COMPASS THE ABUSE OF MINORS A Cinema Resource PETER MALONE MSC N TERMS OF of the quality of life, one of some extent, reversed more recently. In fact, the greatest threats is abuse of the young. worldwide, secular and church authorities are INot only has it been a horrendous still trying to grapple with psychological revelation in recent times that adults at home, understanding of the mind and emotions of in institutions and in organised rings have an abuser. been physically and sexually assaulting While many dioceses and religious orders, children, but that members of churches and especially in English-speaking countries, have an alarmingly high number of clergy and taken some very serious steps to do the right members of religious congregations have been thing for victims and to deal honestly and accused of this kind of activity and have been justly with the perpetrators, the American found guilty in courts and have been jailed. experience of 2002, which led to so many This survey of films will confine itself to victims making accusations with consequent sexual molestation and abuse of minors, financial compensatory claims that have specifically young boys and adolescents, with bankrupted several dioceses, has continued reference to the church and secular cases. to impact on so many dimensions of church Until the 1980s, most people did not think life: the role of the priest, the psychological of going to the police to press criminal charges. and emotional health and maturity of men and There were very few precedents. We have women in responsible ecclesiastical roles, the come to learn that concerned parents did go erosion of trust among the faithful, the to ecclesiastical authorities but that there was enormous anger and resentment, the long-term a lack of awareness about how serious the ill-effects of abuse of the victims. matters really were, that there were few The government investigation in Ireland protocols to guide church leaders on how to over almost a decade, government enquiries deal with clergy misconduct of this nature, that and the Royal Commission in Australia, mean there was an immediate concern for the welfare that the issues are continually before the public of the accused rather than concern and and will continue to be for some years to come. compassion for the complainants and a belated There have been a number of movies switch to language of victims and dramatising this theme. It is 25 years since a perpetrators. The behaviour was secret, television film about the first reported case of hidden, smoothed over with lying deceptions abuse of a boy in Louisiana in the mid-1980s, by perpetrators, the exercise of emotional Judgment, was screened. blackmail and the reinforcing of guilt feelings This article considers the five periods of in the victims. While errant clergy were moved five years over that quarter of a century, to from place to place to avoid scandal without highlight what was emerging in the public much realisation that they would offend again, arena during those years and indicate some of or were sent to institutes for therapy, there the issues in the films which were made and was little help, counselling or compensation released at that time. Cinema is a mirror of for the victims, something which has been, to society rather than a shaper of society. A film 22 THE ABUSE OF MINORS: A CINEMA RESOURCE can be in pre-production, production and Peter Malone MSC, post-production for several years, so there is former lecturer at the no instant reflection, as is possible in the print Yarra Theological Union, media, radio and television. Nevertheless, in edited Compass, 1972- these days when films are seen on television, 1998. He headed OCIC can be rented or downloaded, and are and SIGNIS, the Catholic continually repeated, it means that the films Church’s international can make some contribution to awareness of organisations for Media, sexual abuse. 1999-2005. He recently published An Ever Widening Screen, a 1990-1995 Memoir (Connor Court, Ballarat). Background response of the Bishop and his Vicar General, News of the sexual abuse of minors by focusing on juridical issues before pastoral clergy was not prominent at the beginning of issues towards the victim and his family. the 1990s. During this period, however, more Soon after, 1992, the Canadian production, and more cases were revealed, especially in The Boys of St Vincent, dramatized the true English-language countries, Canada, the story of an orphanage with some of the United Kingdom, Australia. It was also at this Brothers on the staff abusing their charges. period, that the first case of a priest in Australia As with Judgment, this was new on television sentenced to prison was publicised. screens, a certain amount of disbelief that Church officials responded with plans for such events could take place—only to be the writing of a document, with protocols, verified on a much more global scale a few as well as pastoral exhortations for the years later. The impact of the film in Canada, clergy. In 1994, Catholics in Europe with Canadians looking at their own scandal, commented adversely on sexual abuse of led to a sequel in 1993, The Boys of St Vincent, minors as a phenomenon of the English- 15 Years Later, which focused on the court speaking church, something that would not cases against the staff and the traumatic happen in Europe. effect abuse had had on the boys as they grow into adults. The films A secular-themed television film worth noting is Bump in the Night, 1991, a story of a As mentioned already, Judgment, a film for mother searching for her very little son who television was screened in 1990. It was had been abducted. But the portrait of the concerned with the first reported case of abuse abductor, a University literature professor, of a boy by a priest in Louisiana in the 1980s. played by Christopher Reeve, enables the David Strathairn played the priest in question. audience to understand something of the For audiences at the time, it was a strong and mentality of the paedophile, an adult man who surprising drama, material that they were not seems to be comfortable only in the company used to seeing. David Strathairn's performance of a child, taking him to the zoo, talking to him is well worth seeing as he embodies a range of at his level, showing the emotional retardation emotions of a lonely priest, a predatory priest, of this kind of molester, playing with him as if an exposed priest. Judgment anticipated the he was a young boy himself, his appreciation huge outcry about church procedures in the of himself as being tender and loving to the United States in 2002. It also shows the boy. Later films will explore this mentality of 23 COMPASS the paedophile. Towards Healing. It was striking at the time. There are also two different films from this The Archdiocese of Melbourne, with period. Lawnmower Man based on a Stephen Archbishop Pell, decided to have its own King story, 1992, shows a physically abusive protocols, The Melbourne Response, also priest whose sadistic behaviour and beatings promulgated late in 1996. leads to his being violently killed by the victim, While Towards Healing was a a simple gardener, whose name is significantly, breakthrough at the time, it can be seen in Jobe. He lives behind the church, tends the retrospect that many of those applying it had grounds, talks to the crucifix as he cleans the limited awareness, were prone to be concerned church. The abuse theme is not to the fore but about the clergy, financial responsibilities and it is presented quite powerfully. payments, more than concern about the Justice and scandals were beginning to victims. With the Australian Royal emerge, when the thriller, Primal Fear, was Commission, the criticisms and limitations of released in 1995. It is basically a courtroom Towards Healing have been aired in drama and murder mystery. It uses a church considerable detail—perhaps obscuring scandal as a basis for the plot. An Archbishop stories which show the benefit of those who in Chicago, is savagely murdered. It emerges followed through with greater sensitivity. that he had hired adolescents to perform sexual In 1995-1996, the auxiliary Bishop of acts in front of a video camera. The killing is Canberra-Goulburn, Patrick Power, concerned vengeful, retaliation for the humiliation and about the issues with interest in the institutes shame. This was quite shocking, the episcopal in the United States for therapy for priest- behaviour as well as the visualising of the offenders, went to St Luke's, Maryland, and performances. For a mainstream film, starring participated in the three-month course to Richard Gere, It seemed to give permission for understand and appreciate what it was trying more explicit films to come. to do. The Australian Church set up A film about the relationship of an adult Encompass. male with a young child, not explicitly sexual, but intimating the possibility, was Man The films Without a Face, 1993, a film directed by Mel The 1996 release of an Italian film, Pianese Gibson who played the central character. At Nunzio, 14 a Maggio/ Pianese Nunzio, 14 in its release, it seemed to present intimations of May, was more than surprising to an English- the sinister. language audience. From the point of view of For a comparison with the abuse of a pre- the film, Italians viewed paedophilia not nearly adolescent daughter by her father, and the as stringently as those in English-speaking consequences for the daughter and the countries. The principal character is a mother, one of the best Stephen King crusading priest in Naples, a champion of the adaptations, Dolores Claiborne, moved the poor.