Twist of Faith Page #2

Synopsis: A man confronts the trauma of past sexual abuse as a boy by a Catholic priest only to find his decision shatters his relationships with his family, community and faith.
Genre: Documentary
Director(s): Kirby Dick
Production: Chain Camera Pictures
  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
7.3
Metacritic:
70
Rotten Tomatoes:
100%
TV-MA
Year:
2004
87 min
Website
72 Views


And he lives right on this street.

And right now, I don't know what

that's gonna mean...

but what I want to tell you

is that Daddy's gonna be OK.

But I need to tell you so you understand,

cos you're big enough to understand now,

that I don't want you...

to hate this person,

because I hate him enough for me,

and hating somebody's not a good thing.

I also don't want you

talking to this person ever.

If you fall down and scrape your knee

on your bike

and this person comes up to help you,

you tell him to get away.

Do you understand what Daddy told you?

- You understand what I told you?

- I want to make sure you understand.

This man touched me on my penis...

A long time ago.

A long time ago, when he was little.

- A long, long time ago.

- But it still hurts.

But it still hurts.

It doesn't hurt like l-pinch-you hurt.

It hurts in here.

We didn't know this man lived on this street.

We didn't know he lived down the street

when we moved here.

I didn't know until today.

If I did, we wouldn't live here.

How would you decide which students to invite

- to Crystal Lake?

- There was no pattern.

Did you have any specific parameters?

- No.

- Any guidelines you would follow?

No.

Did you have any rules for the students

that were visiting with you at Crystal Lake?

Just act like gentlemen.

Did you have any rules that prohibited them

from drinking?

Yes, I told them, "You cannot drink."

- Pardon?

- I always told them,

"If I go to bed, you watch games or TV,

or something,

"but don't touch the beer or booze."

Was there beer or booze in the cottage?

I always had a bottle of Scotch or some beer.

It's the first time I've been back in...

Since the last time I was up here

in high school.

It's been a hell of a long time.

The same sheets and everything. Jesus.

What happened at the cottage stayed

at the cottage. That was the general rule.

I'd like to burn this f***ing place down

if I could.

We'd come up here

and drink, eat, shoot pool.

The part where it gets weird

is Sunday morning, wake up

and some guy's sucking your dick.

A f***ing half hour later, you take a shower,

and a half hour after that,

everybody who's here,

sometimes families included,

are sitting around the living room

and Denny's sitting there, saying Mass

cos it was Sunday.

So, here this guy just got done violating you

and now he's going,

"Body of Christ. Body of Christ."

It was f***ed up beyond

the point that you would...

It was too screwed up to question.

His bedroom was 20 feet

right inside that door.

I was just laying there...

wishing that it'd stop and wishing

it wasn't happening, knowing that it was.

I was a f***ing little kid...

a kid, and I needed some help.

I'm done looking at this f***ing...

You know, no pill, no psychiatrist is ever

gonna completely take it away.

You see, hear, or do something,

and all of a sudden, you're thinking about

the worst thing that ever happened in your life.

And even at my most intimate times

with my wife,

not a stitch of clothes on,

somehow or another,

Denny Gray either sprints

or walks slowly through my head.

And so yeah, it's affected it in that respect

in that I don't think I've ever had sex

with somebody

that somehow or another, the issue didn't...

flash or play on slow play.

Once I knew what happened,

I noticed myself...

trying very hard to make sure that...

I was doing things so he knew this is me,

this is Wendy, your wife.

I have nails, so I would, you know,

scrape his stomach or...

It's something where it would...

Maybe he wasn't even thinking about it.

Maybe it was for my own benefit,

just to get my mind someplace else.

Just so he was not...

Neither of us was slipping there.

But while I was doing that, I had all this stuff

going through my mind, which sucked.

Unfortunately, it now -

and I think I said that a few times

when we were talking on my tape -

this wasn't just eating away at Tony's mind,

it was eating away at my mind.

The first time I went

to potty train my boy...

the fact that it came into my head

for a second -

"What do I do if this kid

gets an erection?"

Cos I'm trying to teach him how to aim

which is natural for a dad to do.

That I was uncomfortable,

that I was uncomfortable

because of what happened to me,

and it invaded or stuck its f***ing hand

in one more part of my life,

a part of my life that it shouldn't have had to.

So when Tony got out of the Navy,

he'd been home for probably six months,

and he told me that

he'd been abused by Dennis Gray.

He didn't ask that I do anything.

He asked me to tell his father, which I did.

How did his father react to the news?

It was a long time ago.

"Oh no.

"What does Tony want to do?

"Does Tony want me to talk to him?

"What should we do?"

I guess, on his part and my part,

a lot of soul searching

as to what we would do as parents.

I remember John said to me...

"What does Tony want to do?"

And I said, "He don't want to do anything,

I don't believe."

He said, "Does he want me to talk to him?"

And I said, "I think you should

let him come to you."

So it just sort of got locked away,

like a skeleton in the closet.

His siblings were aware of it. I told them.

Nothing was ever done about it

and when the whole thing started in Boston...

Tony lost it.

Where news comes first.

NBC 24 News at 6:00 starts now.

The scandal has ripped

through the Catholic church

in Boston, St. Louis, and now Toledo,

with allegations that priests

sexually abused young parishioners.

And today, Toledo's bishop issued

a letter to parishioners.

"If you were abused

by a member of the clergy

"or another church employee

and have never reported it,

"you should come forward."

I remember when Tony came to me

the first time and said,

"I think that I need to...

"talk to the Bishop.

"I think that I need to tell somebody what

happened to me.

"Somebody in the church."

When he told me that, I was scared to death.

I was scared because...

Not only would he have to go through this,

but I would have to go through this with him.

Six men claim Dennis Gray,

a former Toledo priest,

molested them during the 1980s.

All of the men were students at this

high school, where Gray taught religion.

Gray left the priesthood in 1987

and has worked in the Toledo

public school system for 12 years

and is currently a dean

at Rogers high school.

But Gray was put on

administrative leave on Monday,

and officials say they didn't know

about the accusations

despite Toledo's Catholic diocese records

dating back to 1995

that state Gray admitted to child abuse.

- Did you know Matt Simon?

- Yes, I did.

And how did you become

acquainted with Matthew?

In my class.

Basically, he'd step in my office.

Your office at Central Catholic?

- Yes?

- Yes.

I meet Dennis Gray first day of school.

I'm in his religion class.

I don't know if somebody told him my situation,

but he said,

"I understand you have some issues at home.

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Joyce Gittlin

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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