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	War of Words – Maker of Film on Clergy Abuse, Cardinal's By Mark Pattison Catholic Online October 16, 2006 http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=21638 Washington (CNS) – The director of a new documentary recounting how a now-laicized priest repeatedly sexually abused children in California has provoked a war of words between the director and the chief spokesman for Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, who is portrayed in the movie as having ignored the priest's deeds. This war of words is being played out in that area of the Internet known as the blogosphere, where essays and opinions can be posted at any time. In one corner is Amy Berg, who wrote and directed "Deliver Us From Evil," which details the abuses by Oliver O'Grady, a former priest of the Diocese of Stockton, Calif. In the other is Tod Tamberg, director of media relations for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Cardinal Mahony headed the Stockton Diocese from 1980-85. He was named to head the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in July 1985, and "it was not until 1993 that accusations were made leading to O'Grady's arrest and eventual sentencing to prison," Tamberg said. O'Grady admitted in a 1993 criminal trial that he molested boys. He spent six years in prison following a 1994 conviction for child molestation. In the documentary, the cardinal is seen in footage of a videotaped deposition for a civil case filed in 2004 against the Stockton Diocese. Berg has complained in cyberspace about the Motion Picture Association of America disapproving the movie trailer – the preview of a coming attraction shown before feature films – for viewing by all audiences, suspecting Catholic involvement in giving the trailer what is called a "redband." She also claims Cardinal Mahony has had a hand in a cover-up of events in the Stockton Diocese. Tamberg has likewise taken to the Internet to rebuff Berg's criticisms and to point out weaknesses in her arguments. In an Oct. 2 posting on the Huffington Post Web site, a collection of blogs revolving around political pundit Arianna Huffington, Berg said the decision to redband the trailer was "especially infuriating given that I have repeatedly seen horror film trailers that depict women being tortured or mutilated in connection with sexual activity, murder, gunfire and other extremely disturbing adult content playing before PG-13 movies." Berg also trotted out her suspicion – since discredited – that clergy members are present "and possibly involved" in the film rating process. "I do not know whether there were clergy involved in the MPAA's decision to disapprove the trailer, but given the atmosphere in which these decisions are made, I can't help but fear that perhaps it was as much the idea of high-ranking church officials as fallible and possibly even criminal that the MPAA found unacceptable as it was the idea of sexual abuse," she said. Tamberg, in a rejoinder posted Oct. 5 as a reply, said: "She has a constitutional right to indulge in any sort of worldwide conspiracy theory that warms her heart, and we hate to deprive her of the melodramatic underpinnings of her next straight-to-video venture, but a little fact-checking is in order. No clergymen, priests or otherwise, are members of the MPAA's ratings board. In fact, on its Web site the MPAA makes a point of noting that among the qualifications of the rating board members is 'shared parenthood experience.'" In a September posting on the "director's blog" link for the movie's own Web site, Berg said her film revealed "the secrets that were meant to stay in the private files and crypts of the Roman Catholic Church." Tamberg, in an Oct. 12 post on www.ncrnews.org's "Abuse Tracker" link titled "It's Time for Reporters to Seek Out the Facts About O'Grady Film," said Berg's message "is simple: O'Grady is a bad guy and the church, specifically Cardinal Mahony, withheld information and moved O'Grady to one parish after another." But then-Bishop Mahony was bishop of Stockton for only five of the years that O'Grady served in the diocese, he said, and the prelate was "unaware of a secret file from the tenure of the previous bishop (Merlin Guilfoyle) dealing with a complaint about O'Grady." "The focus here is what the cardinal knew, when he knew it and what he did about it," Tamberg added. O'Grady had volunteered to a diocesan official that he had "feelings" for children but had not acted on them. After a diocesan investigation turned up no confirmation of abuse, O'Grady was moved to a new parish "because two retired priests who could help with his maturation lived there." In a telephone interview, Tamberg said, "O'Grady, being the narcissistic sociopath he was, wasn't going to confess anything to anybody that might be able to derail his compulsion." Berg, he added, "makes a big deal about a letter in a file." "In the early 1980s a new bishop wouldn't customarily go to the files" on a priest, but he would go to the parish to talk to the priest. "Today is a different world," Tamberg added. "Deliver Us From Evil" premiered Oct. 13 in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, and was to open in other U.S. cities later this fall. It has not been reviewed by the U.S. bishops' Office for Film & Broadcasting.
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