What are your thoughts on this very personal story of one man and his family's confrontation with the church that betrayed them?

Dear FRONTLINE,

Here is a song I wrote a couple of years ago...tune is Boston Burgler. It really came back to me watching the parents of the abused.

I am a Boston grandmother Catholic as can beI never thought I'd see the day my church would fail meMy other sons were different hoodlums one and allBut little Aloysius I prayed would hear the call

I see him on the alter with his bright and shining faceI never should have let him set a foot within that placeWhat went on in that sacristy was a great and mortal sinAnd now they're coming forward our boys who grew to men

Put the priests in jail and slam the iron doorAnd tell the other prisoners what they're in prison forThen toss in the bishops and throw away the keyIf I had my druthers they'd never be set free

We went to our devotions the priest said let us prayI guess we all know now it could be spelled another wayGod protect the faithful who listened to them preachAnd God protect the little boys who fell within their reach.

mg (struggling Catholic)

O'Garvey

Dear FRONTLINE,

Superb and complex film. Painful story on multiple levels. Kudos to the filmmaker, the family, Frontline and PBS for the courage to challenge the power of the pope and the blind aliegiance we humans feely give institutions that segregate, judge, and damn. Many of these insitutions also wage war....

As Oliver Wendell Holmes noted: A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension. Let's keep strecthing.

Flagstaff, AZ

Dear FRONTLINE,

I believe the fundamental story of betrayal of a person's love and innocence is tragic beyond belief! My heart aches for the victims, as well as the perpetrators. We know that as Catholics Christ mandates that we love the sinners and loathe the sin (look at his life). I pray that the author and his brother find this truth in their hearts like their beautiful parents!

Additionally, eventhough the authors' pain is extremely palpable and legitimate, I wish they would have abstained from creating generalizations and stereotypes that always disguise the truth. Just as it is not truthful to generalize all Muslims as terrorists based on the actions of a few of their members; it is also not correct to vilify the entire Catholic Church for the misdeeds of some.

Caesar B.
El, Tx

Dear FRONTLINE,

The making of this film was a great service to the American Church and to the Archdiocese of Boston as well. It shines a bright light on a true Catholic flaw, illuminating a deep, penetrating wound.

Now the Church and her faithful can and should do something about it. When people of faith become aware of such, it becomes increasingly difficult to stand by idly. Such messages purify the Church and ultimately make it better.

Vince Liberto
New Orleans, Louisiana

Dear FRONTLINE,

I had ambivalent feelings about watching this program because as a Catholic I felt it was airing the dirty laundry of my "family" in public. The molestations were tragic and the victims deserve our prayers and care. The dirtiest part of this laundry was the actions of the hierarchy to obfuscate, deny and conceal. I was flabbergasted by the disparaging statement of Bishop Lennon to Joe Cultrera, "you are a sad, little man." What a callous arrogance! It somewhat reminds one of the story of the priest, the Levite and the Samaritan that encountered the injured man on the road to Jericho. Where is a good Samaritan nowadays when you need one?

Who are the biggest victims here? The molestation survivors and Our Lord who has His sacrifice besmirched through these agents are the victims.

conyers, georgia

Dear FRONTLINE,

99% of the priests that have touched my life I consider saints,but I have lost all respect for the Catholic Hierarchy.

If the Pope is the true vicar Christ, why does he not clean house from top to bottom. The time has come for Catholics to takeback our Church.

I commend Frontline for airing "Hand of God".

Pete A. Villarreal
Dallas, Texas

Dear FRONTLINE,

My heart goes out to the Cultrera family and all victims of the abuse, be it physical, sexual, or emotional, perpetrated by the Catholic Church. No living soul, created in the likeness of God as we all are, deserves to be treated in this manner. I was surprised at how angry I became when I heard Richard Lennon tell Joe Cultrera he was a "sad little man." I have sent off a letter to Mr. Lennon expressing my anger and to tell him that I will pray that God speaks to him and that he begins to listen. I am sickened that this man, among many other dysfunctional clergy, live in my community. Thank you, Cultrera family, for sharing your personal struggles. Perhaps this will provide a wake up call for at least one person who can make a difference within the Catholic Church.

Colleen OBrien
Parma, Ohio

Dear FRONTLINE,

This is a sad reminder that although these cases appear resolved they are far from that.

That three of these priests remain active members of the clergy and have not been excommunicated for sexually abusing children shakes my faith. How can anyone clergy or laymen see the abuse of a small innocent child and not act to stop that abuse immediately. Then to compound that mistake those people who are basically accomplices to a crime are not removed or censured. We can only pray that these men will come to true and eternal justice, by having to bare witness to their disfigured souls.

Andrew Masters
Albuquerque, New

Dear FRONTLINE,

My gratitude and thanks to Paul Cultrera and his family for making this film possible and to Frontline for allowing it to be shown.I also was abused as a child, but thankfully not by a priest. God may have saved me from that evil by not allowing me to become an alter boy. As Paul spoke I was amazed at the parallels between his pain and the pain and embarrassment I have carried for over 50 years. It was like a part of me was telling my inner story. Thank you.

DuBray

Dear FRONTLINE,

As a Catholic priest I am horrified by the whole sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.The story was well-titled "The Hand of God": the very hands that we believe touch God touched children and abused them to the eternal shame of the perpetrators.I can also understand the terrible anger of the victims, some of whom I know.

But I do believe the film was too broad in indicting the entire belief system of Catholicism, so much so that it at times borders on being an anti-Catholic polemic. Rather than restricting itself to a justifiable condemnation of the evil failure of some priests,and the terrible anti-life evil itself takes on, it indicts the sacramental and dogmatic truths of the Faith.This is regretable and really unfair.

Sanbornville, NH

Dear FRONTLINE,

How could the coverup be more disturbing? Isn't pedophilia disturbing enough? I think these crimes will continue until our government starts putting the priests that do not report the crimes in jail, which is where they all belong. The people who are aware of the criminals and do nothing should get life in jail, not a cushy, good paying job in Rome. How is this legally possible?

Now, an in depth report on child care providers is overdue. I fear we will be hearing stories of abuse in this realm as soon as the current generation of children are old enough to tell us. I met a woman at the library who told me she worked at a home daycare. They force fed the babies by holding their noses and forcing them to swallow, gave benydryl before naps and contained the babies in cribs with gates over the tops for hours. She thought this was inhumane but not illegal. I encouraged her to report the crimes. I fear she won't. She would not name the perpetrators. She just quit that job and moved on. History repeating itself.

clawson, mi

Dear FRONTLINE,

My heart goes out to the families adversely affected by the misdeeds of the clergy. The clergy shows its weakness and how it has succomed to the power that the church has usurped from the people. These priests [and nuns] in some cases have done irreparable damage to the children and later adults of many past generations. I personally was never sexually abused, but was physically abused, being severly beaten by older classmates while the priest looked on, in the early 1960's in Indiana. I have been dealing with the issues that this incident has raised for over 40 years, and I doubt if I will ever completely be able to resolve it in my mind. Face it-- there are many good people in the Catholic Church, but a few evil people are leading the church down the wrong path, and I fear the church may have lost its way.

Tim L
Pueblo area, Colorado

Dear FRONTLINE,

To tell the truth is a holy thing. It was in the raw honesty of pain, failure, and perceived weakness that Jesus found an opening to the hearts of his "flock". As a man (really just a man, not one "set apart") who lives in the world of faith, scripture, and church I can not help but believe Jesus would weep for the sin of the lost men in robes, and sit with abiding compassion at the table of Paul and all others wounded by the shepherds. If God is to be God, there is no truth spoken aloud that can damage, change, or shame the holy eternal grace. God can certainly take it. Perhaps the "church" can not, but that is not the point. The makers and voices of this film have done a faithful act...to tell the truth is a holy thing.

Rev. Colin Pritchard
Victor, New York

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am amazed that the still faithful Catholics continue to defend the actions of their church. I wonder what God thinks about all of this. I doubt seriously that he will hold the victims or the film maker responsible, as others obviously have. I encourage them to seek God elsewhere. He's been misrepresented by the Catholic faith.

Lafayette, Louisiana

Dear FRONTLINE,

I looked forward to seeing a probing story about a brief but infamous time in the history of the Church--one among many, to be sure. But the crude bias of this documentary is further cheapened by repetitive tricks of montage that take away from the emotional quality that the film might otherwise have had. It is insulting to take potshots at the Church and the sincerity of its lay and religious members, including Pope Benedict XVI. The scenes depicting spilling of the Eucharistic wafer and wine are revolting, and I'm disappointed that Frontline allowed them in the final cut. Most of all, I feel sorry for Cutrera's parents and aunt, whose identities have been caricatured by the filmmaker.

Ann Arbor, MI