Traces | The UNC-Chapel Hill Journal of History

California, Kansas, Minnesota, France, the Netherlands, Australia, and elsewhere. In his 2012 documentary Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, Alex Gibney claims that the Vatican holds records on pedophilia by priests dating back to the fourth century. One expert witness who studied sex abuse by priests for a couple decades and contributed to the Boston Globe’s investigation argues that pedophilia is a result of the Church’s demands for priestly chastity. Spotlight suggests that without fundamental reform, the abuse will only continue. In , has established a commission chaired by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley to study clergy , with a tribunal to hold bishops accountable for abuse in their dioceses. But as the foxes volunteer to guard the henhouse, investigative journalism will continue to play its important social role.

SECRETS of the VATICAN, directed by Antony Thomas (FRONTLINE, 2014). Reviewed by Joshua Hevert

At frst blush, the NBC Frontline investigation Secrets of the Vatican evokes a Tom Hanks-like character sifing through the collection of the Vatican Secret Archive for evidence of some mystery so arcane that even the writers of Te X-Files would have difculty suspending disbelief. Te news show’s exposé steers clear of science fction and fantasy, however, and brings to light a much darker reality. In the report, Frontline focuses on sex abuse scandals, the lives of gay priests in the clergy, corruption of the papal curia, and the 2012 Vatileaks scandal. Te history of the Church’s ambivalence towards sexual abuse perpetrated by clerics is particularly damning. Tis section of the report details the crimes of the founder of the , , who allegedly raped countless boys (including his own sons) over a period of 32 years. Te diocese of Wisconsin receives special scrutiny for more than 100 cases of alleged sexual abuse. Te other scandals do not shock the viewer as much as the sexual abuse, but they are nevertheless troubling. Despite Pope Benedict XVI’s revision of the catechism, which had previously labeled homosexuality “an objective disorder,” the report navigates the lives of a handful of gay priests, some

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Many fantasize about what secrets the Vatican archives might hold. The Frontline investigation Secrets of the Vatican focuses on sex abuse scandals, the lives of gay priests in the clergy, corruption of the papal curia, and the 2012 Vatileaks scandal. (Photo courtesy of Frontline.) of whom operate in Rome, perhaps even in the upper levels of the Church hierarchy. Te investigation also levels accusations at the Institute of Religious Works, more commonly known as the Vatican Bank, of money laundering and profteering. Finally, Frontline examines the Vatileaks scandal, prompted by Benedict XVI’s butler, who provided confdential documents to the Italian media concerning blackmail of homosexual priests and corruption and internal intrigue in the Church. While provocative and damning in some instances, Frontline’s investigation does not always make a clear case. Claims about the lives of gay priests stand out as particularly underdeveloped. Frontline could conduct an investigation into these men’s lives as a stand-alone special, rather than interviewing one or two men who make grandiose claims about the highest levels of the Church hierarchy being populated by gay men. Te report is particularly optimistic about Pope Francis, though it not so subtly warns that his papacy might be cut short due to the machinations of the Vatican curia. Indeed, Frontline paints Francis as a progressive pope, a mistake made by many media outlets. While Francis has certainly taken more progressive stances on capitalism and, to a lesser extent, homosexuality, he remains a

213 Traces | The UNC-Chapel Hill Journal of History

steadfast defender of Catholic theological orthodoxy. Any viewer of Secrets of the Vatican would do well to remember that “reform” is a well-tread concept within the . Kathleen Cushing’s book Reform and the Papacy in the Eleventh Century (Manchester, 2005), for instance, provides a fascinating treatment of the frst major reform movement in the Middle Ages, while Dyan Elliot’s lecture “Te Church Sex Scandal: Medieval Blueprint for Disaster,” which is available for free viewing online, provides historical perspective on the Church’s present scandals. Te Oscar-winning flm Spotlight (see review on page 208), explores cases of sexual abuse among Catholic priests in and around Boston, Massachusetts, much like those in Wisconsin chronicled by Frontline.

LEVIATHAN, directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev (Non-Stop Productions, 2014). Reviewed by Trevor Erlacher

Set in the fctional town of Pribrezhny on the gloomy yet charming northern coast of Russia, Leviathan tells the story of Kolya, a mechanic who resists the seizure of his family home by the local government. Pribrezhny’s drunkard mayor, who regards the quaint town as his personal fefdom, has plans to demolish Kolya’s house and build a private mansion on the property. Outraged, Kolya enlists the help of his old army friend, Dmitri, a lawyer from Moscow. Afer their appeal is thrown out in court they resort to more aggressive legal measures, but soon realize that they are fghting a monster far more powerful and ruthless than men like themselves. Leviathan deals with universal problems, but director Andrei Zvyagintsev had the ills of contemporary Russian politics and society in mind when he made it. “We live in a feudal system when everything is in the hands of one person, and everyone else in a vertical of subordination,” he said in an interview. Leviathan ofers a bleak picture of the tyranny, corruption, organized crime, alcoholism, and domestic violence that plague Russians today. Tese issues destroy real Russian citizens just as surely as they do the flm’s characters, and cannot simply be dismissed as Russophobic stereotypes. Pribrezhny is a microcosm of the entire country. One of the flm’s namesakes is the famous mid-seventeenth-century

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