A documentary about the first known case in the USA relating child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church, which would ultimately spur a worldwide investigation into the Vatican.
"Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God," a new documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, investigates how a charismatic priest in Milwaukee abused more than 200 deaf children in a Catholic boarding school under his control.
The young students were molested again and again by Father Lawrence Murphy, who stalked them in their dorm rooms at night, on trips to his rural cabin, and even in the confessional booth.
Gibney, whose past films include, "Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room" and the Academy Award-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side," joins us to discuss his new exposé, which opens this Friday in theaters in New York City and Los Angeles and will debut on HBO in February 2013.
Gibney exposes the abuse of power in the Catholic Church and a cover-up that winds its way from the row houses of Milwaukee Wisconsin, through the bare ruined choirs of Ireland's churches all the way to the highest office of the Vatican.
By investigating the secret crimes of a charismatic priest who abused over 200 deaf children in a school under his control - the film shows the face of evil that lurks behind the smiles and denials of authority figures and institutions who believe that because they stand for good, they can do no wrong.
The film documents the first known public protest against clerical sex abuse in the U.S.A., a struggle of more than three decades that ultimately led to a lawsuit against the Pontiff himself.
These heroes, four deaf young men, set out to expose the priest who had abused them and so many others by trying to make their voices "heard".
Their investigation helped to uncover documents from the secret Vatican Archives that shows the Pope - who must operate within the mysterious rules of the roman Curia - as both responsible and helpless in the face of evil.