Secrets of the Vatican

American television documentary film

Secrets of the Vatican

Genre|

* Documentary film
* Television news magazine

Directed by| Antony Thomas
Starring|

* Pope Benedict XVI
* Pope Francis
* Legion of Christ
* Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado
* Juan Vaca
* Pope John Paul II
* Fr. Thomas Doyle
* Monica Barrett
* Jeff Anderson (lawyer)
* Peter Isley
* Fr. Gayle Leifeld
* Bishop Richard J. Sklba
* Nello Rossi
* Gianluigi Nuzzi
* Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
* Ettore Gotti Tedeschi
* Paolo Gabriele

Narrated by| Will Lyman
Composer| Sam Watts
Country of origin| United States[1]
Original language| English
Production
Executive producer| Eamonn Matthews
Producer| Antony Thomas
Production locations| United States; Rome, Italy
Editors|

* McDonald Brown
* Christopher Swayne

Camera setup| Jonathan Partridge, Jonathan Young, Mark Brewer
Running time| 85 minutes
Original release
Network| PBS
Release| February 25, 2014 (2014-02-25)

Secrets of the Vatican is an American television documentary film. It first aired on the PBS Channel on February 25, 2014 as an episode of PBS' Frontline TV series.

The film covers the period after the death of John Paul II until the first year of Pope Francis, and it posits a theory of what made Pope Benedict XVI resign from the papacy in 2013. It presents a return of trust in the Vatican and its new Pope, Francis, by millions of Roman Catholics after a long period of controversy regarding sexual abuse by Church authorities. It delves into reports of the existence of a "gay mafia" inside the Church and highlights the scandal involving the Legionnaires of Christ founder Marcial Maciel, who allegedly had the backing of John Paul II.

The film also tackles the papacy's struggles with cleaning up the Vatican Bank of its corrupt financial policies as an international institution by starting with Benedict XVI's hindered investigations and ending in Francis' supposedly radical initial reforms.

The film approaches the controversial topics of the documentary not from perspectives outside of the Church but with testimonies by devoted Catholics: sexual abuse victims, corruption witnesses and priest investigators.

Written, directed, and produced by Antony Thomas for the US Public Broadcasting System TV series Frontline, Secrets of the Vatican was co-produced by Jason Berry in the United States and Helen Fitzwilliam in Rome.[1][2][3]

## Cast

[edit]

In order of appearance:

* Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster
* Pope Francis
* Robert Mickens, Vatican correspondent for The Tablet
* Pope Benedict XVI
* Carmelo Abbate, investigative journalist and author of Sex and the Vatican
* members of the Legionnaires of Christ
* Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionnaires of Christ and revealed to have sexually abused boys
* Jason Berry, author of Render Unto Rome and Frontline consultant
* Fr. Juan Vaca, clergy sexual abuse survivor
* Pope John Paul II
* Raul Gonzales, one of Maciel's alleged sons
* Marco Politi, La Repubblica journalist and author of Crisis of a Papacy
* Fr. Thomas Doyle, former secretary and canon lawyer at the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C., turned campaigner against sexual abuse in the Church and against clericalism
* Milwaukee clergy sexual abuse victims
* Fr. James Connell of Milwaukee
* Monica Barrett, Milwaukee clergy sexual assault and rape victim
* Fr. William Effinger (black and white still photo), Barrett's rapist
* Jeff Anderson, Milwaukee plaintiffs' attorney
* Peter Isley, Milwaukee clergy sexual abuse survivor
* Fr. Gayle Leifeld, confessed sexual abuser
* members of the Milwaukee Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)
* Bishop Richard J. Sklba, auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Milwaukee
* Martin Kafka, psychiatrist from the Harvard Medical School invited to the Vatican
* Seminarians at the American seminary in Rome
* Fr. Simone Alfieri, newly-ordained priest who soon left the priesthood
* Francesco Cacace, gay former seminarian
* Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to be Cardinal Secretary of State
* Members of the Roman Curia
* Nello Rossi, Chief Prosecutor of Rome
* Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to become President of the Vatican Bank to start reforms in the bank, but who was soon expelled by Bertone
* Gianluigi Nuzzi, Milan-television journalist and author of Vatican Ltd.
* Franca Giansoldati, Vatican correspondent of il Messaggero
* Paolo Gabriele
* Msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò (still photo), who, after his 2009 appointment as Secretary General of the Vatican City Governatorate, told Pope Benedict XVI of the extent of the systemic corruption in the Vatican, but was soon transferred by the Pope to the Vatican embassy in the US
* Cardinal Julián Herranz Casado, appointed to head an investigation of the "Vatileaks"
* Barbie Nadeau of CNN and The Daily Beast
* Philip Pullella, Vatican correspondent of Reuters
* Ignazio Ingrao, investigative journalist and author of The Second Secret
* Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa
* members of the new Pope Francis-appointed Council of Cardinal Advisers
* Eugenio Scalfari, renowned atheist
* Fabrizio Mastrofini, editor of Vatican Radio
* Msgr. Nunzio Scarano (blurred out), arrested Vatican Bank officer
* Sandro Magister, Vatican correspondent of L'Espresso

## See also

[edit]

* Vatican leaks scandal

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "'Secrets of the Vatican' exposes moral crises facing Catholic Church's new pope". Yahoo! News. United States: Yahoo! Inc. February 25, 2014. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
2. ^ Lowry, Brian (February 24, 2014). "TV Review: Frontline's 'Secrets of the Vatican'". Variety. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
3. ^ Crossan, Andrea; Haddad, Jaimee (February 24, 2014). "A Frontline documentary exposes the Vatican's 'secrets' under Pope Benedict". pri.org. Retrieved February 12, 2015.

## External links

[edit]

* On Secrets of the Vatican at PBS.org
* Full-movie streaming video of Secrets of the Vatican at PBS.org
* Secrets of the Vatican at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Pope Benedict XVI

Born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022

* Archbishop of Munich and Freising (1977–1982)
* Cardinal Priest of Santa Maria Consolatrice al Tiburtino (1977–1993)
* Cardinal Bishop of Velletri–Segni (1993–2005)
* Pope (2005–2013)

Biography|

* Early life
* Georg Ratzinger (brother)
* Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Papacy|

* 2005 conclave
* Inauguration
* Cardinals created
* People declared venerable
* Beatifications
* Canonizations
* Resignation
* Death and funeral

Visits (selected)|

* United States
* United Kingdom (state visit)

Bibliography|

| Constitutions|

* Anglicanorum coetibus (Groups of Anglicans)

|

Exhortations|

* Sacramentum caritatis (On the Eucharist)
* Verbum Domini (On the Word of the Lord)
* Africae munus (On the Church in Africa)
* Ecclesia in Medio Oriente (On the Church in the Middle East)

Encyclicals|

* Deus caritas est (God Is Love)
* Spe salvi (In Hope We Are Saved)
* Caritas in veritate (Charity in Truth)

Books|

* Introduction to Christianity
* The Ratzinger Report
* Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life
* The Spirit of the Liturgy
* Truth and Tolerance
* Jesus of Nazareth
* From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration
* Holy Week
* The Infancy Narratives

Theology|

* Dominus Iesus (The Lord Jesus)
* Summorum Pontificum (The Supreme Pontiffs)
* Introduction to Christianity

Relations|

* Ecumenism
* Judaism
* Islam

Other topics|

* Ceremonial
* Coat of arms
* Ratzinger Foundation
* Hermeneutic of continuity
* Vatican leaks scandal
* His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI
* Alma Mater (2009 album)
* Secrets of the Vatican (2014 television film)
* The Two Popes (2019 film)

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Catholic Church sexual abuse cases

Cases|

| By context|

* In confession

|

By country|

* Argentina
* Austria
* Australia
* Belgium
* Canada
* Chile
* El Salvador
* Germany
* Ireland
* Italy
* Poland
* Mexico
* New Zealand
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Venezuela

By religious
institute|

* English Benedictine Congregation
* Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God
* Christian Brothers
* Legion of Christ
* Salesian order
* Sisters of Mercy
* Society of Jesus

By clerical
rank|

| Cardinals|

* Hans Hermann Groër (1998)
* Stanisław Dziwisz (1998)
* Bernard Francis Law (2002)
* Angelo Sodano (2010)
* Keith O'Brien (2015)
* Edward Egan (2018)
* Theodore McCarrick (2019)
* Ricardo Ezzati (2019)

|

Bishops|

* Joseph Keith Symons (1998)
* Anthony O'Connell (2002)
* Juliusz Paetz (2002)
* Georg Müller (2009)
* Raymond Lahey (2012)
* Józef Wesołowski (2013)
* Marco Órdenes Fernández (2018)
* Francisco José Cox (2018)
* Gonzalo Duarte García de Cortázar (2018)
* Cristián Caro Cordero (2018)
* Franco Mulakkal (2018)
* Juan Barros Madrid (2018)
* Philip Wilson (2018)
* Edward Joseph Adams (2019)

Priests|

* Category:Catholic priests convicted of sexual abuse

Responses|

| Catholic
Church|

| Holy See|

* Roman Curia
* Crimen sollicitationis (1962)
* The Role of the Church in the Causation, Treatment and Prevention of the Crisis in the Priesthood (1971)
* Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations (2005)
* Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (2014)
* Vatican sexual abuse summit (2019)
* Vos estis lux mundi [2019]

|

US Conference of
Catholic Bishops|

* Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (2002)
* John Jay Report (2004)

Other|

* Settlements and bankruptcies (since 1994)
* Virtus (1998)
* Hussey Commission (2002)

See also|

* Parish transfers of abusive Catholic priests (c. 1956–2011)

Governments|

* Hughes Inquiry
* Ferns Report
* Ryan Commission
* McCoy Report
* McCullough Report
* Murphy Report
* Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report
* Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Activists|

* Duplessis Orphans
* Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
* Voice of the Faithful
* Barbara Blaine
* David Clohessy
* Mitchell Garabedian
* Eric MacLeish
* Richard Sipe
* Phil Saviano

Pre-modern|

* Liber Gomorrhianus
* Katharina von Zimmern

Popular
culture|

* Judgment (1990 film)
* The Boys of St. Vincent (1992 miniseries)
* Sinéad O'Connor on Saturday Night Live (1992)
* Primal Fear (1996 film)
* Sex in a Cold Climate (1998 documentary)
* States of Fear (1999 documentary)
* "Red Hot Catholic Love" (2002 South Park episode)
* Suing the Pope (2002 documentary)
* The Magdalene Sisters (2002 film)
* Cardinal Secrets (2002 documentary)
* Song for a Raggy Boy (2004 film)
* Holy Water-Gate (2004 documentary)
* Twist of Faith (2004 documentary)
* Bad Education (2004 film)
* Our Fathers (2005 film)
* Sex Crimes and the Vatican (2006 documentary)
* Deliver Us from Evil (2006 film)
* Hand of God (2006 documentary)
* Doubt (2008 film)
* Brendan Smyth: Betrayal of Trust (2011 documentary)
* In the Name of the Son (2012 film)
* Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2012 documentary)
* Secrets of the Vatican (2014 documentary)
* Perfect Obedience (2014 film)
* Spotlight (2015 film)
* The Club (2015 film)
* The Keepers (2017 documentary miniseries)
* Romans (2017 film)
* Clergy (2018 film)
* By the Grace of God (2019 film)
* Prey (2019 film)
* Tell No One (2019 documentary)
* Procession (2021 documentary)

Related|

* Debate on the causes of clerical child abuse
* Media coverage of Catholic sexual abuse cases
* Clericalism
* Homosexual clergy in the Catholic Church
* Anti-Catholicism
* Criticism of the Catholic Church
* In literature and media

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