Deliver Us from Evil – courtesy of the Not-Shown-at-a-Theater-Near-You summer film festival – (2006) Writer/director Amy Berg’s documentary of the cover-up of Catholic clergy sexual abuses. A wolf in the Lamb of God’s clothing, Oliver O’Grady, who on camera appears mild-mannered, came to the United States from Ireland in 1971 to become a priest in Lodi, California. From 1973 until 1993 he molested hundreds of children, raped young girls (one as young as nine months old), and sodomized young boys.

Several of his victims spoke on camera of their experiences with Father O’Grady. Why didn’t they tell what was happening to them? On woman replied, “How do you tell your parents” such a thing when the parents have invited Father O’Grady into their homes, trusting their children into his care at church, in school, in their bedrooms? When Bob Jyono and his wife Anne finally discovered the truth from their daughter Maria in her thirties, whom O’Grady had molested and raped beginning with fondling her at age five, they had supported and defended him against previous accusations. As Jane Degroot, a mother who allowed O’Grady sexual favors from herself while he was sodomizing her son, said that he was “the closest thing to God we knew.” Maria Jyono explained to her father that she did not tell him of the abuses when she was a child because she had once heard him say that he would kill anyone who ever hurt his daughter; she believed that if she revealed the facts, her father would have killed Father O’Grady, resulting in her father’s being sent away from her for life.

When his superiors – Bishop Guilfoyl, Monsignor Cain, and Bishop (now Cardinal) Roger Mahony – were informed of his misconduct, they relocated him to another parish – Turlock, then Stockton, and finally San Andreas where he became pastor – and appeased his accusers to avoid criminal charges before each transfer by saying that Father O’Grady would be given counseling, sent to a monastery, or isolated from further contact with children – only the first of which happened. Grady admits, “I should have been removed and attended to.” The children were confused when the hand that consecrated the holy wafer of communion then touched their genitals. In the monarchal hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church – which expects its congregants to “pay, pray, and obey” – the manner in which thousands of priests such as Father O’Grady were protected from secular authorities with perjury, denial, deceit can only suggest that from the monsignors and bishops up to the cardinals and pope, some 100,000 children were not deemed worthy of protection from pedophiles.

Through its legal counsel the Vatican claimed “formation privilege,” which asserted that all communications between members of the clergy were shielded from outside interests such as law enforcement and the courts. (Not unlike President George W. Bush’s overarching claims of executive privilege. President Bush granted immunity to Pope Benedict XVI from prosecution in the US for any involvement by Cardinal Ratzinger when he had authority over matters pertaining to sexual abuses by priests under his supervision.) When Bishop Mahony (now Cardinal) and Monsignor Cain were questioned about their knowledge and actions relating to Father O’Grady’s conduct with the children who eventually accused him of sexual abuse, they dissembled, prevaricated, and pleaded an inability to recall. Like O’Grady they displayed disassociative behavior.

Finally Oliver O’Grady was arrested in 1993, found guilty of sexual abuses, sentenced to 14 years of prison, and incarcerated. Some critics have suggested he accepted a deal with the Church to take full blame in exchange for later considerations, including an annuity. In 2000 he was released and deported to Ireland where he lives with a family who are unaware of his predatory past and has the freedom to associated with children once again. Believing that he could erase the stain on their lives, he composed a letter to each of his victims (apparently remember many of them by name) offering his apology and an offer of personally asking for their forgiveness if they would see him in Ireland, confessing “It should not have happened.” Meanwhile Father Tom Doyle, an advocate for victims, encouraged Nancy Sloan and Maria Jyono to write a letter to Pope Benedict, explaining what had occurred to them as children as two among dozens involving O’Grady and asking for an apology. Together with Maria’s parents they flew to Rome. However, the Vatican guards refused them permission to enter; the Catholic Church denied them any audience or apology.

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Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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