Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God (2012)
Average Rating: 7.9/10
Reviews Counted: 48
Fresh: 47 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.3/5
User Ratings: 1,741
Movie Info
In MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD, Oscar (R)-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney examines the abuse of power in the Catholic Church through the story of four courageous deaf men, who in the first known case of public protest, set out to expose the priest who abused them. Through their case the film follows 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. (c)
Nov 16, 2012 Limited
Oct 7, 2013
Independent Pictures
Cast
-
Terry Kohut
Terry Kohut -
Rembert Weakland
Rembert Weakland -
Gary Smith
Gary Smith -
Pat Kuehn
Pat Kuehn -
Arthur Budzinski
Arthur Budzinski -
Jeff Anderson
Jeff Anderson -
Thomas Doyle
Thomas Doyle -
Richard Sipe
Richard Sipe -
Patrick Wall
Patrick Wall -
Geoffrey Robertson
Geoffrey Robertson -
Laurie Goodstein
Laurie Goodstein -
Jason Berry
Jason Berry -
Robert "Spike" Micke...
Robert "Spike" Micke... -
Marco Politi
Marco Politi -
Jamey Sheridan
Jamey Sheridan -
Chris Cooper
Chris Cooper -
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke -
John Slattery
John Slattery -
Alex Gibney
Narrator -
Brady Bryson
Brady Bryson
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All Critics (48) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (1)
The case has been widely reported but this is still an important film, laying out who knew what, and when. It's chilling: the conspiracy of silence goes all the way to the Vatican.
Top CriticIt feels a bit like a monster movie. It is, too.
In the end, decades of such crimes going undetected and undeterred under the aegis of one employer - any employer - speaks for itself. And the extraordinary perseverance and courage of the men from St. John's speaks louder still.
Partly an inspiring saga of growing "deaf power" and human resilience, and partly a murky and fragmentary drama about an immense, closed-minded bureaucracy with paranoid and conspiratorial tendencies that finds itself unable to adjust to the modern world.
There is something to be said for a clear and unblinking recitation of facts, and thankfully Mr. Gibney does a lot of that.
Gibney's most powerful film since the Oscar-winning 2007 Taxi to the Dark Side.
a carefully constructed observation of the facts and a withering condemnation of the behaviour of the Catholic Church.
Before you say you can't take another feature length documentary about sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests, know that Alex Gibney's examination of the subject is both fresh and revelatory.
Gibney tracks a disgraceful cover-up within the Catholic church.
A heartbreaking, brilliantly executed exposé, in which four deaf victims bring the church to account. Their testimonies are chilling.
Alex Gibney isn't casting the first stone at the Vatican with his documentary Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God. But, God willing, it will be the most effective in shattering their narrative of blissful ignorance.
Tragedy that sticks to your bones -- a gut-punch look at the Catholic Church child sex abuse scandal as filtered through the experiential prism of a group of victims from a single Midwestern school for the deaf.
With meticulous care and intricate detail, Silence In The House of God deconstructs the nature of the Catholic Church's systematic cover ups of pedophilia among their clergy, stretching back well into the past century
It is ironic that the raised voices of a small group of deaf boys from Milwaukee, Wisconsin are loud enough to threaten the code of silence over child molestation accusations in the Catholic Church
It's not one documentary that you'd care to endure on repeat viewings but it's a necessary investigation into the paedophilic petri dish that the Catholic Church allowed itself to become.
It's impossible to leave the cinema without hoping that the Papal resignation and the awful events explored here are not unrelated.
It's a lucid film everyone should see and the Vatican should answer for.
There's a reason this expertly shot and edited documentary is skimming under the radar: no one wants you to see it. The hugely skilled Gibney is taking on the world's biggest corporation, the Vatican.
[A] harrowing exposé of child abuse within the Roman Catholic Church, which reveals the extent the Vatican has been actively involved in covering up crimes committed by priests.
A kind of unintentional leaving gift for the outgoing Pope Benedict, though it is not one he is likely to relish.
The film shocks you to the marrow, and every frame burns with a righteous fire, itself religious in its intensity.
This is a tremendous documentary: at once cool and scalding, outraged and meticulous; a must-see for everyone, both inside and outside the "House of God".
Impressively directed and thoroughly researched, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God is a powerful and deeply upsetting documentary that demands to be seen.
Details the ways, in the face of devastating evidence, that the Catholic Church attempted to cover-up a priest's serial criminality.
If you thought that Amy Berg's Deliver Us from Evil had extracted every last word on the issue of child abuse in the Catholic Church, Alex Gibney proves with his new film that there's still plenty left to be infuriated about.
Audience Reviews for Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God
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