The debut feature from seasoned CBS reporter Amy Berg provides an unhappy account of sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church. It may also be the most important film you’ll see this year.

Father Oliver O’Grady is the harmless looking, accommodating fellow at the centre of the film. For 20 years, the Irish-born Father Ollie, as he is known, was fed, housed, and trusted by his Californian parishioners. But this charismatic man was also a wily sexual predator who raped hundreds of children, ranging from newborn babies to teenagers. Now, after serving half of a 14-year sentence in the US, he lives scott free in Ireland with a family that knows nothing of his past. He reports to no one save for the Catholic Church, who protected him from the authorities for decades.
Sadly, this sort of grim narrative has become all too familiar in recent years. What makes Deliver Us From Evil unique is that, in addition to giving voice to some of the victims, it contains an extensive interview with the perpetrator.
“It was astonishing,” says the director shortly after the film’s Irish premiere at the recent Dublin International Film Festival. “I had been investigating clergy sex abuse cases for CNN and CBS, so I knew there were more than 550 priests who had abused children under the jurisdiction of Cardinal Roger Mahony. In 2004, I contacted Oliver O’Grady. During his 20 years in the Church, O’Grady had molested dozens of children across Northern California as his superiors knowingly moved him from parish to parish. In 2001, he had been deported to Ireland, his birthplace. After five months of weekly hour-long phone conversations, he agreed to meet with me in person. I immediately flew to Ireland. I had always wanted to get one of these men on camera. I felt it was important for us to understand what’s going on.”
On camera, O’Grady often giggles or smiles fondly while recalling his crimes as if recounting a particularly fun trip to the circus. Throughout, he takes refuge in outrageous euphemisms. “I feel compassionate toward children,” he says, before ‘apologising’ for any “perceived offense”. He explains that his actions occurred only because he was “overly affectionate”. Frequently he provides romantic accounts of his victims. “I would label it love,” he beams at one point.
Bob Jyono, a quiet Japanese-American Buddhist, who converted to Catholicism when he married his Irish wife provides a poignant counterpoint to O’Grady’s rose-tinted argument. The Jyono family had welcomed O’Grady into their home while, unbeknownst to them, the priest was molesting their young daughter. “Molesting?” cries Bob Jyono in the film. “He raped her.”
“I’m a parent myself,” says Ms.Berg. “So it was difficult to make. I had a great team around me and we’d talk about the issues every night. But we could allow ourselves to be disturbed without reacting in any way.” Between the emotional jolts lies a shrewd campaigning film designed to angry up the blood. The filmmaker works through the videotaped depositions of O’Grady’s supervising bishops, including Roger Cardinal Mahony, who is currently the archbishop of Los Angeles to unravel a conspiracy that goes all the way up to the pope. Instead of reporting O’Grady to the relevant agencies, Mahony moved him from parish to parish with every fresh batch of complaints. Rather than risk his own political career, Mahony even promoted the paedophile priest before offering a retirement annuity in exchange for disappearing off the radar. “O’Grady went to these people for spiritual help,” says the director. “He himself was abused at home and then in the seminary where he then began abusing others. He said if they had any kind of psychological checks at that time, he would not have passed as he was already messed up. He told me that the happiest time in his life was the seven years he spent in jail because it was the only time when the temptation was removed. He needs to be monitored every day but he isn’t watched at all.”
Lest anyone believe that O’Grady is a changed man, in the film he is seen watching children play in Merrion Square playground while telling us that tots in swimsuits are sexually arousing. He is not, however, the real villain of the piece. Over two-hours Ms.Berg paints a scholarly portrait of church greed, the psychology of celibacy and a history of clerical sexual abuse that dates back to the fourth century. Can anything possibly be done within such a rotten system?
“Well, I have hope since I came to Ireland,” says Amy. “I feel the Irish have a different level of understanding of the church. You meet devout Catholics who are outraged without losing their faith. But they know that their church should not be run like this. There is firm in LA that has been hired to dig dirt and discredit witnesses in sexual abuse cases. The money for that comes from churchgoers. The church is not supposed to be a business but if they’re going to act like one then churchgoers need to hit them in the pocket where it hurts.”
Deliver Us From Evil is released March 30.