Customer Reviews

Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church

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It doesn't matter if one is Catholic or not, one thing that must be agreed upon is that the abuse and mistreatment of children must not be tolerated. Therefore, it is disturbing to read such an account as this; that one can see the mechanisms that were systematically used to protect the perpetrators of these crimes, rather than the slew of victims.

This book is NOT a book condemning Catholism or Christianity. I am not Catholic myself, but I have enough respect for Christianity and the Catholic Church, that had it been merely thus, I probably wouldn't have wasted my time reading it.

With the persistance of the staff of the Boston Globe, though, much of this information, which was previously off-limits, has been opened and researched. This book is a product of that research, and without drowning the reader in tons of details, goes into many aspects of this story - how the story broke, victims' stories, profiles of some of the most heinous perpetrators, the Catholic culture around Boston, and the heirarchical structure of the Catholic Church, and the effects this scandal has had on the Catholic Church in America and in the world.

As late as this has come to many people, I am glad that somebody had the nerve to pursue the story. For those who still want to believe that this isn't a major problem, remember that what is written here is just Boston's story, and just a small bit, at that. The priests who committed these crimes are criminals, and should be recognized as such, both inside and outside the Catholic Church.

1. This book is an excellent investigation into what occured in Boston involving the Catholic church and sex abuse.

2. It is also an excellent book in explaining the power of the Catholic Church in the culture and politics of Boston. This power may explain why Cardinal Law and others were able to get away with such abuses of power.

3. This is an extremely painful read as it details exactly what occurred to these children while they were being abused.

4. With that said, THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ FOR ALL CATHOLICS!

[Let my put my conflicts of interests right up front. I am a Catholic who converted from Methodist six years ago. Since that time I have worked actively in my parish in Fort Worth, Texas and now am the director of the RCIA program (the program for adults who want to join the church) in my parish. In addition, althouth I am not aware of any abuse by priests in my parish or diocese, the liturgy director at my parish, a lay person, was convicted this year of sexual conduct with a minor that occured about ten years ago.]

In my opinion, the most fascinating person in a true crime story is not the person who is obviously sick and evil, but the one who aids and abbets in the crime. For instance, several years ago in Chicago there was a young woman who was desparate to have a child. She hatched a plan to steal a child by cutting the child out of another woman's womb. If the story ended there, it would only be one of an obviously sick woman who needed alot of help, but it didn't. She convinced a man she new to actually carry out this plan. How does that happen? How does the man listen to the ravings of this deranged woman and say, "Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. I'll do it."?

I have the same questions about the crisis in the Catholic Church. I have no problem with understanding that the likes of John Geoghan, Joseph Birmingham, Paul Shanley, and Robert Trupia are sick and evil men. They each have molested scores of young boys and seem to have no comprehension of the impact of their actions. What I don't understand is why did the bishops they worked for and knew of accusations of molestation against them think it was a good idea to move them to a new set of victims? Why do some men of God become complicit in evil?

Unfortunately this book has no answer for those questions. It is written by the group of reporters from the Boston Globe who pried the story from the secretive Boston diocese. As such, it primarialy answers who, what, when, and where, but not why. The gory details of the molestors' activities are given and the pain and anger of many of the victims, too. But in one unforgetable story, the Christlike actions of one victim is told. A victim of Birmingham confronted him after many years of pain and suffering and said, "I've come here to ask you to forgive me for the hatred and resentment that I heve felt toward you for the last twenty-five years."

Much of the book is devoted to the problems in and around Boston, as may be expected. However, the reporters do touch on similar cases in other areas. Although the full extent of the crisis is not known, and may not be known without many more reporters in other dioceses investigating their local church, these reporters note that almost 200 sitting priests have been removed around the country and many more have been removed around the world. The problem of failing to respond to evil in the midst of the Catholic Church is definately not specific to Cardinal Law or even to the United States.

I was raised Catholic and educated at both the high school and college level by the Jesuits. All through school, there was not the slightest indication of abusive propensities, yet today, we see that many, many Catholic priests molested children over the years, and were assisted in this horrific behavior by Church leaders. This book ably and frighteningly illustrates the betrayal of trust on the part of these "Princes of the Church", who actively enabled these predatory monsters to engage in their obscene behavior by moving them from parish to parish, and defended these men and what they did when confronted by parents of the child victims. "Betrayal" is an apt title of a work that shows how the bishops betrayed not only their obligation to children, but their faith as well. Instances are also described where other priests who observed active child molestation did nothing to stop it.In my value system, catching one of these guys "in the act" would result in anything BUT passivity! As a retired lawyer with 30 years in the Courts, I cannot even begin to comprehend the mind set of men who preached, "Suffer the little children to come unto me" and "Whatever you do to the least of my little ones, you do unto me", yet knowingly engaged in and/or permitted the ongoing sexual abuse of children. This book is a must read for all Catholics, because if the Church can't or won't protect their children, informed Catholics must, and, perhaps, finally cast off the yoke of "pray, pay and obey". The Boston Globe has done a huge public service in producing this excellent reportorial work. Yet it does raise questions in my mind about the unthinking and uncritical belief systems of some of my still practicing Catholic friends who react rather placidly to this scandal.

This rare, balanced and highly researched book is both captivating in drama and challenging in content. Written from a secular rather than a religious perspective, the authors chronicle the lives of victims, the cover-ups by bishops and the socio-political structures which have allowed sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clerics to continue unabated. This book is serious reading for all, but especially for many of the Catholic faithful who have placed an almost blind trust in their leaders. The shocking, painful disclosures of this book will undoubtedly challenge laity to ask questions, honest priests to speak up, and law enforcement to prosecute.

I was raised Catholic and am stunned by this book. The research was thorough and complete. My hope is that this book is the final chapter in a dark era for the Church.

As a Catholic, recent events have left me questioning the leadership of the church. After reading this book, I feel like I understand how we've gotten to this point, who is responisible, and what we can do to make things better and get on with our lives in the church. This book gave me hope that we will come out of this stronger than ever. Everyone looking for answers, and healing or hope, should read Betrayal.

Ordered for a college course. Compelling and disturbing, and a good look at how journalists can help the powerless have a voice in closed-off institutions.

Absolutely shocking!. An in depth review of the pedophile priest scandal that rocked the diocese of Boston and sent shock waves across America eventually rattling the Vatican.

The Globe staff gives us a sinister peek into the psyche of the malevolent pedophile. Conspiracy, treachery, cover-ups, payoffs...no stone goes unturned. A land mark in investigative reporting.

This very well-researched and well-written book takes the reader behind all of the headlines and media bytes from the revelations in the early Aughts about the widespread problem of pedophile priests. Though the focus is on priests from the Boston area, seeing as how Boston is one of the largest Catholic cities in America and that this book was put together by the Boston Globe, before long it had become obvious that this wasn't just a problem in Boston, but a problem in America as well, and even in the world. The book examines so many issues and questions, such as the nature of faith, Catholic culture, the push for change by a majority of American Catholics even though the higher-ups still insist on remaining the same, what it is that caused so many priests to molest children (but more often teenage boys), the history and nature of celibacy (it wasn't made law till the 11th century, and then only for political reasons), how former Cardinal Bernard Law could have condoned the actions of priests like John Geoghan by just shuttling them from parish to parish, and most of all the profound betrayal felt by so many Catholics who loved the Church dearly and who had trusted these priests to take care of their children instead of violating their bodies and souls.

While there have been instances of clergy of other faiths abusing children they were supposed to be mentoring or looking after, there have never been such scandals attached to those cases because they are usually isolated incidences. Rabbis, Protestant ministers, and Eastern Orthodox priests are allowed to get married, after all, and generally don't live in communities detached from the outside world and the common people. Many people have pointed to this being a uniquely Catholic problem because of the celibacy of priests, and feel that if celibacy were made optional, perhaps they wouldn't seek sexual gratification through minors. When many of these abusers were ordained, the screening process they have today was not in place. This was a time when seminaries were overflowing, but almost anyone was admitted, even if not all of those candidates were truly qualified. This was also an era when the average seminarian was much younger than he is today; many priests first went to a junior seminary at all of 13 or 14 years old, and if they didn't, then they would usually enter the seminary proper fresh out of highschool, with no time to test their calling, to live in the real world, to develop and mature at a normal rate instead of being stuck at the level of a sexually immature inexperienced young teenager who never got any information or advice about dealing with the normal natural sexual feelings that the majority of people have. Had they gotten counseling on how to deal with these urges instead of being trained as though they weren't sexual beings, they might not have gone to these young boys who were at the same stunted level as they were.

Because of the trust these faithful Catholics placed in their priests and bishops, they just reported the abuse to them instead of going to the police like one would expect a concerned angry parent to do. They expected the Church to handle the problem. The Church in turn stressed things like respect for canon law, the importance of the hierarchy, and protecting the "good names" of these abusive priests, not about the young victims whose lives would never be the same again. They were more concerned about protecting and covering up for predators like Geoghan than with counseling the children and putting the abusers in jail or at least serious counseling (many of the so-called rehabilitation centers described sounded more like vacation resorts or slaps on the wrist than places for actual psychological counseling and attempted rehabilitation, though the studies show that most child abusers will offend again). They would excommunicate the 72 year old nun Jeannette Normandin (who has since passed away) for having baptised two boys (only men are allowed to baptise people in Catholicism), for putting her hands on their foreheads and annointing them with holy water, yet would coddle and sympathise with a predator like John Geoghan after he touched the genitals of young boys and performed sex acts on them. They would tell people that things like divorce, birth control, premarital sex, and eating meat on Fridays were sins, some of which were Hell-worthy, yet never treated real sins like child abuse as being serious of condemnation, excommunication, and being shunned by the community. Above all, we get a picture of a hierarchy sorely out of touch with what the majority of American Catholics believe in, an insistence on this black and white authoritarian conformist world that might have worked beautifully 50 or 60 years ago, but which just isn't possible anymore because of how much society has evolved.

In spite of this crisis and betrayal, however, the Catholic Church is still going strong. Though there were many people who left it after how they were treated or who stopped donating money to it after these revelations, there are still many faithful believing Catholics out there who dearly love the Church and are willing to stick by it through thick and thin, to work through this crisis together, to fight for change (such as the new screening process used by seminaries to weed out potential troublemakers and pedophiles) and modernisation (such as the ordination of women, optional priestly celibacy, and acceptance of gay parishioners). Something of this magnitude probably will not be able to occur again because of all of the knowledge gained during this crisis and because the need for some fundamental changes seems so great and overdue that the voice of the majority can't be ignored forever.