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	"Deliver Us from Evil" Opens Controversial Film about a Pedophile Priest By Tamala Edwards ABC 6 October 26, 2006 http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=entertainment&id=4692525 October 26, 2006 - An unusual documentary film opens on Friday presenting frank confessions of sexual abuse by a former Catholic priest. Some are already asking is this film healing or hurting to victims of similar abuse? What Oliver O'Grady confesses in the stunning new film, "Deliver Us From Evil," is that he is a pedophile priest. Over the twenty years the priest spent in Northern California parishes, he raped dozens of children, including a 9-month old infant. Usually these culprits are two-dimensional, made real only in stories of their victims or in court documents. But filmmaker Amy Berg did the rare thing: she got O'Grady to bear witness to his crimes. Many may ask, "What is the point of a film like this? Does it help anyone, or just hurt by giving a soapbox to a monster?" Father Tom Doyle argues that the film helps -- helping viewers confront a sickness not just in one man, but in many. "He may seem like a unique individual in the movie. He may seem like a freak almost, but, in fact, there are many like him," said Doyle, a victims' advocate. Pat Clancy, a survivor of priest abuse, hopes that O'Grady, with his shy smile and giggles, warns parents how abusers charm their way into families and next to children. "That's what's so hard for people to understand, I think, that our perpetrators are not always these bogeymen that jump out from behind the bushes," explained Clancy. But the film will provoke pain, also putting blame on church hierarchy, like Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney, who moved O'Grady between parishes. It's that charge of obstruction that critics say ties the Philadelphia Archdiocese into the film, despite Cardinal Rigali's public apologies. Clancy accuses the Archdiocese of privately opposing stronger laws, like the one put on the shelf this week. It would have increased the statute of limitations and expanded responsibility for reporting and stopping abuse. "I appreciate hearing victims stories and I appreciate empathy for victims, but the way we're going to change things is to change the law," said Clancy. In a statement, the Archdiocese reiterated its pledge to hear and help victims, urging those bothered by the film to call its hotline. But a deeper source of pain may be that the person who seems most untroubled by this film is the man smiling and laughing at the center of it.
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