The fetishization of the symbols and instruments of the cult adds the seditious ingredient that makes religion subversive, promoting self-sacrifice and denial of instincts. “I have always seen that my classmates get along with their friends, and they appear in the photos hugging and like that; and… I would also like to make a life, but that is part of my sacrifice”, reveals a third party, still torn between mystical and corporeal exaltation, at this stage of the discovery of one's own sexuality where these instincts emerge on fire.
The marked eroticism of the artistic representations, the ornamental and chromatic richness of the garments and accessories, the profusion of noble metals and precious woods, the stylistic range of the temples between frugality and excess, provide the carnivalesque ingredient, becoming important influences within of the closed space of schools and seminaries where students and teachers coexist. This has repercussions on the psyche of young people, disorienting them and forcing them to adopt a repressive attitude, easily manipulated by those who are ready to guide them with a wise hand along the path of (im)perfection, where "excess affection", as a grotesque allegory , blurs the borders between what is permitted and what is prohibited.
The sequence of the confrontation in the film synthesizes these perceptions as it opens with a medium shot of the priest officiating mass, and intersperses photographs of the sexual act with a long shot of the young man watching him officiate. This, followed by the scene where the dialogue between the two is included. “I want you to explain to me what happened... When I met him, everything was wonderful for me and I began to love him very much, like a father figure, but when he abused me, confusion came... All I did was love him madly”, confesses the voice in off of the abused. "If you want, it was an excess of affection," the abuser responds to the camera.
The way in which the filmmaker incorporates into the diegesis the symbols of the Catholic ritual, the graphic testimonies and the guidelines of the conversation expose the emotional ambiguity of the accuser and the attitude of superiority of the accused —who still feels protected by these symbols and therefore exempt to account for his actions to a former altar boy, on whom he turned that "excess" as a mark of distinction for being the chosen one.
"He stole my childhood, father, he pushed me to live something that I didn't have to live at that time," continues the accuser, leaving the defendant unable to argue reasons or apologize. That silence, however, turns out to be very eloquent as it reveals the magnitude of a damage for which there is no healing or forgetting. Here the psychological trauma drives the young man's desire for justice, who has managed to rebuild his emotional life with a woman and have a child, but continues to be plagued by memories of the abuse.
The perpetrator, for his part, seeks to hide behind religious discourse in order to downplay the victim's suffering and distance himself from the material and legal implications of the acts committed. Something difficult to achieve in this contemporaneity, however, when the victims are being heard, and in a growing number of cases the guilty have been punished and sentenced, as evidenced by the conviction of the priest involved in 2018.
In fact, the years that have elapsed between the making of the documentary and the success of its purpose are witness to the growing activism of many associations founded to expose the exploiters and vindicate the exploited, who, thanks to new technologies, receive solidary support and media coverage impossible to achieve before the digital age. This has been fundamental so that more victims have managed to overcome the fear on which the silence was based, and have begun to openly tell their experiences.
However, the reactions of the ecclesiastical authorities to such complaints have often sought to cover up the guilty or transfer them to another diocese and recommend penance to purge their sin. “The problem of the Catholic Church is not that there are priests who abuse; that is a human problem… What is specific to the Church is the systematic way of protecting abusers”, points out a former priest, emphasizing the sectarianism of an institution prone to turning in on itself, because he knows that in this secrecy lies the key to his survival throughout history.
The way in which the archives with the evidence of the abuses are silenced from within, with the support of political and economic groups, evidences the mechanisms of repression that the most intolerant sectors of society use to maintain their power and exercise it over those who dissent. The Church affirms itself in them, and in this way it can brand the dissidents of plotting against her, alleging an alleged harassment of her priests in order to discredit her. . 

E he growing number of complaints is certainly the best barometer when it comes to taking stock, and in this sense the media are playing a fundamental role in raising awareness, erasing the stigma of abuse and encouraging victims to abandon their silence. This, however, does not guarantee that the Catholic Church in Latin America will voluntarily collaborate with the investigation, as the North American, German, French or Irish have done; Probably because its millenary influence on the lives and consciences of the people, in addition to its ascendancy on matters of state and its enormous patrimony, make it difficult to make decisions where its wealth, prestige and ascendancy over key figures of society are at stake. national life.
The success obtained so far in persecuting and imprisoning the guilty must be recognized, it is very relative since the legal obstacles put in place by the Church and the fear of airing the horror on the part of the vast majority of abused persons make the work difficult. "It is reasonable to think that there are hundreds of thousands of victims around the world," emphasizes one of those tortured affiliated with ECA Global, an "organization of human rights activists and survivors from 17 countries on five continents, focused on children and victims' rights to force the Church to end clerical abuse." Something that shows how necessary activism and social networks are to disseminate information, and reach men and women who were victimized five or six decades ago, but never found an interlocutor with whom to voice the torture to which they were subjected and with the who have lived in silence throughout their existence.
"Agnus Dei: Lamb of God" is irrefutable proof of the importance of the documentary genre to raise awareness, around such urgent issues as pederasty within the Catholic Church, despite the obstacles that institutional and social intolerance exerts on whistleblowers , in a context that is vulnerable to abuse given the precarious cultural and economic situation of many of the victims, together with their unquestionable faith in Christ's representatives on earth. The fact that, for the first time in Mexico City, one of these representatives has been sentenced to 63 years in prison, sheds a light of hope on the hundreds of victims still hidden in the shadows of fear and shame; two variables on which the abusers and the Church itself count to minimize the damage to them and to the institution.
Fear and shame then, that the machinery of power fosters through mechanisms of repression, not only on the victims but also on their families, often finding themselves forced to change their neighborhood, city, state or country in order to escape the gossip already the mark of prejudice; although the clinical picture of depression can lead the abused to drink, as was the case of the protagonist of the documentary, or even to suicide.
Revealing such abuses is essential to make amends to the victims and punish the guilty who, unfortunately, continue to hold positions of power in Latin America, despite the denunciations. Something that this documentary has finally achieved by bringing more hope to those who suffered with and because of her, but managed to overcome their fears and speak out.