The award-winning film Trinity, about a man who runs into the priest who abused him as a child, is screening on May 21, 2022, at the former House of Affirmation in Whitinsville, MA, as a fundraiser for Bishop Accountability. The House of Affirmation was a treatment center for priests with psychological issues, including pedophilia. The priest who started it, Fr. Kane, was himself a pedophile and they networked children in the Blackstone Valley area of Massachusetts. Skip Shea, the writer/director/producer of Trinity, returns to the area for this fundraiser to remind people of the history of clergy abuse in the Diocese of Worcester.

While I don’t know if there are any readers from Massachusetts, it is worth reading the Trinity website.

https://www.trinitythemovie.com/projects-2

The film itself can be rented on amazon prime. Based on a true event in Shea’s life, the chance encounter with the pedophile priest years later triggers a dissociative experience which is portrayed in the film. It is extremely intense. The film has received many awards and positive reviews, but it is not for the faint of heart.

Proceeds from the screening at the former House of Affirmation will go to Bishop Accountability, https://www.bishop-accountability.org/. From the Bishop Accountability website:

Bishop Accountability is the largest public library of information on the Catholic clergy abuse crisis.  We are a digital collection of documents, survivor witness, investigative reports, and media coverage.  We also do basic research on abuser histories and church management, and we maintain definitive databases of persons accused in the United States, Argentina, Chile, and Ireland, with other databases in development. 

We are not an advocacy organization, and we take no position on possible remedies for the crisis.  We are a library open to everyone looking to understand the problem of clergy abuse of children.

The materials we have collected also provide insight into child protection generally and Catholic history beyond the abuse crisis, and they comprise a unique case study of institutional response to misconduct and demands for change.

 

Bishopaccountability.org

A reader pointed out that is similar to what we are trying to do with the OCCK timeline, story maps and document repository. For now, almost all of the FOIA documents are on this blog. We will never get the truth in the OCCK case, but the documents and the study of the documents reveal what did and did not happen in the investigation into the abduction, captivity, torture and murder of four preteen children in Oakland County, MI. They also reveal a network of pedophiles in that area who were never brought to justice for their crimes of child rape. The documents speak for themselves, as do the redactions and alterations. And of course, much was withheld and probably destroyed over the decades. But these materials, too, provide insight into child protection generally. It wasn’t happening in Oakland County in the 1970s and 1980s. And it may not be now, either.