Last night I attended the opening night of the Big Picture Film Festival in Sydney. The festival is the brainchild of the Reverend Bill Crews who sees a place for film enhancing the community's commitment to social justice.
On the very eve of Pope Benedict's last day in office, the program included the Australian premiere of the American documentary about clerical sexual abuse Silence in the House of God: Mea Maxima Culpa followed by a panel discussion with Tom Keneally, Geraldine Doogue and myself. It was a very confronting and draining night, particularly for me, the one Catholic priest in the audience.
Crews introduced the festival declaring that the common theme of all films chosen for the week was 'Hope'. For the next 90 minutes the audience took in the relentless and overwhelming portrayal of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church presented by producer Alex Gibney, focusing on the horrendous case of Fr Lawrence Murphy, who abused up to 200 children at a school for the deaf in Milwaukee.
Gibney then moves the camera to Ireland before returning to Boston and then zeroing in on the Vatican with with horrific case of Fr Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ.
At the end of such a cascade of abuse and cover up, what could one usefully say? We panellists identified four reservoirs of hope in the midst of all this putrid activity.
First was the dignity and persistence of the four deaf victims who persevered against the odds in outing Fr Murphy. They sought justice, compassion, transparency and safety for children in the future.
Second was the one priest who visited the home for the deaf decades ago, heard the children, and tried to blow the whistle on Fr Murphy.
Third was the realisation that everyone in the cinema had a heightened awareness of child sexual abuse. A generation ago, the community lack of awareness allowed abuse and cover ups to continue.
Fourth was the understanding that we are individuals with a plurality of associations. Some of us are members of a hierarchical, undemocratic Church, but at the same time we are members of a robust pluralist democratic society and citizens of a State which is founded on the rule of law.
We Australian Catholics know