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Canberra Today 14°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: ‘Maxima Mea Culpa: Silence in the House of God’ (M) ***

mea-maxima-culpa-1024ALEX Gibney’s angry documentary follows four men seeking action from the Roman Catholic church to punish the priests who abused them as boys at an American school for the deaf.

I’m not going to try to summarise the events the film describes. Or how the Church has dealt with them, except to say that, to paraphrase a well-known number from a film musical: “There’s no interest like self interest”.

The film’s emotion transcends dogma, doctrine or religious fervour. It concentrates on one simple precept – raw, naked, unchallenged influence over the moral comfort of a large proportion of mankind. Apparently, Vatican records show that the bottoms of little boys have besotted priests for 17 centuries.

We have just seen the election of a new Pope. How, I wonder, will he deal with sexuality in the Church’s management of its employees? The film provides a simple rubric to guide him. Will he see it? He and all his employees should.

I am part-way through reading QC Geoffrey Robertson’s “The Case of The Pope”. Its content and style make it not an easy read. Robertson appears in the film.

Paedophilia is a moral issue on which the Vatican has not taken a stance. So far, it’s being dealt with as a men-only activity in organisations that work with young people. There are two sexes. Read between the lines.

 At Palace Electric

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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