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Church in Crisis: Films

In support of USD's Church in Crisis site, this guide provides resources for further study.

Magdalene Sisters

Deliver Us From Evil

Deliver Us From Evil (2006)

The Silence

The Silence (2011)

This Frontline documentary "reveals a little-known chapter of the Catholic Church sex abuse story: decades of abuse of Native Americans by priests and other church workers in Alaska…examine the legacy of abuse by a number of men who worked for the Catholic Church along Alaska’s far west coast in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They would leave behind a trail of hundreds of claims of abuse, making this one of the hardest hit regions in the country."

Calvary

Calvary (2014)

"Darkly comic Irish thriller starring Brendan Gleeson. Gleeson plays Father James, who is the local clergyman of a rural Irish parish. During confession one Sunday, an unseen local informs Father James of his plan of killing him as a way of gaining retrobution for abuse he suffered as a young boy at the hands of another Catholic priest. Left with only seven days to make his peace, James visits those within his community while trying to track down his potential killer. Through his exchanges with the locals, which include a cuckolded butcher (Chris O'Dowd), a wealthy businessman (Dylan Moran) and an atheistic doctor (Aidan Gillen), James realises that the institution to which he has dedicated his life is becoming obsolete, causing him to doubt the validity of his faith."

Spotlight

A Matter of Conscience: Confronting Clergy Abuse (2014)