Revelation (TV series)

Revelation is a 2020 Australian documentary series directed by Nial Fulton and Sarah Ferguson. The series follows the criminal trials of three Catholic priests accused of child sexual abuse.

The series was produced by In Films for ABC Television and premiered on 17 March 2020, where it received critical acclaim and won the Walkley Documentary Award and Best Documentary Series Award at the Asian Academy Creative Awards.

The series screened on Netflix in March 2023 and spent two weeks in the Top Ten Most Watched TV Shows across Australia and New Zealand.

Synopsis
The series examines the forces behind the child sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in Australia and follows the criminal trials of Father Vincent Ryan and Brother Bernard McGrath. The third episode looks at the systemic cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Ballarat and features allegations of child sexual abuse against Cardinal George Pell.

Production
The series was shot on location in the Vatican, Ireland, New Zealand and multiple locations around Australia, including the Catholic dioceses of Ballarat and Maitland-Newcastle.

Following lengthy negotiations, the producers were granted permission to bring cameras into the New South Wales District Court to film the 2019 criminal trials of Father Vincent Ryan and Brother Bernard McGrath. Ryan's trial was filmed over six weeks and McGrath's over seven months. It was the first time anywhere in the world that filming of a clerical child abuse trial had been permitted.

NSW Corrective Services granted permission to Fulton and Ferguson to interview Bernard McGrath, a member of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God religious order. McGrath has been convicted on multiple sex offences against young boys under his care in Kendall Grange, New South Wales. His interview took place inside the maximum security prison where he is currently serving a 39-year sentence.

Release


The series premiered on ABC Television on 17 March 2020. Episode 1 achieved a combined (broadcast and online) audience of 885K and an iView audience of 979,000.

Episode 2 was postponed due to live coverage of the Prime Minister's televised address to the nation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and went to air on 31 March. It achieved a combined audience of 904,000.

Episode 3 screened on 2 April and achieved a combined audience of 714,000.

The series streamed on Netflix from 22 March 2023 and spent two weeks in the Top Ten most watched TV shows across Australia and New Zealand.

Key people

 * Father Vincent Ryan - Roman Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle
 * Brother Bernard McGrath - Hospitaller Order of St. John of God
 * Cardinal George Pell - Catholic priest, Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat
 * Father Bill Burston - Roman Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle
 * Troy Grant - former police officer
 * Bishop William Wright - Roman Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle
 * Mary McAleese - former President of Ireland
 * Audrey Nash - former friend of Vincent Ryan, mother of Andrew Nash
 * Bishop Leo Clarke - Roman Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle
 * Monsignor Patrick Cotter - Roman Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle
 * Father Brian Lucas - Catholic priest
 * Father Maurice Cahill - Roman Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle
 * Archbishop Diarmuid Martin - Archbishop of Dublin
 * Joanne McCarthy - journalist
 * William Melican - Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat
 * Father Eric Bryant - Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat
 * Charles Scicluna - Archbishop of Malta
 * Mark Coleridge - Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia
 * David Marr - journalist
 * Steve Bannon - political strategist

Initial reception
The series met with positive reviews. Holly Byrnes of The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) wrote "Walkley award-winning journalist Sarah Ferguson has delivered some of the best TV journalism this country has ever witnessed, but Revelation might just be the pinnacle."

Bridget McManus from The Age (Melbourne) gave it a four stars, calling it a "searing documentary series".

Brigid Delaney, a senior writer for Guardian Australia, wrote: "You'll need a strong stomach to digest Revelation's insights into child sexual abuse in the Catholic church."

In The Australian, Graeme Blundell wrote that "although it is often difficult to watch, Ferguson and her exemplary production team, including executive producer Nial Fulton, principal cinematographer Aaron Smith and researchers Sophie Randerson, Kate Wild, and Alison McClymont, have been able to shed light not only on their heinous atrocities but how the Catholic Church repeatedly chose secrecy over transparency and accountability. It is a confronting, awful study of a church that not only fell to decay but seems beyond renewal, achingly absent of integrity and grace."

Blundell also praised Sarah Ferguson for her restraint, saying that "the interviews she conducts, initially with Ryan and later with Bernard McGrath, a former St John of God brother, teacher and headmaster in residential schools in Australia and New Zealand, serving 39 years for crimes against children, are harrowing and disturbing as she provokes and exposes a web of conspiracy and perversion. She tries to display no explicit emotion as she questions Ryan but can only just conceal her ethical disgust behind that journalistic veneer of taut self-control."

The series won the Walkley Documentary Award on 20 November 2020. The judges' citation read: "This haunting documentary broke new ground on an issue already well covered by the media and investigated by police and the Royal Commission alike. The extraordinary access to some of the Catholic Church's most notorious perpetrators of sexual abuse against children, as well as the insight it gave viewers into court proceedings, showed just how powerful journalistic documentary-making can be."

Controversy
On 7 April 2020, Cardinal George Pell was released from prison and had his convictions for child sexual abuse overturned. In response, the producers took the decision to include footage of Pell's release. No material from the original broadcast was removed or altered.

In a statement, Cardinal Pell rejected the allegations made by Bernie and Peter Clarke in Revelation but following his acquittal, did not sue the producers or ABC television. Pell's release paved the way for the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to release their previously redacted findings into what Pell knew about child sexual abuse in Victoria.

Andrew Bolt, a News Corp columnist and outspoken supporter of Pell, attacked the ABC and the filmmakers, saying the series was part of a "witch-hunt" against Pell. Following his acquittal, other vocal supporters of Pell, including Miranda Devine and Gerard Henderson, condemned those who had reported on the story. Other News Corp journalists also called the ABC's reporting on the Pell case one-sided and biased.

Greg Craven, vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University and long-time friend of Pell, accused the ABC and police of "polluting" the legal atmosphere around the cardinal's Victorian trial.

The ABC rejected Craven's allegations they had intentionally brought forward Episode 3 of Revelation in an attempt to influence the High Court. In response to News Corp, the ABC stated it had "always acted in the public interest" and rejected allegations of "a 'witch hunt' against Cardinal Pell" or "that it engaged in 'vigilante' journalism or that its coverage was one-sided or unfair." One journalist Margaret Simmons claimed the ABC's reporting on Pell did not "step over the line".

Father Vincent Ryan
The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle responded to the imminent release of the series by issuing an open letter to their parishioners attempting to justify their failure to have convicted paedophile priest Father Vincent Ryan laicised. This was followed by a more detailed press release, including a timeline of Ryan's offending and Bishop Leo Clarke's failure to respond to Ryan's abuse,

It also claimed that the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith would recommend to Pope Francis that Ryan be laicised.

Father Vincent Ryan died on 30 May 2022. Despite widespread knowledge of Ryan's prolific offending, the Catholic Church did not laicise him.

Bishop Leo Clarke
During his interview for Revelation, Sarah Ferguson asked Bishop Wright why the church continued to celebrate the life of Bishop Leo Clarke, a man the church acknowledged had protected Vincent Ryan and concealed his sexual abuse of children. Following the broadcast, a plaque celebrating the life of Bishop Leo Clarke was removed from Maitland cathedral.

Father Bill Burston
Wright's report also dealt with the treatment of the Nash family and the remarks made by Father William Burston. The report concluded that Andrew Nash "tragically committed suicide" after he was "abused by the criminal William Cable 'Br Romuald'". An internal Catholic investigation was launched by Bishop Bill Wright regarding Father Burston's interview, where he told Sarah Ferguson he thought the suicide of 13-year-old Andrew Nash in 1974 was a "prank gone wrong."

Wright confirmed the internal investigation had concluded "some time ago" and that Burston had voluntarily agreed to no longer celebrate Mass or other church rituals. Audrey Nash had not been notified about the outcome of the investigation.

The Royal Commission Case Study 43 was released in October 2020 and found Burston knew there had been a complaint of "sexually inappropriate behaviour" against Ryan in 1976.

The family of Andrew Nash told the Newcastle Herald they wanted Father Burston laicised for his callous remarks.

Diocese of Ballarat
The Bishop of Ballarat, Paul Bird, issued a press release on 17 March 2020 warning parishioners they might find some of the material in Revelation confronting and painful. Following the release of the series, Bird removed Father Bryant from his parish and forced him into early retirement.

Brothers of St John of God
On 7 April 2020, the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of St John of God posted a statement about the series on their website. The order did not deny the allegations that they had prior knowledge of Bernard McGrath's sexual offending against children under his care and moved him from Australia to New Zealand and later to the Jemez Springs treatment facility run by the Congregation of the Servants of the Paraclete in New Mexico, United States.

The New Zealand Royal Commission of Inquiry Into Abuse in Care examined the crimes of St John of God in Christchurch and used some material from Revelation during their public hearings. Judge Coral Shaw, chair of the commission, publicly thanked Nial Fulton and Sarah Ferguson for their work.

Archdiocese of Sydney
On 2 April 2020, the Archdiocese of Sydney responded to the allegations raised against Cardinal George Pell in episode 3 of the series by issuing a short press release.