Product Description

Production Desciption

MEA MAXIMA CULPA investigates the secret crimes of Father Lawrence Murphy, a charismatic Milwaukee priest who abused more than 200 Deaf children in a school under his control. The film documents the first known public protest against clerical sex abuse in the U.S., which led to a case that spanned three decades and ultimately resulted in a lawsuit against the pontiff himself. The investigation helped uncover documents from the secret Vatican archives that show the Pope, who must operate within the rules of the Roman Curia, as both responsible and helpless in the face of evil.

Product Description

Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer) investigates a shocking tale of clerical sexual abuse in a Catholic school for deaf children, and exposes the conspiracy of silence within the Vatican to protect the offending priest from being prosecuted for his heinous crimes. As four former abuse victims summon the courage to speak out about the sexual crimes perpetrated against them by the very priest to whom they confessed their sins, we are presented with the facts of the official investigation, and learn how all allegations of pedophilia within the church ended up being overseen by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), who continually acted to protect the Catholic church rather than the innocents whose lives were being destroyed by its clerics. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi