Revelation (TV series)
[4] 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.
[6] 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.
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.
[10][11] 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.
"[12] 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.
"[citation needed] 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.
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.
[19] 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.
[21] 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".
[23] 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.
[30] An internal Catholic investigation was launched by Bishop William Wright regarding Burston's interview, where he told Sarah Ferguson that he thought the suicide of 13-year-old Andrew Nash in 1974 was a "prank gone wrong".
[38] 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.
