Could the Roman Catholic Church's sex abuse crisis be tied to embedded Satanic and occultic imagery in its artwork – some of it hundreds of years old?

That is the seemingly incredible thesis of a new documentary, "Rape of the Soul," made not by anti-Catholic bigots, but by devout followers of the Church.

"Rape of the Soul" is in theatrical release in major cities, including New York and Los Angeles.

The documentary explores the prevalent use of satanic, sexual, occult and anti-Catholic images in historical and contemporary religious artwork. The film also discusses the mysterious acceptance of the artwork at the highest and most trusted levels of the Catholic Church.

"Rape of the Soul" is rated R because of the disturbing content involving demonic, violent and sexual imagery.

The film, which is being released by Silver Sword International, contends a major cause of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church could be due to prolonged exposure to sexual and satanic images being incorporated into the religious art.

Experts are featured in the film to offer detailed accounts of the subconscious programming effects of the sex and occult images on the human brain and how it promotes sex, Satanism and the occult. Religious education materials, songbooks, children's story books, devotionals and the Sunday Missals all have been found to contain embedded imagery.

The 140-minute film shows a compilation of the events, investigations, discovery and exposure of implanted imagery in religious art. Then it shows the devastating affects of the artwork that is primarily aimed at children and the clergy.

Five experts speak on the different aspects of the artwork, including Michael A. Calace, an Italian director, actor, writer and producer who is also a devout Roman Catholic.

Calace embarked on a mission of "Merging Media with Morality" to create family-oriented films of true life drama for Silver Sword International, his production company. While doing so, he uncovered a series of religious scandals. Calace puts to use his experiences of more than 20 years of expertise to discover a huge amount of offensive images of carefully embedded sexual and occult horror. He explains the techniques used to embed the images, and he presents discoveries from his investigations.

"The deeper I dug, the more I discovered, not just in regard to contemporary art, but works dating back more than 500 years, from some well-known and respected artists. Sex and horror is the fuel that promotes the scandalous behavior in the Church. This is the answer why, and Church leaders don't have to look very far, because the problem is coming from within the Church itself," said Calace of his research.

Other experts include Wilson Bryan Key, an American recognized internationally for over 30 years of embedded-imagery expertise. He also was a professor at the University of Western Ontario.

Stanley Monteith, another expert in the film, is an author and radio talk show host who has spent more than 30 years researching the causes of America's moral decline. Monteith also has extensively studied the Vatican's history and politics and has interviewed Malachi Martin, the former Jesuit priest on many different occasions.

Marc Oster contributes his expertise in psychology and hypnosis. Judith Reisman, the final expert featured in "Rape of the Soul," is a world-renowned author, who specializes in child psychology and the harmful effects of pornography. She is also president of The Institute for Media Education and author of a U.S. Department of Justice study on juveniles.

"These images, unrecognized by the untrained eye, can be a ticking time-bomb to an individual who is unaware of their presence, especially someone who is already predisposed to deviant sexual behavior," said Reisman.

"Artists from DaVinci to Botticelli have embedded subliminal images into their art for centuries," said Calace. "In this case we found penises on crucifixes, anarchy symbols, swastikas, demonic faces and in modern works even the word 'sex' encrypted into the images. The works in question include modern artists' work currently on the covers of missalettes and hymnals that at this very moment sit in the pews of churches throughout the U.S. and on children's religious teaching aids."

Calace said, "'Rape of the Soul' was created to heal the many that have suffered from these uninvited violations."

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