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Twist of Faith (2004)

There’s no easy way to address a highly charged subject like the sexual abuse of young boys by Catholic priests, but with Twist of Faith, director Kirby Dick has taken a straightforward approach, using neither fanfare nor frills to create an unflinching but highly personal documentary about this disgraceful episode. The 2004 film’s focus is on one place, Toledo, Ohio, and primarily on two men. On the one hand, there’s fireman Tony Comes, mid-thirties, married with two kids. Some twenty years earlier, he’d been molested by his then-priest; callow, impressionable, in need of love, Comes found himself in a situation he describes as “too screwed up to question,” with the result that he was “so confounded that (he did) nothing.” On the other hand, there’s Dennis Gray, the priest in question; a thoroughly repellent individual, Gray is seen in a 2003 legal deposition, evading questions on the advice of his lawyer. But Comes is far from silent. Having spent two decades racked with guilt and shame and thinking he was the only victim, Comes is galvanized into action when the abuse scandal becomes national news. He shows remarkable courage and honesty, keeping nothing from his wife and young kids, joining a support group, even visiting the cottage where Gray committed his unspeakable acts; determined to make not only the pedophile priests but those who ignored, lied about, and covered up the abuse acknowledge and take responsibility for what happened, he also files a lawsuit. All of this is done at considerable personal cost. What happened to Comes and the other victims we see here went even deeper than the nightmares and family problems they experienced; it shook their very souls, calling into question their lifelong faith in the essential benevolence of an institution that has betrayed them. Grim but compelling, Twist of Faith makes for very sobering viewing.

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  1. What the heck is wrong with this dude. Pretty sure if I got raped at Mc Donald’s I wouldn’t be taking my family to eat there. Acting all torn and what not. Get real!  

  2. Why are half of the documentaries on this website always broken?

    • Very good comment. However, it’s been found that making such comments is pointless as the owners of the website simply ignore the:- they do not care about the site’s viewers.

    • Very good comment. However, it’s been found that making such comments is pointless as the owners of the website simply ignore the:- they do not care about the site’s viewers.

      • Yep. This site is about gemerating money from advert. So: more movies listed -> more visitors -> more advertising revenue.

        • Have you run a website before? Pretty hard to make sure that every embedded video hasn’t been blocked by YouTube due to copyright claims against 3rd parties on what i’m guessing is over a few hundred pages. As far as I’m concerned these guys are legends for providing me this FREE service.

        • Or there are just technical difficulties. 

        • Or there are just technical difficulties. 

      • Yep. This site is about gemerating money from advert. So: more movies listed -> more visitors -> more advertising revenue.

  3. Why are half of the documentaries on this website always broken?

  4. How sad that this like so many other times when pedophilia is involved have to end up being about homosexuality. To find interest in small boys doesn’t make you gay, it makes you a pedofil.

  5. I believe that future generations will do away with religions, racism, politicians, etc… It is really about education. A person’s childhood is the most precious gift in life, taking that away should be considered a capital punishment. What do you do with a Mad Dog?

  6. If this has not happened to you, you are in no place to tell someone to stop their anger, to find another way, to heal without anger, to forgive; you have no idea of the depth of the emotion, the trauma, this shit puts you through. These people, these victims, need therapy and maybe that’s where people go for refuge after they have been so betrayed by their church. It must be a terrible thing to experience your religion being infiltrated by pedophiles, abuse and cover-ups, I can’t imagine. The victims need healing and they need to seek out qualified therapists who specialize in this kind of abuse.

  7. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic elementary school. As a child I always thought both the nuns and priests were kinda creepy. Due to this upbringing I am not religious. I have a hard time understanding how anyone could stay with a church that has so brutally betrayed them.The catholic church and most religious organizations are nothing but corporations that don’t pay any taxes. The world would be a saner place without religion.

    • You do realise that married men (which Catholic priests are not married men) are statistically more likely to molest children? You do realise that 85% of priests that have abused children in their post as a priest have been found to be homosexuals?

    • Wow Maureen that is pretty heavy talk. I grew up catholic too and currently do not consider myself a religious person but I would not deny others their religion. With that being said I do think alot of what is wrong with the world today is tied to religion. I don’t know what the answer is but I have a new appreciation for the people that were abused. God bless them all

  8. When can we use the RICO laws against the church and seize all their assets? The catholic church is pretty clearly a criminal organization at this point, no?

    • You obviously don’t understand RICO laws, the Catholic Church doesn’t commit organized crime, individuals who are within the organization and organized crime are not the same thing at all.