on RAI TV's second channel had agreed a price with the BBC for the purchase of "Sex Crimes and the Vatican", which was screened by Panorama in Britain last October. It caused a storm of controversy and prompted the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, to complain to the BBC's director-general.

The documentary said that in 2001, Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had issued an updated version of an order that was used to silence the victims of sexual abuse. The film was made by Colm O'Gorman, founder of a charity for abuse victims.

Italy's public broadcasting corporation, RAI, was accused yesterday of withholding approval for the screening of a controversial BBC documentary that accuses Pope Benedict of covering up sex crimes by Roman Catholic priests.

In a pre-emptive strike last Saturday, the newspaper of the Italian bishops launched a furious attack on the film, describing it as "fit only for the dustbin". A front page article in the daily Avvenire said the producers "should bow their heads and ask forgiveness".

The Roman Catholic church accused Mr O'Gorman of misrepresenting the documentary evidence. It said that the Vatican's directive, first issued in 1962, was intended to avoid the misuse of information gathered in confessional. It imposed an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest and any witness.

The BBC documentary said this was meant to protect the priest's reputation during the investigation, but could "offer a blueprint for cover-up".

The document was revised to deal more specifically with sex abuse cases. Both the original and revised versions were kept secret. They came to light in the US in 2003 when their existence was widely reported in the US media.

Panorama's documentary had gone virtually unnoticed in Italy until this month when a subtitled version was put up on a website. It has since found its way to the Italian version of Google video, where it has become far and away the most frequently viewed item.

RAI wanted to give the film a wider audience by screening it on a popular current affairs and discussion programme. The daily La Repubblica said yesterday that the agreed price was within the programme's budget, but "at RAI, no one wants to take the responsibility of signing [the contract]".

Mon May 21, 2007 1:57 PM BST

http://investing.reuters.co.uk

By Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) - A political row has erupted in Italy over whether state television should air a BBC documentary about the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests.

The dispute broke out after a conservative politician said RAI should block the documentary because it was part of what he called "a media execution squad ready to open fire on the Church and the Pope".

Mario Landolfi, head of the parliament's oversight committee for the broadcaster, asked RAI director general Claudio Cappon to deny permission to air "Sex Crimes and the Vatican".

Michele Santoro, a progressive and left-leaning journalist, wants to air it as the centrepiece of his talk show "Year Zero".

The documentary was aired on the BBC in October but never in Italy, although bloggers have translated it and it now ranks as Google Video Italia's (www.video.google.it) most popular item.

Several leftist politicians immediately attacked Landolfi's request for censorship.

"Neither the oversight committee or individual politicians have the right to ask for a preventive censorship of any journalists or topic," said Giuseppe Giulietti, a parliamentarian who was once a journalists' union leader at RAI. Continued...

05/21/2007

http://www.eitb24.com/new/en

The documentary was aired on the BBC in October but never in Italy, although bloggers have translated it and it now ranks as Google Video Italia's most popular item.

A political row has erupted in Italy over whether state television should air a BBC documentary about the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests.

The dispute broke out after a conservative politician said RAI should block the documentary because it was part of what he called "a media execution squad ready to open fire on the Church and the Pope".

Mario Landolfi, head of the parliament's oversight committee for the broadcaster, asked RAI director general Claudio Cappon to deny permission to air "Sex Crimes and the Vatican". Michele Santoro, a progressive and left-leaning journalist, wants to air it as the centrepiece of his talk show "Year Zero".

The documentary was aired on the BBC in October but never in Italy, although bloggers have translated it and it now ranks as Google Video Italia's most popular item. Several leftist politicians immediately attacked Landolfi's request for censorship.

"Neither the oversight committee or individual politicians have the right to ask for a preventive censorship of any journalists or topic," said Giuseppe Giulietti, a parliamentarian who was once a journalists' union leader at RAI. Italy's powerful Roman Catholic Church already has condemned the documentary.

At the weekend, Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference, accused bloggers who put the documentary on the web of spreading "infamous slander".

Two leftists parliamentarians, Giovanni Russo Spena and Gennaro Migliore, said in a joint statement that the documentary should be aired because "paedophilia in the Catholic Church is well known, there is no mystery about it".

However, centrist politician Antonia Satta attacked it as "trash journalism" which he said "starts with a premise and does everything to prove it despite the way things really really were".

Il video della BBC sui preti pedofili. Deliver us from Devil, 2006

Deliver Us from Evil (2006)

Plot Synopsis: Moving from one parish to another in Northern California during the 1970s, Father Oliver O'Grady quickly won each congregation's trust and respect. Unbeknownst to them, O'Grady was a dangerously active pedophile that Church hierarchy, aware of his predilection, had harbored for over 30 years, allowing him to abuse countless children. Juxtaposing an extended, deeply unsettling interview with O'Grady himself with the tragic stories of his victims, filmmaker Amy Berg bravely exposes the deep corruption of the Catholic Church and the troubled mind of the man they sheltered.

Amazon.com
A devastating investigation into the pedophilia scandals tearing apart the Catholic Church, Deliver Us From Evil begins by looking into one priest, Father Oliver O'Grady, who agreed to be interviewed by journalist/filmmaker Amy Berg. O'Grady's genial calm is at first ingratiating, until he begins to describe his crimes with an unsettling sociopathic detachment. But O'Grady's blithe interview is only half of the story, as the documentary also unveils how church superiors covered up O'Grady's crimes and shuffled him from diocese to diocese in northern California, finally placing him in an unsupervised position of authority in a small town, where he sexually assaulted dozens of children; the video deposition of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney is a grotesque portrait in brittle denial. What makes Deliver Us From Evil crucial viewing, however, are the remarkable interviews with a few of the victims (now adults) and their parents, whose stories are wrenching and riveting. With the support of a priest seeking to reform the church, two of the victims actually go to the Pope, seeking some form of help in addressing O'Grady's crimes. This stunningly potent documentary combines raw feeling with lucid and persuasive discussions of the reasons for--and disturbing breadth of--this crisis within the Church. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description
The true story of the most notorious pedophile priest in the modern history of the Catholic church.

"Deliver Us from Evil." (http://ifc.com/news/article?aId=19810)

By Michael Atkinson
IFC News, May 14, 2007

["Deliver Us from Evil," Lionsgate, 2006]

• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814075/
• http://www.deliverusfromevilthemovie.com/index_flash.php
  

The decision to make a documentary — which even today is almost always a personal decision, not a corporate one — is contingent on a number of things, but arguably foremost among them is the sense that your subject matter will produce honest-to-God fireworks. Being politically relevant or socially informative is hardly enough; you want human explosions and earthquakes, even if they're the subtle, ironic variety found in politicking docs like Rachel Boynton's "Our Brand Is Crisis" and Laura Poitras's "My Country, My Country," to pick just two recent examples. I'm not talking about psychodramatics in the film itself, but the sense of appalled outrage you as the audience experience when a film explores material ordinary passed over by the mass media, in depth and with attention the media never musters. (That's what non-fiction film is for, no?) Still, no new-ish documentary will set fire to your house quite like Amy Berg's "Deliver Us from Evil." Only one contemporary non-fiction topic will boil the blood faster than pedophilia (as it did in "Capturing the Friedmans"), and that is, in a far-too-fervently Christian nation, pedophilia as it has been perpetrated and enabled by the Catholic Church.

Berg pulls the mother of all documentary tropes — getting the guilty monster at the core of her controversy to not only cooperate with the film but to virtually assist in its making. Gaining the complicity of the morality-challenged makes for jaw-dropping cinema, just as it has since 1975's "The California Reich" and its dumbfounded portrait of all-American neo-Nazis. Why would these people — be they pedophiles, politicians, fascists or just plain assholes — consent to a documentary crew shining a camera light on their actions? Perhaps it's ego, or perhaps they often assume the default power of the Stockholm syndrome, which did in fact muddy the inquisitive waters, for example, of Ellen Perry's "The Fall of Fujimori," enjoying as it did hanging in exiled plutocrat Alberto Fujimori's limo a little too much. But that's the exception, and even Perry's film emerged as something Fujimori, if he didn't already have far larger problems, should have regretted.

In Berg's remarkable film, the still-at-large ex-priest Oliver O'Grady speaks frankly and even engagingly about his sexual hunger for small children, and the literal decades he spent as a working clergyman in California, molesting, raping and sodomizing preadolescents as young as nine months. A kindly, soft-spoken, even leprechaun-ish Irishman, O'Grady is a walking cognitive dissonance — he is in demeanor as far from a sneaky, creepy sex ogre as you could imagine. But there's no getting around his relaxed shamelessness, or his actions, which are so universally abhorred by every culture on Earth that only within the rotten, power-mad bell jar of the Catholic Church could they be tolerated and even ignored. Which is what happened: Berg's real story is in tracing exactly how O'Grady's crimes were covered up by the Church, how he was bounced from parish to nearby parish for years, and how various archbishops — and even the current Pope, in his old administrative role in the Vatican — conspired to minimize the damage O'Grady wrought after the victims began speaking out.

The gone-public victims, all grown adults now, are appropriately lost in their own landscapes; the father of one, an aging Japanese-American man howling in recrimination, can barely keep the lid clamped on his furnace of rage. But somehow more stinging is the thorough case erected by the filmmaker and various activists (some of them ex-priests) around the utter self-defensive turpitude with which the Catholic Church, at almost every level, behaved in regards to O'Grady and thousands of predators just like him. The Church comes out of the facts bearing the ethical integrity of a corporation grown fat on the ruined lives of its customers — in other words, as demonstratively criminal. Where's the lawyer bringing it to The Hague?

• Don't look for a Catholic catharsis

'Deliver Us from Evil' delivers a chill

Entertainment

Article Launched: 05/19/2007 02:58:51 AM EDT

• Deliver Us from Evil Sandra Hall, reviewer | May 17, 2007