The Boys of St. Vincent
Submitted by J on 2003-03-8 00:44:03, Saturday
In reply to My comments submitted by Halo on 2003-03-7 06:53:14, Friday
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A Canadian TV film was also made regarding two parts of a child’s life around a Catholic Run Boarding school, in which one of the priests was the offender. (Film name was something about St.Michaels or similar.) It was actually an orphanage, not a boarding school. The name of it was St. Vincent and the name of the movie: The Boys of St. Vincent. While the central characters of the story are the head priest (Peter Lavin) and the boy he abused (Kevin Reevey), there were several other priests at the orphanage who were abusing boys and the sub-plot involving the Lunny brothers is very emotional and compelling. The older brother (Brian) was discharged from the orphanage at 16 and promised to come back and help his younger brother (Steven) but was never able to. In the second part, Steven is into drugs, angry and because of the abuse by the Catholic priests has completely cut himself off from God. Brian is married with a young son and clearly consumed with guilt over having let his brother down and so tries desperately to help him. Brian has managed to come to a place where he is able to distinguish between a loving God and the pseudo-religious environment in which he was abused, and attempts to help his brother come to that same understanding and faith. He is unable to help Steven, however, who tragically overdoses. Powerful stuff. The Boys of St. Vincent is a very disturbing look into the long term effects of abuse and a strong indictment against a church hierarchy and government who let the children in its care down big time. Thanks for bringing this movie into the discussion, though a word of caution for our guest, Mike: just as there are cases where a pedophile abuses his position of trust that must be told, I believe there are just as many cases (if not more) where a pedophile does not abuse that trust and that is a story just waiting to be told… J Come away, O human child, to the waters of the wild, with a fairy hand in hand, for the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand. |
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