Milwaukee premiere of new Wisconsin-based documentary takes a controversial look at the clergy sexual abuse and cover-up crisis

Scheduled to follow the film is a panel discussion on Wisconsin AG Kaul’s statewide investigation into clergy sexual abuse 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 03-06-23

WHEN: Sunday, March 19th, 3:00pm

WHERE: The Oriental Theatre, 2230 N Farwell Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53202

WHAT: Milwaukee premiere of a new Wisconsin-based documentary on clergy sexual abuse and cover-up and panel discussion of statewide clergy abuse investigation

WHO: Local survivors and advocates, filmmaker Sarah Pearson, former Archdiocese of Milwaukee priest and abuse survivor Kevin Wester

Manufacturing the Clerical Predator, a controversial new Wisconsin-based clergy abuse documentary, will have its Milwaukee premiere at the Oriental Theatre on Milwaukee’s East Side on Sunday, March 19th. The film first premiered at Harvard Divinity School as part of Harvard’s Religion and Public Life program and is being used to train survivors and activists around the world in understanding, combatting, and preventing criminal sexual conduct among Catholic clergy and the systematic cover-up of those crimes.

“Manufacturing the Clerical Predator goes beyond the usual clichéd and tediously repeated popular explanations offered for the abuse crisis through the personal and theoretical accounts of three Wisconsin former seminarians and priests, detailing the transmission of the culture of clerical abuse across three generations,” says Sarah Pearson, the director of the film and Deputy Director of Nate’s Mission. “It supplies a fresh, unique, and urgently needed new approach to the questions that have yet to really be answered and that so many people are still asking:

Why is it that after sixteen centuries of documented evidence and decades of continuous international public exposure, new revelations of the scope and magnitude of the crisis continue to shock the public?

Why is abuse so particularly prevalent in the Catholic Church?

Why hasn’t it been stopped after so many decades of public exposure and scandal?”

Scheduled to follow the film is a panel discussion on Wisconsin Attorney General Kaul’s ongoing statewide investigation into clergy abuse, soon to enter its third year. Invited by Nate’s Mission are Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who is working with Kaul’s investigation, and Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki. 

See the invitations we sent to them last week.

Prominently featured in the film is Belgium, Wisconsin native Kevin Wester, a survivor of clergy abuse by a Milwaukee priest as a child. Wester was later ordained as a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee where he served over 3,500 families in three parish assignments for 15 years. This is the first time Wester has spoken publicly about his abuse and his time in the priesthood. Wester offers a particularly unique view of the deep-seated clerical culture of the church that has fostered and perpetuated sexual abuse of children.

Three generations of Wisconsin priests and seminarians; L to R: Kevin Wester, James Egan, Thomas Doyle

Also featured in the film are Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer, one of the earliest abuse whistleblowers at the Vatican embassy in Washington DC, and a former Dominican priest, as well as James Egan, a former seminarian from the Milwaukee area who reports his experiences in a culture rife with grooming, misconduct, and virulent opposition to survivor organizing.

Find more information about the film and reserve seats here. 

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