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October
23, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 18Oakland,
CA
Maker of film
on abuse trades words
with cardinal’s spokesman over movie
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The director of a new documentary
recounting how a now-laicized priest repeatedly sexually abused children
in California has provoked a war of words between the director and the
chief spokesman for Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who is portrayed
in the movie as having ignored the priest’s deeds.
In one corner is Amy Berg, who wrote and directed “Deliver Us From
Evil,” which details the abuses by Oliver O’Grady, a former
priest of the Stockton Diocese. In the other is Tod Tamberg, director
of media relations for the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
Cardinal Mahony headed the Stockton Diocese from 1980-85 and “it
was not until 1993 that accusations were made leading to O’Grady’s
arrest and eventual sentencing to prison,” Tamberg said.
O’Grady admitted in a 1993 criminal trial that he molested boys.
He spent six years in prison following a 1994 conviction for child molestation.
In the documentary, the cardinal is seen in footage of a videotaped deposition
for a civil case filed in 2004 against the Stockton Diocese.
Berg has complained in cyberspace about the Motion Picture Association
of America disapproving the movie trailer for viewing by all audiences,
suspecting Catholic involvement in giving the trailer what is called a
“redband.” She also claims Cardinal Mahony has had a hand
in a cover-up of events in the Stockton Diocese.
Tamberg has likewise taken to the Internet to rebuff Berg’s criticisms
and to point out weaknesses in her arguments.
In a September posting on the “director’s blog” link
for the movie’s own Web site, Berg said her film revealed “the
secrets that were meant to stay in the private files and crypts of the
Roman Catholic Church.”
Tamberg, in an Oct. 12 post on www.ncrnews.org’s “Abuse Tracker”
link, said Berg’s message “is simple: O’Grady is a bad
guy and the church, specifically Cardinal Mahony, withheld information
and moved O’Grady to one parish after another.”
But then-Bishop Mahony was bishop of Stockton for only five of the years
that O’Grady served in the diocese, he said, and the prelate was
“unaware of a secret file from the tenure of the previous bishop
(Merlin Guilfoyle) dealing with a complaint about O’Grady.”
“The focus here is what the cardinal knew, when he knew it and what
he did about it,” Tamberg added.
“Deliver Us From Evil” premiered Oct. 13 in New York, Los
Angeles and Boston, and is to open in other U.S. cities later this fall.
It has not been reviewed by the U.S. bishops’ Office for Film &
Broadcasting
