HOLY WATER-GATE
Sunday February 27, 2005 at 10pm ET/PT

Holy Water-Gate investigates the crisis that emerged within the Roman Catholic Church as victims of child sex abuse by priests fought to bring their abusers to justice.  The film begins as a personal journey of filmmaker, Mary Healey-Conlon, who is also a Catholic.  Through key players in the scandal, including victims, whistle-blower priests and a senior ranking U.S. Cardinal who is called upon by the Vatican to control an ever-growing storm, Holy Water-gate brings the viewer deep within the institutional mind of the U.S. Catholic Church:  a powerful establishment that not only failed the victims for many years by not acknowledging their abuse, but also enabled some priests to continue to abuse more children by relocating them in other parishes.  This intensely personal and political story investigates the crisis and exposes the reluctance within the U.S. mainstream media for decades to report sexual abuse crimes against children by priests.

FILM WEBSITE: Visit the official film website for more information.

Over the course of the film, five victims' stories are tracked from events leading up to their childhood sexual abuse, to their decision to bring their abusers to justice.  These victims include:  Peter Isely of Milwaukee, a former seminarian and Harvard Divinity School Graduate; Barbara Blaine of Chicago, the founder of the largest victims support group in the country; Father John Bambrick of New Jersey, a priest who was himself sexually abused by a priest as a young adolescent; and Mark Serrano of Virginia, a victim, who broke the silence of his confidentiality provision.  Their stories detail a disturbing behavioral map of sexual predators and point to a pattern of concealment and intimidation by church authorities.

Holy Water-Gate also chronicles the reluctance of the media to recognize and investigate stories of  abuse by priests.  When national press attention finally put a spotlight on abuse, the church portrayed these incidents as "isolated problems."  Eventually, it was the media coverage, including daytime talkshows that had a profound effect as thousands of victims became willing to tell their stories and force change within the church.  Father Bambrick, a priest who was also a victim, says, "The worst part is the guilt that you feel because you didn't speak up.  How many other people did he molest from you to the present.  So I felt that I could not serve with integrity if I did not do something about it."

Holy Water-Gate is produced/directed/written by Mary Healey-Conlon; co-produced by Louise Rosen for C Videofilms Production in association with SBS-TV Australia, CBC Newsworld, RTSI Swiss Italian Television.