On PBS Frontline tonight in most parts of the country, a documentary on one case of sexual abuse by a cleric:

The film is florid in style — porcelain figurines crushed in a vice, Communion wafers dropped into darkened water and fizzing like Alka-Seltzer — but Mr. Cultrera remains understated and calm throughout.

When he finally talks about what happened, he finds he is supported by his family and deserted by his church: he was particularly embittered by the way officials like Bishop John B. McCormack of Manchester, N.H., protected his abuser.

At one point Joe Cultrera films the outside of a church building for the documentary until a priest comes out and puts his hand on the lens to stop him.

When Joe Cultrera explains what his film is about, the priest turns icy. “Sir, if you think you’re going to make me feel bad about this, “ the priest says, “you’re not.” They later learn that he is Bishop Richard Gerard Lennon, an auxiliary bishop who temporarily took over the archdiocese after Cardinal Law stepped down.

(Bishop Lennon is now, of course Bishop of Cleveland)

Paul Cultrera seems most upset that Father Birmingham usurped his real father’s place as authority figure and role model. “When Birmingham was molesting me,” he says, “I probably had more awe for the priest than I did for Dad at that time.”

“Hand of God” is both an affidavit against the archdiocese and a novena to the Cultrera sons’ elderly parents, who revered the church but loved their children more.