“Deliver Us From Evil” (DVD) - Lies, Deceptions & Cover-ups in the Catholic Church’s Sex Abuse Scandal
Posted on March 27th, 2008 by David Mackin into the Uncategorized, David Mackin Writes: category
“Deliver Us From Evil” (DVD) tells the story of a former Catholic priest and pedophile, Oliver O’Grady. As a young boy, Oliver committed incest with his two brothers and his sister and was also molested by a Catholic priest. When he eventually became a Catholic priest himself, he became a rapist and child molester of both boys and girls. His youngest victim was 9 months old. His oldest victim was a mother of children with whom he had sex in order to get to sleep with her children. He would sleep over night on the weekends with trusting Catholic families and slip into the children’s bedrooms at night. He would threaten the children if they told.
When his two bishops were told about this, they both generally ignored it. Instead of reporting Oliver to the authorities, both of them simply kept moving him to more remote parishes in California. Bishop Mahoney did not want to risk losing his upcoming appointment from Archbishop of Los Angeles to Cardinal in Rome. Personal ambition and protection of public image were higher values than the lives and souls of innocent children.
After O’Grady was finally arrested, the Church’s lawyers came to him in his cell and offered him a lifetime annuity if he would not tell the authorities and move to Ireland. To date, O’Grady is living in Dublin with a family, according to the documentary, were not informed by the Church ahead of time of Oliver’s criminal behavior in the United States.
When a family of two victims went to Rome along with Tom Doyle, a priest and canon law expert, to meet with the leaders of the Church, the Vatican guards barred their way. When the present Pope, Benedict XVI, was going to be indicted for charges of conspiracy and cover-up, as he was in charge of these kinds of situations before he was elected Pope, President Bush granted him amnesty from prosecution.
Produced by Lionsgate Films and directed by Amy Berg, this documentary interviews victims, victims’ families, and shows actual footage of depositions of the perpetrators. It shows unmistakably that lies, deceptions, bribery and cover-ups are actively present today at every level in the Catholic Church - from its priests, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals even to the Pope himself.
Note: I am also aware of two cover-up situations in my area that occurred in Protestant churches.
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March 28th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I sent the posting that began this thread, along with a few bits of dialogue, to a couple of Catholic friends of mine. One of these long-time friends is a Catholic priest in his eighties just recently retired. This is part of what my non-priest friend said to me about some of these communications:
Your last paragraph to Fr. Richards (name changed) was interesting:
“I have to say that if I were still a Catholic and watched this DVD, I would wonder: if my Church is so full of lies, deceptions, bribery and cover-ups in this most basic of area of common decency and humanity, then how in the world could it tout to be the “true” Church established by Christ? In addition, I would ask myself, if this area is so full of deception – even criminality - then how could I trust them to tell me the truth about anything else?”
The sacramental doctrines of the Church including the teachings of the Magisterium over 2,000 years have stood the test of time and sinful man. Many sin-filled men have occupied the seats of authority within the Church over those 20 centuries but yet even more God-Spirit filled men have also lead the Church. No institution, secular or spiritual, would last 2,000 years if it were not of God.
Ask yourself this question, what will your church look like 2000 years from now? Do you suppose a few dregs might enter into the picture? Can you even begin to imagine how long 2000 years from now really is? Will your church still be in existence even 200 years from now? In this perspective, you can understand how incredibly blessed the Catholic Church has been. Christ said, “The gates of Hell will not prevail against you.” And I believe Him.
God Bless,
Steve (name changed)