Note: Since the initial publication of this piece in November 2006, on July 15, 2007 Cardinal Roger Mahony, a central subject of Amy Berg's 2006 Oscar-nominated documentary "Deliver Us From Evil", apologized for the abuse perpetrated by the Roman Catholic Church. He also announced that the Church agreed to a record-breaking settlement payout to 508 victims of the abuse by priests, totaling $660 million (£324 million). Details here.
The self-effacing and charming
director Amy Berg takes on the powerful Catholic Church and its protection of
pedophiles in her explosive documentary.
(Photo: Lions Gate)
"DELIVER US FROM EVIL"
November 2006
In the briefest of interactions with Amy Berg, she is all smiles, easygoing, gracious, warm and wonderfully self-effacing. These disarming qualities most likely gained the trust of the chief subject of her new documentary, Father Oliver O'Grady, a priest who abused the trust of many of his parishioners. Ms. Berg spent five months with O'Grady interviewing him as part of her on-screen investigation of the Catholic Church and its decades, perhaps centuries-old practices of covering up unholy abuses.
Berg's direction of "Deliver Us From Evil" is her first foray into film. "Deliver" is a powerful and revelatory documentary about O'Grady, who with the aid of California's Cardinal Roger Mahony was shepherded from parish to parish in Northern California even though it was known by Mahony and others in the Church that O'Grady had raped and sexually abused dozens and dozens of children (and several adults) in each parish - from Turlock to Lodi to Stockton.
On camera both women describe their agony, pain and anguish at the suffering and fear and rejection that they endured. A third survivor, Adam M., revealed that he would "kill [O'Grady's] mother" if he got a chance. He vividly recalls the day that he was raped as a young boy by O'Grady. The scars that he wears in his mind are permanently etched. Adam appeared at the Q & A as well, along with Berg, who had spent some ten days interviewing O'Grady.
Berg made it clear from the start after directing "Deliver" that she wanted no narration. "I wanted O"Grady and the others to speak for themselves. It didn't seem fair to add my opinion." Berg had worked for four years investigating pedophile priests and did extensive research, producing several news stories for CBS and CNN, where she worked.
O'Grady shows a profound disassociation and lack of remorse for any of the crimes that he committed and freely displays a smugness and naivety that shocks the viewers who see "Deliver". At one point he suggests that he would meet all of the people that he molested and raped and have a drink with them and say that he was "sorry" to them. He says this almost nonchalantly and in a self-satisfied way.
O'Grady served 20 years in the Catholic Church, and during that time seduced and had sex with the parents of some of the children that he later raped, in order to gain access to the parents' children. One married mother of a child goes on camera to explain how and why the seduction took place and shows deep regret for allowing O'Grady to invade her, her child and her marriage. As a priest, O'Grady molested boys and girls of all age groups, and raped an infant who was nine months old. He describes this and other abuses in chilling detail, something which makes the blood of any reality-grounded human being boil furiously.
"O'Grady is so shocking and real, I couldn't have scripted a better villain," says Berg. In the production notes for the film she also says that "he couldn't remember all the facts. In some cases he wasn't even sure he did anything wrong."
During the Q & A, Amy Berg stated that the film will be distributed in Ireland next year, so that people there would be aware that they have a serial rapist and pedophile in their country who also was a priest in the Catholic Church. Berg also explains that the Catholic Church seems to attract the poor, and disenfranchised who become priests and who as kids themselves were molested. At the Q & A, Berg made it clear that she was not using priests' troubled backgrounds to justify the abuse that O'Grady (who was molested himself as a young boy) inflicted, only that she was merely making an obsevation based on the research she did and what the statistics that she uncovered showed. To that end, Berg also dispelled the common stereotype that the priests who molest and abuse are homosexuals.
Those are "pure spin tactics", Berg said. "There are no reports of any kind linking homosexuality to pedophilia. Many offenders abuse both sexes, but the [Catholic] Church resorts to anti-gay propaganda to create a scapegoat." Studies show that a vast majority of the abuse and rape of boys and girls are committed by heterosexuals.
Despite Ms. Berg's disarming qualities and background in extensive investigations of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, it was an uphill battle to get the survivors of the rape and abuse committed by O'Grady to speak to Berg on camera. "Most of the survivors didn't trust me initially because I had spent a week with O'Grady . . . [b]ut ultimately they believed in my goal, which was to expose the systemic problems contributing to this epic crisis. They understood that I wanted to show more than one side to this problem." TPR
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"Deliver Us From Evil" is playing selected cities across North America, and will continue its expansion across the continent, and into numerous other countries over the coming weeks and months.
Survivors: Ann Jyono and Nancy Sloan, parishioners who were raped and molested
by Father Oliver O'Grady, a priest and convicted molester and rapist, in
"Deliver Us From Evil". (All photos: Lions Gate)
Survivor: Adam M., a parishioner of Father Oliver O'Grady, a convicted child
molester. O'Grady raped Adam when he was a young boy. Adam says in
the documentary by Amy Berg that "I would kill his mother."
Sanctuary of evil and inhumanity: Oliver O'Grady, convicted pedophile and
rapist, and former Catholic priest, sitting in a church during the documentary
by Amy Berg, "Deliver Us From Evil."
story reported by Omar P.L. Moore