Conspiracy Of Silence

Irish filmmaker John Deery's issue-of-the-week drama poses a provocative question: Why is the Catholic hierarchy so attached to the vow of celibacy, whose legacy includes some of the most divisive scandals ever to rock the church? But the limp thriller plot Deery constructs to frame his theological inquiries is both artificial and not very interesting, a lethal combination. Three years after disrupting a Vatican Council meeting with a placard that reads "The Church has AIDS," Irish priest Frank Sweeney (Patrick Casey) commits suicide. Shortly after, two students — Noel (Owen McDonnell) and Daniel McLaughlin (Jonathan Forbes) — are expelled from nearby St. Sa...