Deliver Us from Evil
From AwardAnnals
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| Director(s) | Amy Berg |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Innocence and Faith Betrayed |
| Distributor | Lions Gate |
| Honors | |
| Deliver Us From Evil is the story of Father Oliver O’Grady, the most notorious pedophile in the history of the modern Catholic Church. Completely lacking in moral fiber and devoid of any sense of shame or guilt, O’Grady used his charm and authority to violate dozens of faithful Catholic families across Northern California for more than two decades. His victims ranged from a nine month-old infant to the middle-aged mother of another adolescent victim. Remarkably, Deliver Us From Evil filmmaker Amy Berg tracked down Father O’Grady and persuaded him to participate in the making of her film. O’Grady’s account of his years in various Northern California parishes is chilling and he tells his story without remorse or self-reflection. | |
Deliver Us From Evil is the story of Father Oliver O’Grady, the most notorious pedophile in the history of the modern Catholic Church. Completely lacking in moral fiber and devoid of any sense of shame or guilt, O’Grady used his charm and authority to violate dozens of faithful Catholic families across Northern California for more than two decades. His victims ranged from a nine month-old infant to the middle-aged mother of another adolescent victim.
Despite early warning signs and complaints from several parishes, the Church, in an elaborate shell game designed to avoid liability and deflect criticism, lied to parishioners and local law enforcement, while continuing to move O’Grady from parish to parish.
Over the years, O’Grady successfully exploited mothers and fathers in order to get to their children. His penchant for sexual mayhem was as essential to him as breathing, and internal Church documents prove that since 1973, he raped and sodomized with the full knowledge of his Catholic superiors.
Remarkably, Deliver Us From Evil filmmaker Amy Berg tracked down Father O’Grady and persuaded him to participate in the making of her film. O’Grady’s account of his years in various Northern California parishes is chilling and he tells his story without remorse or self-reflection. Also included in the film is never-before-seen footage of the deposition of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony and his former second-in-command, Monsignor Cain. She also interviews canon lawyer and medieval historian Fr. Thomas Doyle, former priests, lawyers and the abuse survivors themselves.
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
A devastating investigation into the pedophilia scandals tearing apart the Catholic Church, Deliver Us From Evil begins by looking into one priest, Father Oliver O’Grady, who agreed to be interviewed by journalist/filmmaker Amy Berg. O’Grady’s genial calm is at first ingratiating, until he begins to describe his crimes with an unsettling sociopathic detachment. But O’Grady’s blithe interview is only half of the story, as the documentary also unveils how church superiors covered up O’Grady’s crimes and shuffled him from diocese to diocese in northern California, finally placing him in an unsupervised position of authority in a small town, where he sexually assaulted dozens of children; the video deposition of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney is a grotesque portrait in brittle denial. What makes Deliver Us From Evil crucial viewing, however, are the remarkable interviews with a few of the victims (now adults) and their parents, whose stories are wrenching and riveting. With the support of a priest seeking to reform the church, two of the victims actually go to the Pope, seeking some form of help in addressing O’Grady’s crimes. This stunningly potent documentary combines raw feeling with lucid and persuasive discussions of the reasons for—and disturbing breadth of—this crisis within the Church. —Bret Fetzer
