Quiet, brother

Quiet, Brother is a feature-length screenplay that explores how a Catholic family, parish, and community collectively create an environment where childhood sexual abuse can not just occur but flourish. The protagonist of the story, Quinn Daly is groomed, and subsequently abused, at an early age by a parish priest. The trajectory of Quinn’s life is told in two parts, one as a child and later, as an adult survivor. When his brother Kade’s law firm takes on a class-action lawsuit against the parish, the Daly family is forced to come to terms with their long-held family secret and are forever changed in the process. Research for this screenplay included listening to first-person accounts of abuse by priests which took place during the period between 1970-1980, in the form of audio files published by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). An analysis of court filings and class-action suits between 1976 and 2002 were reviewed in addition to surveying current active court cases brought against both priests and dioceses in various cities across North America. Documentaries featuring personal accounts of abuse survivors in various religious contexts were reviewed as well as a variety of news media detailing legal defence strategies by the Catholic Church. The goal of the screenplay is to demonstrate how the abuse of children by priests does not happen in a silo but as a result of collective familial and community choices that help priests commit serial abuse in the context of a religious order. The Daly family provides a kind of case study that reveals how families cope with a spectrum of abuse and how healing from this abuse requires a multi-modal approach for recovery to take place. Themes of trauma, patriarchy, betrayal, and justice are explored to reveal the complex forces at work in a family, community, parish, and diocese that allows sexual abuse of children to take place. It is hoped that this work of fiction demonstrates the potential for healing that can come from communities willing to root out, deliver justice, and attend to the damage childhood sexual abuse inflicts on survivors. Arts, Faculty ofGraduat