The views of two well-known Kerry priests, Fr Mossie Brick in Castleisland and the late Fr Kevin McNamara, formerly of Killarney and Glenflesk parishes, are featured in a new film that offers a unique perspective on the past, present and future of faith in Ireland.
Sins of Ireland opened on Good Frdiay and is being screened in several cinemas throughout the country, including Cinema Killarney.
In a society utterly transformed over the past 40 years, the film offers a nuanced exploration of the Catholic Church in Ireland through the lens of the sacrament of confession as a way of understanding the past, where the church is now and where it is going.
Sins of Ireland, directed by Alex Fegan, is described a portrait of Ireland through the lens of the confession box. A total of 15 Irish priests, who have long listened to the sins of others, offer their own confessional on the rise and fall of a sacrament that now epitomises the turbulent changes in faith and spirituality in contemporary Ireland.
The documentary is a nuanced and uncynical examination of confession, as the priests themselves acknowledge how a rite meant to offer absolution and guidance had, for many years, become a tool of control and shame with devastating consequences.
Yet, Sins of Ireland also explores forgiveness – not as an easy resolution but as a necessary reckoning with the past and a gateway to spiritual redemption.
In confronting their own failings and the sins of the church, these priests lay bare the complexities of remorse, accountability and the possibility of reconciliation and they give their thoughts as to how the Church needs
Alex Fegan is a filmmaker who left a career as a solicitor in 2008 to follow his boyhood dream. He is the founder of Atom Film, and has made some of Ireland’s best-loved documentaries including Older Than Ireland, The Irish Pub and Abbeyfealegood.
Advertisers: Get your message to thousands of people every day. Call 087-2229761 or email news@killarneytoday.com
