'Evil': a Harrowing Look at a Pedophile Priest, by Claudia Puig, USA Today, October 12, 2006

'Evil': a Harrowing Look at a Pedophile Priest

By Claudia Puig
USA Today
October 12, 2006

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2006-10-12-evil-review_x.htm

Deliver Us From Evil is so horrifying it makes Texas Chainsaw Massacre look like a walk in the park.

It chronicles the damnable crimes of one of the most notorious pedophiles in the history of the Catholic Church. Father Oliver O'Grady was convicted of serial child molestation over two decades across Northern California.

O'Grady admits he abused dozens of boys and girls during the 1970s and '80s, including a 9-month-old. When accusations surfaced, church officials simply moved O'Grady to another parish.

Deliver Us From Evil, a documentary about the exploits of convicted pedophile priest Oliver O'Grady, charges the Church ignored reports of rape.

The documentary charges that the church ignored reports against O'Grady and lied to law enforcement officers and parishioners to avoid liability and escape scrutiny.

Filmmaker Amy Berg has made an indelible film on a disturbing yet riveting topic. She deftly avoids sensationalism with deliberate pacing and heartbreaking interviews with victims and their emotionally shattered, guilt-ridden parents.

Perhaps most haunting are interviews with O'Grady, who seems to show no remorse in discussions of his pathology and the abuse he endured at the hands of an older brother. He jovially refers to himself as "a people person" and uses euphemisms like "being affectionate" juxtaposed with graphic descriptions of his abuse.

A secondary villain emerges in the film: Cardinal Roger Mahony, who knew of complaints for many years but did not remove O'Grady from duty. Instead, he periodically relocated the priest, which offered him a fresh crop of victims.

O'Grady served half of his 14-year prison sentence, then was deported in 2000 to his native Ireland, where he now resides freely.

The normally soft-spoken Bob Jyono bellows: "He raped my daughter at 5 years old. For God's sake, how could that happen?"

The girl, molested by O'Grady between the ages of 5 and 12, didn't know how to communicate what she was enduring: She came home from an outing saying only: "He tickled me too much."

Jesuit priest Father Tom Doyle, who is trying to redress the terrible wrongs, compares the diocese to the Mafia in its cover-up of O'Grady's crimes: "They knew children were being victimized and they did absolutely nothing."

Deliver Us From Evil will shake you to your marrow. It should be seen by people of all faiths and by anyone concerned about the wellbeing of children.