BishopAccountability.org
 
  Holy Water-Gate at Cable Car

By Bryan Rourke
Providence Journal [Rhode Island]
April 15, 2005

Holy Water-Gate: Abuse Cover-Up in the Catholic Church, a documentary film about sexual abuse by priests, will get its first general-audience screening in Rhode Island next week at the Cable Car Cinema in Providence.

The 56-minute movie by Mary Healey-Conlon of Warren, a lecturer in communications and film at the University of Rhode Island, will be shown April 18-24 at the South Main Street theater,

The independent film, five years in the making, premiered earlier this year in Brookline, Mass. Healey-Conlon went $180,000 in debt to make the movie, which won her the CINE Golden Eagle Award. Previous recipients include Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Ken Burns.

Holy Water-Gate presents interviews with victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse, as well as church officials..

One of the first images in the film is of Healey-Conlon's grandfather, Jim Healey, one of the first ordained lay deacons in Rhode Island. He was a communicant of St. Matthews Church in Cranston, where the Rev. James Silva was once pastor. In 1995, Father Silva was convicted of sexual abuse.

The documentary examines sexual abuse by priests in Rhode Island and elsewhere in the country, showing the national scope of the problem, which involved thousands of perpetrators and victims, according to a survey authorized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"[The] questionnaire doesn't capture all of the abuse," said Healey-Conlon. "It was a self-reporting survey sent to each diocese and since it wasn't mandatory, some dioceses refused."

Of 4,392 priests accused of sexual abuse, 180 have been convicted, according to Healy-Conlon. "And not one of the bishops," she said.

Holy Water-Gate: Abuse Cover-Up in the Catholic Church plays at the Cable Car Cinema Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday at 9:30 p.m.; and next Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $8, $6 for students on Monday and Wednesday. For more information about the film, visit www.holywater-gate.com

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.