Scenes from the film are based on Lisinski’s accounts of being abused and attempting to seek justice. “To survivors like me, watching this movie feels like watching a documentary, because it’s so accurate in showing the powerful mechanisms that protect the Church,” he said. “Their influence is finally eroding now, we hope.”
Lisinski’s organization, called Do Not Fear, has received thousands of calls and letters since “Kler” premiered in late September. The group said it has heard from more potential victims in that time than it had in the past five years combined. Of those people, about 200 have made accusations the group deems credible and sufficiently detailed.
The movie also struck a chord among Poles in general. “I watched it because the church keeps saying that it’s blasphemy, and I wanted to judge myself,” said Jorek Hornowski as he left a cinema in central Warsaw. The 32-year old goes to church every Sunday but said the movie had not surprised him. “After all, it’s based on facts,” he said. “All of those allegations were known before. But I think this movie is forcing us to finally talk about it in public.”[...]
One key question is whether the Catholic Church itself can be blamed for complicity in sexual abuse. Although church representatives have said no, a Polish appeals court upheld a landmark ruling this month that ordered the church to pay more than $250,000 in compensation for an abuse case, possibly paving the way for similar verdicts amid the wave of new accusations.
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