The Silence of the Holy Father

Good Friday. A day on which we remember the last words of the tortured Saviour: Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He spoke these words nailed to the cross and then, as Matthew tells us, breathed his last. At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. It had separated the sanctuary from the eyes of the people, concealing the most sacred place from public view. Only the high priests were permitted to pass through it. The curtain was a boundary: between the priests inside and the people outside, between what was hidden and the world. And then it was torn apart. A space accessible only to a chosen few was opened to the eyes of all, and what had been secret became public.

Perhaps this tearing of the curtain on Good Friday marked the beginning of a new order of the world. An order of public scrutiny. An order of transparency. Perhaps it was also where the idea of equality was born: that no one should be allowed to hide behind curtains, that truth does not reside in secrecy, but that equality and transparency must apply to everyone. And perhaps the tearing of the curtain also marked the beginning of something else…

The sexual abuse of children and young people by members of the clergy is the subject of a new investigative project by the German media organisation Correctiv and Schauspiel Köln. The play The Silence of the Holy Father was symbolically premiered this Easter, directed by Kay Voges. As part of the TRUST (TRUth on STage – Stories, Journalism, Theatre) project, which brings together theatre and investigative journalism, the National Theatre’s Drama Company will present the text in Czech, performed by a Czech cast.

Drawing on real case files and international cases, The Silence of the Holy Father is conceived above all as an artistic call for transparency, asking how much longer the Church can remain silent. The staged reading brings to light once again the story of Peter H., a German priest and sexual abuser, and the concealment of his crimes by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI. The absent Holy Father is confronted with uncomfortable and pressing questions, alongside excerpts from letters sent to him, not only in connection with this particular case. Carefully collected by Correctiv from around the world, these letters demonstrate that the abuse of children and young people within the Catholic Church is a systemic problem and that, in many cases, the Vatican itself is pulling the strings. The call for the Pope to open the archives containing records on abusive priests, however, is only part of the solution…

The issue of sexual abuse within the Church, of course, concerns the Czech Republic as well. Over the past thirty years alone, information has emerged about dozens of victims. These, however, are only the cases that eventually reached the courts; the actual number may be significantly higher. For this reason, the 30-minute staged reading will be followed by a 70-minute discussion moderated by Jolana Humpálová, a journalist at Voxpot (in Czech).