Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church [Hardcover]

Leon J. Podles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2007

Sacrilege explores the deep roots of the Catholic ChurchÕs sexual-abuse scandal, revealing its full depth and breadth. In horrifying yet necessary detail, former federal investigator Leon Podles surveys the full extent of the damage, showing how victims were failed by bishops, laity, therapists, police, courts, press, and even popes. Examining the history behind todayÕs headlines, Dr. Podles reveals how centuries-old theological errors encouraged blind submission to hierarchy, by making obedience to authority the highest virtue. He also shines a light on the new theological errors, popularized since Vatican II, that glorify every type of sexual expression--including pedophilia. Sacrilege will prove an essential resource for all those concerned with the history and future of Catholicism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sacrilege is a relentless examination of the clergy sex abuse crisis with great compassion for the victims.... This book deserves to be read." -- Jason Berry,author of Lead Us Not into Temptation

"Sacrilege is unique and invaluable.... There have been dozens of books written about clergy sex abuse, but this one is a `must-have.'" -- Thomas Doyle, coauthor of Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes

About the Author

Leon J. Podles worked for twenty years as a Federal investigator. He received a Catholic education, attended seminary for a time, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He is author of The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity (Spence, 1999) and a Senior Editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity. His writing has appeared in America, The American Spectator, Crisis, and other publications. He serves on the board of BishopAccountability.org.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 676 pages
• Publisher: Crossland Press (November 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979027993
• ISBN-13: 978-0979027994
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #577,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for comprehending clergy sex abuse, December 4, 2007

By 

Thomas Patrick Doyle "Thomas P Doyle" (Vienna, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (Hardcover)

Podles has the investigative skills and background and the intellectual and academic credentials to present a book that not only tells the story of the tragic Catholic clergy sex abuse nightmare, but why it happened. This book is foundational to an accurate comprehension of this complex and highly emotional issue. Having read just about every book on the topic I find Podles' book a heavyweight in the very best sense. His style is somewhat unique in that he fortifies his analytical opinions with well laid out factual cases. The book reads well but it should and will evoke strong feelings as it brings to life one of the greatest scandals the instititional Catholic Church has faced and continues to experience.

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best yet, November 28, 2007

By 

Joseph C. Rigert - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (Hardcover)

As a journalist who has been doing research on clergy sex abuse for five years, I consider "Sacrilege" to be a seminal work, the best yet of the many books on this subject. It is biblical in its scope and depth. It provides telling detail of the horrific abuses of Catholic priests, but goes beyond that to blame the bishops for condoning and covering up this worst scandal in the history of the American Catholic church. And it puts a proper focus on the children who suffered greatly from the abuses. I recommend this book as a must read for all those who want to know how a lack of accountability allowed a huge religious bureaucracy to become corrupted at the core.--Joe Rigert, Minneapolis, MN.

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's OK to Be Angry, December 18, 2007

By 

HoustonReviewer (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (Hardcover)

Leon Podles is angry, and wants us to be angry, too. He wants us to be angry at the sin of sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy. But more than that, he also wants us to be angry at the bishops and pope for not being angry at that same sin. That's what irks him about this crisis more than anything else--never have the bishops or popes expressed any anger that priests molested kids or that other bishops covered it up and transferred the predators to new hunting grounds.

Podles had done his work well. Others who have written about the sexual abuse crisis, including Jason Berry and Gerald Renner, give us great detail about particular epicenters of the crisis and their own journeys as they covered the stories, but Podles' work stands out as a masterful portrayal of the big picture, linking the stories Berry and Renner reported with stories from other times and places. He paints with broad strokes in places, but gets into some very fine detail in others to help us to grasp the magnitude of some truly horrendous cases. Podles also gives us analysis of the abusers and the victims, and of how each was treated by bishops, and what went wrong.

The bishops are clearly the focal point of his anger. He asks pointed questions:

"Why hadn't bishops ever gotten angry at abusers? Why were abusers treated so gently, when men who left the priesthood to marry were treated so harshly? Why had bishops lied to parents? Why hadn't they disciplined their clergy, when they seemed so eager to micromanage everything else in America, from what married couples did in bed to what the government did about immigration?"(3)

But he goes further, seeing the crisis as about more than the bishops and the priests they coddled: Catholic culture is implicated; specifically a narcissistic clericalism in which the laity, including police and judges and prosecutors colluded.