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	Movie on Pedophile Priest Puts a Face on Evil By Naomi Pfefferman Jewish Journal October 13, 2006 http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16605 In October 2004, journalist Amy Berg cold-called a defrocked priest she has nicknamed the "Hannibal Lecter of pedophiles." While serving Central California parishes in the 1970s and '80s, the Rev. Oliver O'Grady allegedly molested dozens of children -- boys and girls, infants and adolescents -- according to Berg's new documentary film, "Deliver Us From Evil." He did so with the knowledge of church officials -- including Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony -- who moved him from parish to parish when parents complained, O'Grady alleges. After months of phone conversations, Berg persuaded the priest to appear in a documentary that "has heightened interest among law enforcement officials ... in considering a criminal case against [Mahony]," The New York Times reported on Oct. 8. In a Journal interview on Oct. 9, Tod M. Tamberg, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, called the movie "very heavily biased." "This film was heavily edited and weighed in favor of Amy Berg making the cardinal the culprit and completely ignoring ... that O'Grady is a skilled liar and a master manipulator," Tamberg added. "Evil" -- which won the nonfiction prize at the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival in July -- presents for perhaps the first time a convicted pedophile speaking graphically about his actions on camera. O'Grady's words provide "the backbone of a deeply disturbing documentary about the Roman Catholic clergy abuse crisis," the Associated Press said. When O'Grady first answered Berg's call with a cheerful "Hello and good evening," to her surprise he didn't curtly dismiss her as had other pedophiles she had telephoned to be in her film. Berg believes he ultimately agreed to talk, in part, because he was angry with church officials. "I should have been removed and attended to," he says in the film. O'Grady, who arrived in California in the early 1970s, remained a parish priest until he was convicted on four molestation counts in 1993. After seven years in prison, he was deported to his native Ireland. In the movie, O'Grady describes having been molested by an older brother as a boy, and how he, in turn, abused a younger sister. As a priest, he says he sometimes started fondling children while sleeping over at their homes: He would often begin by hugging a child, then let his hand stray if they did not protest. He recollects his crimes in a detached or avuncular tone that contrasts with anguished testimony from his victims. In the film, one father cries and screams as he blames himself for allowing O'Grady to abuse his daughter: "At 5 years old -- for God's sake, how could that happen?" the father says. The film also includes never-before-seen taped depositions in which Mahony says he was unaware of the abuse and did not know O'Grady well when he served as bishop of Stockton from 1980 to 1985. But in the movie, excerpts from court documents, superimposed over Mahony's testimony, suggest otherwise. In response, Tamberg said Mahony's testimony was heavily edited and facts omitted to make Berg's points. Tamberg said Mahony did not know O'Grady had committed abuse until the former priest was arrested in 1993 and that "Evil" largely presents the opinions of plaintiffs' attorneys, who stand to gain financially by suing the church. Tamberg said he believes the documentary poignantly depicts the victims' anguish, which is "its greatest strength but also its greatest failing. Because then we are asked to put all of O'Grady's lying and manipulation aside and believe him.... [But] he lied to his bishop, he lied to the families, he lied to victims and I believe he even manipulated the filmmakers." Berg indignantly denied that she was ever manipulated, and that her documentary takes undue potshots at the church. "If this is the best they can come up with, then let them respond to the allegations in the film, for once," she said. She wants church officials to answer questions such as "'Why didn't you take O'Grady Out?' 'What are you hiding?' '[And] how many are still out there?'" Despite her bravado, Berg admitted she previously declined to tell reporters she is a Jewish, divorced single mother (she lives with her young son, Spencer, in an apartment in Santa Monica). She worried that the information might make her appear biased against the church and that the diocese might somehow interfere with the release of her film, since it successfully delayed the airing of some of her CNN pieces. Tamberg said Berg's news pieces were delayed because "we asked for fairness, and CNN management agreed." The 36-year-old filmmaker was raised Reform in Valley Glen; she attended Jewish Camp Swig in Saratoga and became a bat mitzvah at Temple Beth Hillel in Valley Village. But when public high school proved too large and overwhelming for young Amy, her parents enrolled her in a Catholic school because it was affordable and many other Jewish students were enrolled there, as well. All students were required to attend religion class, but Berg said she used to ditch because she did not believe some of the teachings after having been raised Jewish. "Children were saying 'Hail Marys' to be forgiven for chewing gum or not brushing their hair," she recalled of her school. Years later, while producing for CBS and CNN, Berg was drawn to covering the church's pedophilia crisis because victims exuded "this unbelievably raw, lonely, 'Where do I turn?' mentality." She convinced O'Grady to allow her to film him only after speaking to him every Sunday for five months. In December 2004, she flew to Dublin to meet with him in the city center (he would not tell her where he lived.) The eight-day shoot in April, 2005, was "brutal," both physically and emotionally, she says. For example, O'Grady nonchalantly spoke of his attraction for children as kids were playing in a nearby park; in the film he even peers over the fence to look at them. To keep herself calm during the process, Berg turned at the end of each day to meditation, including exercises from Melinda Ribner's "Everyday Kabbalah: A Practical Guide to Jewish Meditation, Healing and Personal Growth." After a week of listening to O'Grady describe his molestations of children, she said, "I was completely overwhelmed and exhausted." When she finished the shoot, she returned to her hotel room and collapsed in bed for a day. "I just couldn't move," she said. Now Berg faces another challenge. The Motion Picture Association of America gave the "Evil" trailer a "redband" rating for adult content, which "is kind of like a scarlet letter," said Kate Hubin, a spokesman for the movie's distributor, Lionsgate Films. Often, the redband label means many commercial theaters choose not to show a film at all, Hubin added. Berg, for her part, hopes Internet publicity will help draw viewers. She also hopes the movie will "promote change" in the way the diocese handles abuse allegations. "It would be a disservice to all the people who opened their old wounds up and shared them on camera if we didn't come together as a community and say, 'This is wrong," she said. The film opens Oct. 13 in Los Angeles.
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