This is a well-made, well-informed documentary. "Silence in the House of God" (a very apt title) describes an actual case where deaf children were abused by the Roman Catholic priest supposed to be their friend and spiritual guide. It was a particularly vile case, since this specific predator did not just target deaf children : he targeted those deaf children who had the greatest difficulty in communicating with their family or in alerting the outside world. It resulted in a stinking, steaming mess of mistreatment and sacrilege. When the deaf pupils grew up and tried to tell other people about the abuse, they received very little in the way of sympathy or justice.
The documentary then goes on to study other, similar cases. While doing so, it develops two theses : firstly, that there exist priests who are dangerous perverts and secondly, that Church hierarchy (including the Vatican itself) finds it very difficult to tackle the problem in a meaningful way. Secular authorities are but rarely alerted, while many of the cures and solutions proposed by the Church are naive or misguided. For instance, some of the predators are sent on spiritual retreats - as if rereading the works of Saint Augustine of Hippo is going to give pause to a man capable of raping a child in its own bed... Other child molesters are shuffled from parish to parish, which, of course, means that ever new scores of minors find themselves at risk.
Sadly I've got to say that I agree with the documentary, with regard to both of its theses. In my opinion, the Roman Catholic Church is failing its faithful here - and what's more, it's failing the most humble and vulnerable among its faithful, in a clear contradiction to the warnings of its Founder.
Watch "Silence in the House of God", it's both heartrending and necessary.
The documentary then goes on to study other, similar cases. While doing so, it develops two theses : firstly, that there exist priests who are dangerous perverts and secondly, that Church hierarchy (including the Vatican itself) finds it very difficult to tackle the problem in a meaningful way. Secular authorities are but rarely alerted, while many of the cures and solutions proposed by the Church are naive or misguided. For instance, some of the predators are sent on spiritual retreats - as if rereading the works of Saint Augustine of Hippo is going to give pause to a man capable of raping a child in its own bed... Other child molesters are shuffled from parish to parish, which, of course, means that ever new scores of minors find themselves at risk.
Sadly I've got to say that I agree with the documentary, with regard to both of its theses. In my opinion, the Roman Catholic Church is failing its faithful here - and what's more, it's failing the most humble and vulnerable among its faithful, in a clear contradiction to the warnings of its Founder.
Watch "Silence in the House of God", it's both heartrending and necessary.