Treatment

The majority of the story is set in the present day, except for the last few scenes which take place several years in the future.

A sad young girl is walking down a long corridor holding the hand of a tall dark suited man whose face we never see. She is led to a door which the man encourages her to knock on and she does so reluctantly. From within a woman’s voice tells her to enter and she pushes open the large imposing door and we see a nun behind a desk who beckons her in. The girl’s worried face forces a timid smile.

Ten years later the same girl now a nun walks down the same corridor at the Mount Augustine seminary convent and she nods and smiles at each person she passes. Her pretty face is framed by her habit and she goes about her duties silently and conscientiously. When praying, Sister Mary Loyola wears an intensely earnest expression and she listens to mass with a devout passion.

One day she and her friend Sister Angelina are saying a special mass with the rest of the nunnery for Mother Teresa of Calcutta. When the service finishes she leaves her friend to go to do some chores in the laundry. Whilst walking down a corridor she notices a painting of Jesus Christ that she has walked past a hundred times before but this time notices something different. She steps forward to look at the picture more clearly and raises her hand to touch the canvas. Just as she does so, a shard of brilliant sunlight streams through the high window behind her and strikes the picture just where her hand is touching it. She gasps in amazement and stepping back does the sign of the cross. Later cleaning clothes in the laundry she is told by another nun to report to Sister Margaret Gertrude, the Mother Superior of the nunnery. Outside her office she waits fearfully, too timid to even knock she can hear a muted one sided conversation from within; she realizes the head sister must be on the phone. She stands and paces up and down trying to gain the confidence to knock but after dropping her rosary beads she hastily decides to knock. Sister Margaret Gertrude tells her to sit and stares at her silently for some time.

-Sister Mary Loyola. You’ve been with us now for over thirteen years, how would you say that time has gone?
-Well Sister, through prayer and silent devotion I now feel closer to Our Lord then ever before.
-Good, good. And do you enjoy living here amongst us?
-Oh yes Sister. Everyone here is very kind.
-Good. Tell me, you did hear about the passing away of Mrs Reeves from the village library?
-Yes Sister, We were all sad about that. She was a lovely woman.
-Indeed. Well that’s why I’ve brought you here today. You see, they are having trouble finding a replacement for, her assistant old Mrs Whiting can not cope on her own, so I suggested that we would help out there until they can find a permanent replacement. Would you like to spend some time helping Mrs Whiting with the running of it?
-I don’t know if I’m qualified Sister. But if you think me capable I’d be willing to give it a try.
-Good, good. Of course this role comes with responsibility. You will need to deal with the public and there might be material of…. an adult nature. Do you feel up to the task Sister Loyola?
-If you think me capable Sister, then yes, I do.
-Good, good.

And so she goes to work in the village library, Mrs Whiting is very kind but is both frail and very forgetful. She remembers how to do things but has neither the strength nor energy than to sit and instruct Sister Mary. It’s a quiet little place but not without its share of eccentrics. For the first time in her adult life she has to deal with males other than the visiting priest, Father Bennet, who is young and rather handsome, but so awkward around females he begins to stammer.

At first she can hardly look them in the face when they speak to her or ask her questions but eventually she hardens up though her voice rarely rises above a shy whisper. As this is in the public library no one seems to notice much or mind.

One day there are two school boys in the library who she has to tell to be quiet. When some minutes later she hears them giggling again loudly she surprises them and alarmed they run away out of the library. When she goes to tidy up and put away the books after them she sees what they were giggling about. The main book is ‘The Art of Sex’ open on a page showing a woman filating a man. She looks around the room nervously, then seeing she is alone turns the pages tentatively. The next page has a man licking a woman’s genitalia and Sister Loyola openly blushes. She looks away but can’t help herself and looks again, this time turning the book to a different angle. Just then she hears the library doors creak open and she just has time to gather the books into an inconspicuous armful when an old lady walks round the corner and smiles at her. She smiles back, her startled face a bright red colour.

That night in bed she can’t get the images out of her head. Tossing and turning she is unable to sleep and looks up at the clock on the wall as the hour hand slowly turns. When she does eventually fall asleep she has vivid dreams and wakes up in a sweat.

The next day she cannot look anyone in the eye and goes to mass praying fervently for forgiveness.

In a back room of the library Mary finds a shelf full of lost property, picking up and turning a dial on a tiny transistor radio Mary is surprised to find that it is working fine, a world service news story discusses the conclusion of a large litigation case in Chicago, “It is now clear that the case has been dropped after the payment of an undisclosed out of court settlement”. Just then Mrs Whiting enters on her way to the toilets; Mary is embarrassed and immediately turns off the radio but Mrs Whiting smiles and says.

- Oh that’s been here for nearly two years now, most probably left by a tourist. That and most of the stuff on that shelf need to go to the charity shop. I’ll tell you what, if you could box that stuff up and take it down there for me, you can keep the radio if you like.

Mary thanks her and smiles excitedly. The next week in the library she is sorting through some library cards when she feels someone watching her. She looks up and to the side, peering through some shelves, is a pair of wide intense eyes. They belong to the village drunk/idiot and he appears to be masturbating. His head is shaking and she can hear rustling and the soft smacking sound of wet skin. Turning away in shock she reddens and tries to ignore him staring down at a book unable to look at him. But then she sees a little girl at the far end of the library who she had forgotten about. With a puzzled face the girl looks from her to where the noise is coming from and Mary hardens her resolve and finds the strength to stand up to the man. She walks round the book case to confront him only to hear a hurried zipping sound as the man barges past her forcefully knocking her to the ground. She gets back to her feet clearly shaken and tries to control her heavy breathing. Later she goes to Sister Margaret Gertrudes’s office to tell her about the incident and tries to knock on her door but is afraid and unsure what to say. She has the same fear of the Mother Superior as when she was a little girl first entering the seminary convent. Mary eventually plucks up the courage and after knocking is told to enter. Sister Margaret Gertrude has had a hard day though and snaps at Mary grumpily asking what she wants. Mary cannot find the words and says “Nothing Mother Superior” before fleeing from the room near tears.

Over the next few weeks she starts to read the national newspapers that are delivered to the library for the customers. She is increasingly shocked to find out about the numbers of Priests being arrested for sexually abusing the children in their care and refuses to believe it at first. Then as she reads more and more from different newspapers it starts to sink in. She reads about Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a woman she had personally prayed for to be canonized and who is practically hero worshipped by all the nuns she knows. She learns of the growing backlash to her refusal to let condoms be distributed around to the Christian slum dwellers of Bombay and Calcutta while an AIDS epidemic raged around her and so condemning them to horrifically painful deaths. It comes as a great shock to her that because of Mother Teresa untold thousands died and many more innocents suffered as AIDS was spread from prostitutes to their clients then their client’s wives and unborn babies.

Mary reads of the wealth of the Catholic Church and cannot understand how the Pope allows millions to die of starvation in famines in Africa and around the world when he and the Church have so much. In anguish one day she takes Sister Angelina by the hand and after almost dragging her to the quiet gardens, splurges all this new found knowledge to her. Angelina’s reason that these are ‘acts of God’ and so nothing to do with the Church offends and angers Mary. She explains that she had started to look specifically for articles critical of the Church and began to see just how powerful it is and how many people disagree with its doctrines. She compares it to a business conglomerate in the way they target underdeveloped nations for new worshippers like a tobacco corporation seeks new markets for smokers. Angelina can see what Mary is trying to say but believes the Church has a reason for such practices and it is not their place to question.

Over the next days Mary spends a great deal of time praying and talking to God, trying to understand why the Catholic Church she is an integral part of allows this to happen and she starts to wonder how with all this wealth and with all the beliefs they are meant to embody, they could appear to be the antithesis of a charitable organization. She goes to confession and blurts out her new found doubts to the priest but he is unable to console her suggesting that she prays to God for more strength to deal with them.

This does not help her so Mary starts to talk openly about it with other fellow nuns. They are scandalized and she is reported to the Mother Superior. Mary is reprimanded by her sternly and told to never again talk of the matter.

- What gives you the right to question the Church? The Church of St Peter, of His Holiness the Pope? How dare you girl! You must cease all conversations about this with your sisters at once or there will be grave repercussions for you.

Instead of advice and kind words she is threatened and immediately recalled from her work at the library. This punishment only drives her on to find out more and she begins to question the very fundamentals of her faith. Why women had to play a subservient role to men always; why they could not become priests and administer the host or extreme unction; why women had to obey their husbands in marriage and not vice versa. She pained over all these points and more until Mary started to believe that the Church itself was wrong and had separated itself from the Lords true meaning. One day the Bishop came to visit the nunnery and after listening to him pontificate about the greatness and holiness of the Church Mary decides she has had enough and stands up. Father Bennet and her fellow nuns stare at her in fear of her words while Sister Margaret Angelina merely glares at her malevolently until ordering her to sit back down. When Sister Mary Loyola opens her mouth, she looks at the Bishop calmly and though her voice is initially thin and awkward (she has never addressed a room before) as she speaks, she finds her voice eventually speaking clear and loud for all to hear her concerns.
- Father, can you tell me the reason why women are not allowed to be priests and serve the Holy Communion? Our Lord said nothing about men being superior to women.

Somewhat taken aback by the force of her convictions and unaware of the situation he initially starts to talk down to her, patronisingly explaining in the most simplistic terms the ways of the Church.

- Our Lord said to St P…Peter “You are the rock on w…which I build my Church.”….
- Yes but he didn’t just hand the keys to the Kingdom over to a bunch of old men in Rome. Was it not just a Judaic tradition that should have been cast aside with all the other old sexist rules?
Growing firmer she starts to list some of the examples already stated but when she asks why Pope Pius xii condoned the Nazis and nobody mentions it anymore he is unable to answer her and losing his temper shouts down to her.

- Sit down and shut up, you petulant g…girl!

This is the first time a Priest has talked to her in this way. She runs out of the room in tears and none of her fellow nuns have the courage to run after her. Sister Angelina makes to stand up but catches the Mother Superior’s eyes, who command her to sit back down. Late that night when Mother Superior passes Mary’s room on her rounds, she opens the room door ever so slightly and peeps through to see Mary kneeling before a small crucifix at the other side of the room seemingly praying silently. Mary is in fact is holding the small transistor radio between her palms with a small mono earplug connected, secretly listening to the late night news.

After a morning search of her room the next day, the transistor radio is discovered and after a crisis meeting between the Mother Superior, the Bishop and the dioceses controlling clergy they decide that Mary must leave the leave the nunnery and go to a special home for nuns like herself who are having a crisis of the faith. She has ‘counselling’ sessions with specially qualified priests but she continues with her questions and the visits become more infrequent. After a while it becomes clear to her that they have little faith in her returning to the Catholic fold and she is encouraged to have more interplay with the outside world. She starts to spend most of her time wandering around the city, observing people keenly. She watches people on their breaks from work, couples flirting, arguing.

One day she sees a young couple going into a cinema and without thinking follows them. Scraping together all the small coins from her pockets she has just enough for the entrance fee and walks into the darkened auditorium cautiously. They disappear to the back but she forgets them almost immediately, now transfixed by the screen. The film is a sentimental romance but she is hypnotised by the whole spectacle. She sits open mouthed at the costumes and colours and the melodramatic story has her in a swoon. When the final credits role she wanders out of the cinema in a daze and walks along the brightly sun-lit streets that are somehow different. They were the same streets she had left just a couple of hours earlier but everything and everyone had changed and she looks around her with different eyes. Crossing a busy road she is nearly knocked over by a speeding taxi whose driver swears at her as he passes her by.

Arriving back to the half-way house late, she is given a stern reprimanding for breaking the strict curfew that was imposed on them. Instead of taking the telling off meekly she turns to the Sister in charge and smiles defiantly, she has a secret and nothing that the Sister could say to her can alter that. This act is worse than back-chat to the Sister who erupts in a paroxysm of anger. Barely restraining herself from striking Mary she shouts at her to go to her room. Mary merely continues to smile and without saying a word turns and walks coolly back to her room.

Mary still attends mass though now without the nun’s habit she has worn all her adult life. The local parish church is overseen by Father Hending, an old and grumpy old man, bitter at life for being overlooked for promotion by the Church. During one sermon he tells of some boys in the parish going from door to door pretending to collect money for charity. Mary is surprised when he says instead of phoning him if they come to the door, grab them and call the police. After the service he asks to see her in the presbytery for a cup of tea and a chat. As soon as he gets her in there he feels her from behind and says he has seen her entering a cinema showing pornographic movies and if she doesn’t do what God orders he will have to inform on her and she will be excommunicated. Mary is frightened and doesn’t know what to do as he comes up behind her and starts to feel her breasts. She can smell whiskey on his breath as his clammy hands fondle her. She eventually finds the strength and pushes him out of the way as she fumbles at the lock on the door and makes her way out onto the path and street to escape.

The next day she escapes from the Seminary without permission and makes her way to the cinema from the previous day. She realises that she has no money on her to pay for entry so wanders away disconsolately. After spending some time people-watching she finds herself walking past some offices and notices a sign just being put in an office window. It is an advertisement to apply within for the job as a receptionist at a film production company. She notices all the independent young woman walking confidently up and down the street around her and is envious. Connecting the glamour and romance of the film she saw with the production company Mary looks back to the advert with a forlorn longing and sighs, lacking the confidence to do anything about it and fearful walks away hurriedly.

When she gets back to the Seminary she is given a frosty reception and refusing to argue with the head Sister chooses to walk away again, quietly going to her room. Later that day she is called into the office of the head Sister who is accompanied by an officious looking priest. They explain to her that after new information had reached their ears and much debate they have decided that it would probably be best if she relinquished her vows and entered the everyday world again. They are quite kind about it and say there is no rush; she will be given financial assistance and can stay at the half-way house as long as she wants. But she is given no say in the matter and the ‘debate’ did not include the very person it would affect the most. They remind her that it would be a good idea to maybe try and find a job to ease herself back into the everyday world. Mary stands up from her seat stunned and leaves the room without a word. She feels betrayed by the faith she had dedicated her life to. Lying down on her bed with her eyes open she shows no emotion. Then slowly her face changes and she turns on her side foetally and starts to cry deep, painful sobs.

She rises the next day and looks around her sadly. Washing her tear stained face she looks up into the mirror and a new look of resolve forms. She walks straight down to the office from the day before and demands to see the person in charge saying that she has come for the job. The owner is a little taken aback by her manner but intrigued asks her to sit down and tell him her qualifications. He looks her up and down as she sits noticing her plain clothes and lack of make-up and despite thinking her strange can’t quite help himself admiring her simple beauty. Mary starts to tell him with total honesty her story so far, leaving out no awkward details. Sam the owner of the company finds her fascinating and obviously very intelligent and despite her lack of qualifications offers her the job on the spot. Immediately she asks him for a forward on her first week’s wages explaining that she has to find herself a place to stay. He looks at her incredulously and surprised at his own actions, finds himself handing her over a wad of money, muttering under his breath that he must be mad and she must never tell anyone about it. She shakes his hand and tells him she will be there at eight o’clock sharp the next morning. As the door closes she leaves him looking after her, still in a state of shock, with her wondering where she got the strength from to act in such a way.

Mary starts to organize her life over the coming weeks. She scans all the newspapers for accommodation, eventually finding a small but cosy flat not far from her new workplace. Shopping around for cheap furniture she manages to tastefully decorate her new place creating a home for herself. She buys herself new clothes for the first time and after seeing a beautiful dress in a shop window then checking the small amount in her purse decides to buy the dress anyway and has to eat baked beans that night for dinner. Like a young girl she experiments with make-up in front of the mirror. In her bedroom she lines up all her new cosmetics and one by one tries to apply them. But she has no idea and makes a mess of it having to eventually wipe it all off in consternation. Very glamorous women come into the offices each day so she starts to ask them make-up tips and questions about clothes. Her job as a receptionist brings her out of her shell and she starts being more talkative with the people she meets.

After visiting the cinema again one night after a particularly steamy romance movie she is unable to sleep and when she does eventually her dreams are erotic. She imagines herself to be feeling herself between the legs and just as she is about to climax she looks down and sees Father Bennett’s face leering up at her from between her thighs. She wakes in a start, sweating as if from a nightmare. Putting her hand down between her legs she feels something strange so raises her fingers to her nose and smells, her face red with shame and confusion. The next day she goes to a book shop and buys a book on women’s health as her sex education in the seminary was rudimentary to say the least.

On her lunch break one day she is drinking a coffee and reading a newspaper when she comes across an article that interests her. It is by a journalist who is highly critical of the Catholic Church. Later at work she finds the journalist’s telephone number and rings him telling him a brief history of herself asking if she can meet him.

The next day they meet in a coffee shop and the journalist tells her that he is one of the many people discontent with the Roman Catholic Church, one of many calling for reform at the highest levels, but few dare to interfere with the status quo and therefore nothing changes. The reporter tells her that he himself was brought up a catholic and chosen at an early age to become a priest. Taken under the Jesuit wing he was given an excellent education but after being abused by one of the church elders expelled after threatening to inform on him. Mary says she is willing to go public with her story and reveal the true face of the Church. The reporter tells her that sadly no one will be interested in hearing what she has to say and that the Church will just make a statement stating that she has had a mental breakdown thereby dismissing her allegations as the ramblings of a failed nun in poor mental health. Mary slowly sees the truth in his words and forlornly makes her way back to work.

Back there she meets a very glamorous woman who she leads up to Sam’s office. Interested in the woman, whose name is Fiona, Mary does an internet search for her and finds to her surprise that she is a porn actress. It all becomes clear then and after doing a search on Sam realises that the films Sam’s company have been making are all porn movies. She looks around her shocked and thinks herself naïve that she hadn’t worked it out earlier with all the scantily clad women coming and going through the office all the time. She decides that she can no longer work there and that evening when she is about to finish asks Sam if she can have a word. He is saddened when she tells him that she is going to leave and tries everything to persuade her to stay.

- Look Mary, I’m not going to make any apologies to you or anyone else for what I do. But we only produce movies for the couples market and all the women here are treated with respect and all earn much more than the men do. There is a big market and a real need for these kinds of films and there is nothing morally wrong with them despite what the Catholic Church might say.

He has come to respect Mary and admire the way she does her job and begs her not to rush into any decision rashly. She says she will think about it and tell him in a few days time.

At the office the following day she is attempting to type a letter when Fiona the beautiful woman from the day before enters. Mary says she will buzz Sam but Fiona says she doesn’t want to see Sam; she has come to see her. Fiona takes her out to dinner at a very expensive restaurant where she is treated with the utmost respect by all the staff. A man sends them over a bottle of champagne and asks for Fiona’s autograph and she charmingly writes it before he stumbles away red-faced and nervous.

Mary has never been to such a glamorous restaurant before and is overawed somewhat by the whole experience. But Fiona is very gracious to her and they bond. She explains that Sam had told her that she was thinking of leaving and she had suggested that they have a chat. Fiona tells her that she had worked for some real nasty people in the past that had used and lied to her but Sam was different. He looked after all the girls that worked for him and they never had to do anything they didn’t want. No girl was mistreated. Mary tells her of her moral concerns and Fiona says matter-a-factly that people have sex and want to watch pornography and that it’s not an evil thing. The more casually it is dealt with like in tolerant countries such as Holland the less of a problem it is and the lower the crime rates of a sexual nature. After lots more debate they decide to order another bottle of wine. Fiona rings Sam and tells him that Mary is with her and that she is having a paid afternoon off. When she hangs up her the phone she turns to Mary and says.

-You see? We women have all the power we want if we are clever enough.
As if to prove a point, the manager of the restaurant approaches their table and asks if he can have the honour of paying the bill. They proceed to have a great afternoon making each other laugh all day. Mary asks her questions about sex and women’s issues and Fiona tells her that she feels she has made a friend that day. But after a couple of glasses of wine, Mary is a bit tipsy so Fiona takes her home in a cab. Mary is surprised by the driver and says she has never seen a female taxi driver before. Fiona tells her that it is a company she always uses that only have female drivers and only pick up women. Safer for both sides as attacks on female passengers are common. She drops Mary off at home and says she will keep in contact. Mary decides to stay on at the company.

Over the next few weeks Mary and Fiona see each other often and Mary learns more about her friend’s job. Fiona shows her how to apply make-up properly and how to dress sexily and she starts to get more and more admiring looks by passing men. She realises that she has been a beautiful woman for some time but never realised it. She is sometimes scandalized by Fiona’s stories and begins to realise that the world beyond the Church’s barriers are much more interesting. Still she feels cheated and betrayed by it and wishes she could find a way to show the inequality and inherent faults in it. She still sees Sister Angelina but most of her old friends from the Nunnery and even the half-way house have begun to shun her. This hurts her but her new life is interesting and fulfilling and she has begun to make new friends.

One evening Mary goes to sleep and experiences a revelation that will change her life. In a dream the Virgin Mary appears to her and in a hallucinatory vision tells her she has been chosen to change the church. She tells her that men have controlled things for far too long and now it is woman’s turn to take more control. When she awakes she interprets this in her own way and tells Sister Angelina the next day that she has been chosen by God to lose her virginity on film. She says she has failed to find any other platform to voice her criticisms and so decided to appear in a porn movie so that afterwards she can speak to the press and have a chance to convey her criticisms to the world's media. Angelina tells her that her interest and longing for sexual experience has combined in her mind with her vision and become something wrong and misguided. She is horrified with Mary’s interpretation of the dream and tells her she couldn’t disagree with her more. But Mary is adamant and with an evangelical, somewhat maniacal zeal leaves her. The same day Angelina goes to Mary’s old Mother Superior and tells her of Mary’s vision and plan. As soon as Angelina leaves and the door closes behind her Sister Margaret Gertrude picks up the telephone and starts to dial solemnly.

Mary tells Fiona who also thinks she shouldn’t do it but when she sees that she is determined says she will try to help her however she can. Next she approaches Sam with the idea and he tells her he won’t be a part of it. He says some people were born to do porn and some were definitely not and dismisses her out right telling her to go home. The next morning she does her make-up and dresses herself in a sexy new outfit. When she walks into the office the next day Sam can hardly believe his eyes. Still she has to persuade him and reminds him how much money he could make once the media find out the true story. A real nun losing her virginity in a porn movie would be big news and millions would be interested in seeing it. He realises the sensational nature of her actions will spark a media frenzy and the subsequent free publicity could sell millions of copies and make him millions so he finally, though somewhat reluctantly, agrees.

On the morning of the shoot she arrives on set to find it made up like a church and her costume to be a sexy nun’s outfit. She thinks it all tawdry but goes along with it as she feels the message she has to say to be the important issue. Fiona stands nervously in the wings giving her encouragement and advice between takes. It is mostly through her eyes and emotions that the sex scene is communicated. Other than a few big close-ups of Mary’s face we don’t see any wide shots and none of the actual sex scene. When Mary has finished her day’s shoot she tells Fiona she is fine but goes home alone and drinks a full bottle of wine by herself, before being violently sick.

A couple of months later after Sam has placed trade adverts and put the word around to his distributors of his exciting impending sensational release he is approached by two shadowy businessmen. They dress in black and look like FBI agents and in a subtly threatening manner tell Sam that they cannot permit the film to ever be shown. But Sam has been in the business far too long to let himself be pushed around by anybody. He merely smiles at them and picking up the phone, calls his friend who just happens to be one of the most powerful lawyers in town and asks if he can see him later that day. Putting down the receiver he tells the men that they are going to have to do better than that. They look at each other wearily then one produces a cheque book from his pocket and writes down a figure on a piece of paper.

- The people we represent are willing to give you this amount for the prints and all masters of the film.
Sam looks at the amount on the paper and trying to control his shock realises that he can get them for much more. He takes a pen and writes down a figure also.
- I was thinking more along this amount.

The men look at the amount then to each other and the first asks if a cheque will do.

That same morning Mary receives a letter with an official papal stamp informing her that she has been excommunicated and no longer a member of the Catholic Church. Despite her actions she is devastated and tries to call Sister Angelina and some of her other friends but none will answer her. She slowly works out that she has been rejected by all of them and they have disowned her. Fiona is out of the country on a shoot and cannot be contacted so she calls Sam. When he tells her the news about the prints being bought she cannot speak. He never understood or appreciated her reasons for doing the film and thinks she will be glad of the massive amount of money that they have made.

- Look honey. With your share of the cash you’ll be rich. You can buy a nice flat in Chelsea and never have to work again.

But after everything else that day this is the last straw and she puts down the phone in a state of shock.

She has been let down by her boss and has lost her friends and been rejected by the church, her only family. She has lost all reason to live yet still the idea of suicide is anathema to her. She has no one to turn to and her mind starts to crumble. By the time Fiona returns from her shoot and calls round at her apartment a week later, Mary is a wreck. She has had a total nervous breakdown and hardly eaten. Babbling to herself she hardly notices Fiona let herself in. When her friend sees the state she is in she has to fight back the tears and only when Mary eventually lets her hug her does she breakdown and they rock back and forth crying.

Five years pass and we find Sam on his death bed in a private ward of a hospital. He has always regretted what happened to Mary and supported her financially through her years of recovery. But unknown to anyone he secretly kept another copy of the film. Knowing that he is about to die he feels that he should do the right thing by Mary so places his copy of it on the internet after leaking news of it to the worlds press along with all the documentation and photocopies of the cheque given to him by the representatives of the Church. It is an immediate sensation. The website server registers twenty million hits in the first seven days and ends up crashing. He is interviewed and makes an emotional, public apology to Mary. He gives all the proof of the deal with the church to a journalist friend of his who decides to investigate even further. Everyone wants to know what happened to the young nun and a worldwide search gets underway. Fiona now retired and living comfortably in the south of France sees a television report on it and smiles to herself. When the journalist finds her and approaches her for an interview she is glad the story is finally to be told but still will not reveal Mary’s whereabouts.
Eventually he tracks her down to a remote village in Africa where she has been working for a charitable organization since her recovery. She finally has the attention of the world’s press and begins to tell him her story. In the years since the film, she has made it her mission to collect and detail all cases of abuse within the Catholic Church. She begins how she means to go on.

- The Catholic Church’s new growth areas are third world and developing countries like Africa, India and China where the desperate, poor and less educated are more vulnerable to indoctrination. The Church is more a multi-national corporation pushing to extend its power, wealth and growth than a peace loving, altruistic religion. We need change.

The reporter’s story is a sensation and is syndicated around the world. He tells Mary of how the story and film came out and reveals to her Sam’s sickness. She decides to see him before he dies and catches a plane to his bedside. When they see each other they both start to cry and she sits by his bed and holds his hand. Despite what happened there is still a lot of love between them and he begs her forgiveness. She tells him there is nothing to forgive and thanks him for helping her find a new life after the church and supporting her through all the years after her breakdown. She knows he never really understood her motives but thanks him for releasing the film. He was probably right to wait until now as it was too soon before. The world wasn’t ready. She says she never wanted to destroy the Church; she still loves it for all its faults. All she ever wanted was reform.

- Finding my voice now is more relevant than ever.

And she holds his hand as he dies at peace. She looks up at the window knowing that her journey has only just begun.

© imaginary films Ltd 2006