As I write this, on Wednesday evening, October 11, the entire world is poised between imposing sanctions on North Korea over its purported explosion of a nuclear bomb, or playing nice-nice for fear the bomb might be real, with a larger one lying in the wings.

Here in the States, we talk about Homeland Security’s protecting our borders and ports, wondering about the fallout from a possible explosion at one of our nuclear plants.

How far, we ask, in any case, would the fallout travel? And what are the plans for dealing with such a crisis? How would the survivors be protected?

Where to find safe shelters?

Strange, it seems to me; sadly, it seems to me, the Catholic Church appears to have no plans in place to protect its faithful from the spiritual fallout, sure to reach grand cathedrals, as well as rural mission churches, when the documentary, Deliver Us From Evil, featuring Father Oliver O’Grady’s 22-year history of molestation acts as a priest, reaches movie houses this weekend in Los Angeles, Boston and New York.

Tom Meek, in the October 11th issue of The Phoenix, reported that producer, Amy Berg, revealed that the origin of her documentary was the Boston fiasco and Cardinal Bernard Law, who himself employed the moving-around tactic with notorious pedophile John Geoghan.

Berg told Meek: “I was working at CBS News in LA (as a producer) in 2002, and when it started to leak out about what was going on in Boston, I was assigned to find local angles.”

Thus, she became acquainted with O’Grady, who had already served jail time and had been deported back to Ireland. Berg said, “For five months we would speak on the phone every Sunday and I would record it. He wanted to have his story out there, but wouldn’t go on camera.”

However, when, in April of 2005, when Cardinal Mahony flew first-class to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II, and saw Cardinal Law presiding, he walked out in protest. “Mahony was trying to make a point, ‘How could this man be presiding over the mass when he did what he did in Boston?’, Berg said.

“Well, Mahony had 556 priests under him that were accused; Law had 85. Someone took a picture of Mahony and it ended up on the cover of the LA Times.” At that point, O’Grady said, “ ----- this. I am going on record; this guy had dumped me.’”

O’Grady told Berg that Mahony’s unacceptable behavior is the point of the film. Berg explains: “O’Grady gets to California (from Ireland) and straight-away he’s molesting people and he’s confessing to it and he’s told it’s okay. It’s like an alcoholic that goes and says, ‘I have a drinking problem.’ You don’t give them vodka; you put them somewhere where they can be cured.”

Berg contended: “It’s the institution that’s responsible to take him out ...I’m not saying Oliver is innocent, but they could have stopped him in ‘73 or ‘76 and there wouldn’t be as big of a problem.”

In the Saturday, October 7th issue of The New York Times, in an article by Jennifer Steinhauer, William Hodgman, the top deputy of the largest crimes division of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, who coordinated prosecutions of priests in Los Angeles, is quoted: The film “ will fuel ongoing consideration as to whether Cardinal Mahony and others engaged in criminal activity.”

Last evening, on a news report, the father of a five-year old girl, whom O’Grady had molested time after time, was shown from the documentary, weeping and shouting in anger at the priest he had trusted to live in his home. I don’t think anyone will look at those scenes and accuse the distraught father of lying about the tragedies confessed to by O’Grady.

It is for the courts to decide how responsible Mahony is for shifting O’Grady from place to place. My question returns back to the beginning of this article: Who among the hierarchy is shepherding the flock against the scandal sure to hit the fan when the film is released on Sunday?

Why must the Catholic laity read about this in the secular press, and hear about it over news casts? On this matter of clergy abuse, there appears to be a disconnect between the laity and its ecclesiastical leaders, as though they live in different houses with no connecting doors, no mailboxes, no e-mails, no telephones.

Beyond any doubt in my mind, a Pope John Paul I would have summoned the bishops together a month ago, if even by a conference call, explained the situation, and enjoined upon them the task of alerting their people from the pulpit two weeks before the release of the picture about the alleged, sordid scandal. If the scandal has no basis in fact, the laity would have been assured that someone was looking out for them. If the facts were proven to be true, the laity would have known they were being cared for, cushioned against a scandal beyond belief, but not beyond their ability to cope, with God’s grace, the support of one another, and a true shepherd to lead them out of the darkness.

What will we find instead? A people stunned by the scandal, walking with one another, leaderless, because silence has been the course chosen by the hierarchy. The churches across our land are gathering places, sanctuaries against storms of every kind, against scandals from whatever source, including the documentary, Deliver Us From Evil. But they can be so only if the members of the hierarchy courageously and humbly sit at table with the parishioners, break bread, share coffee, and listen to their deep suffering, almost wordless, over what has happened to their church, the Mystical Body of Christ, whose values have been assaulted by the members of the hierarchy, as described by Jason Berry in his classic book, Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children.

The article on Pope John Paul I has been posted for your inspiration and consolation. He is a saint for our time, for every time, and will show us the way home, how to come together in compassion and understanding, how to face wrongdoing with courage in the face of injustice.

Christ is with us. Let us not be afraid. God’s blessings on each of you and your families in the week ahead. Peace and love.

Amen.

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