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A Gospel of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse, and the Catholic Church Paperback – June 1, 2002

by Frank Bruni (Author), Elinor Burkett (Author)

3.9 10 ratings

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The relentless crescendo of revelations of sexual abuse in the nation's Catholic churches has rocked the nation. Just how widespread is child sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy? And why hasn't the Catholic church done more to stop it?

In A Gospel of Shame, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalists Elinor Burkett and Frank Bruni provide the answers to these questions and more. The answers, however, turn out to be infuriating and heartbreaking, difficult to accept but impossible to dismiss. The authors thoroughly document dozens of cases across the country and reveal how this heinous abuse of trust has been tacitly sanctioned by the Church's silence.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper Perennial
Publication date

June 1, 2002
Dimensions

5.31 x 0.76 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0060522321
ISBN-13

978-0060522322
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From the Back Cover

The relentless crescendo of revelations of sexual abuse in the nation's Catholic churches has rocked the nation. Just how widespread is child sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy? And why hasn't the Catholic church done more to stop it?

In A Gospel of Shame, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalists Elinor Burkett and Frank Bruni provide the answers to these questions and more. The answers, however, turn out to be infuriating and heartbreaking, difficult to accept but impossible to dismiss. The authors thoroughly document dozens of cases across the country and reveal how this heinous abuse of trust has been tacitly sanctioned by the Church's silence.

About the Author

Frank Bruni, a reporter in the Washington bureau of the New York Times, now writes full-time for the Times Sunday magazine. For his previous work on other subjects, he was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing and a winner of the Polk Award for Metropolitan Reporting. He has appeared on ABC-TV's Nightline and other programs to talk about the Bush campaign and presidency.

Elinor Burkett has worked as a newspaper reporter, university professor, and magazine writer. A Pulitzer Prize—nominated journalist and the author of eight previous books, she divides her time between the Catskill Mountains of New York and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial (June 1, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060522321
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060522322
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.76 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,840,735 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #21,572 in Catholicism (Books)

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3.9 10 ratings

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Jennifer

Powerful book

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2024

This is a powerful book telling a sick story, or stories of abuse. This is not fiction as one reviewer says. I wish it were. This book was cathartic for the victims spoken about. Thank you to the authors!

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Amazon Customer

Distinction between new or used was not clear

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2024

Verified Purchase

I thought I had ordered a new book. This one was marked up and pages were starting to yellow. It had been delayed in shipment,again, I thought, because it was a new book.

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Bill Corporandy

Lackof Integrity, Lack of Remorse, Catholicism in Trouble

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2002

Bruni and Burkett have written a decent, balanced book on the explosive subject of priests' and nuns' sexual abuse of children. What strikes the reader is that even though this book was written 9 years ago, little has changed in terms of the level of abuse and the ignorance, intransigence, insensitivity and immoral choices of Church officials in dealing with the burgeoning scandal. There is a preface and afterword to the 2002 edition that offer some new information and developments but one wishes for more updated information. Some of the accounts in the main body of the book are truly horrific: priests abusing 3 year olds, a child in traction in a hospital bed,violent rapes,etc.; a priest orchestrating a group of boys in a sick and blasphemous nude rendition of the stations of the Cross and Crucifixion, priests forcing prepubescent girls to defecate on them, etc. The authors do give us some psychological insights into priestly abusers, their stunted emotional growth and lack of sexual maturity and the lack of psychological insight of bishops who forgave the abusers and allowed them to continue their patterns of abuse. There is also a brief historical perspective tracing child abuse back to Roman and Medieval times. The expulsion of the Muslims from Spain was followed by a celebration in which Church authorities passed around liquor and small children to be used for sex. We are also told about the devastatingly adverse affects on the lives of more current victims. Bruni and Burkett also write compassionately about another group of victims, innocent priests who have had to bear the insults of bigots. Many priests have also suffered a loss of confidence about their calling and often feel there is an unspoken presumption of their guilt on the part of parishioners who are less friendly, less trusting. This is a good book, well worth reading, but one hopes for a more thoroughly updated account with a deeper probing of all aspects of the problem.

13 people found this helpful

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Janice Inman

GOSPEL OF SHAME--A MISNOMER

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2003

The word "gospel" means "good news" and there is little good news in this book about pedophile priests and the massive coverup by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. It is a "must read" for all of those who, like me, were completely unaware of decades of sexual abuse of children by pedophile priests.
When I saw the movie in the 1980s about Father Gilbert Gauthe, a predatory priest in Louisiana whose story is told in this book, I thought it was an isolated incident by an evil priest. I knew nothing more about this appalling corruption in the Catholic Church until 2002 when terrible stories of thousands of abused children started being publicized in courageous newspapers, magazines, and books.
I classify this book as courageous also and commend the authors for all the dedicated research and unbiased reporting. The book was originally published in 1993, so the shock waves of scandal that erupted in the year 2002 are not contained therein except in the Introduction and Afterword.
The chapters of the book are divided into stories about the main players--the abusive priests, the victims and their parents, the uncaring hierarchy who wanted only to protect their priests and the image of the Catholic Church and cared nothing about the victims, and the unspoken covenant between the hierarchy and the court system, the mental health workers, the social workers, and the media, which kept these dark, ugly events shrouded in secrecy for decades.
The book details a possible path to redemption for the church, which I feel will be a road not taken by the hierarchy. They revere their power and control more than their desire to protect helpless children from evil priests.
The book ends by describing the group called VOCAL (Victims of Clergy Abuse Linkup), now renamed The Linkup. The victims, getting no help from the Catholic Church, started suing the abusers and the dioceses. The revolt has begun.
After reading this book, I understand more about why abusive priests prey on helpless children and why the church protects the priests by transferring them from parish to parish, thereby putting other innocent children in harm's way. I feel absolutely no empathy for the priests or bishops/cardinals.
When reading one horror story after another, I found myself thinking that abusive priests at least have an excuse. They are either sick or evil. However, there is no excuse for the hard-hearted bishops/cardinals who threatened the victims and concerned parents and lied with impunity.
I like to think that the bishops/cardinals were good men at one time. After all, they were priests themselves so that means they had a pastoral calling to shepherd their flock. This book made me question what happened on their climb to the top of the corporate ladder? The book describes them as clones of each other--pompous, arrogant, self-righteous liars. Their love for their own image and that of the medieval institutional church has eclipsed their love for the people in the church (including children) as the Body of Christ.
I asked myself, "Are there any good men left in the church?" This book gives me hope as it describes three heroic good men: Reverend Thomas Doyle, Dr. Richard McBrien, and Dr. Richard Sipe. They tried to be messengers of truth and warning, but the bishops, cardinals, and Rome did not care, did not listen, and did not act. They were complicit in their silence.
This book made me question whether or not I wanted to stay in a church that has proven to be so corrupt and uncaring. I had my own epiphany: "Yes. Stay in the church to which I have called you. The Spirit is moving through the church and great changes will be wrought. If you and other good people leave the church, the evildoers will have won." Peace came to my heart. I will stay with the Catholic Church that I love and watch as the Spirit cleanses the church from the contamination of evil that has invaded it.

13 people found this helpful

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readerg

Zero stars

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2010

If you're looking for a great example of vile anti-Catholic bigotry this is certainly the book for you. The two authors are simply the latest in a long line of haters of the Catholic Church who suspect anything and everything about the Church of Christ and are more than willing to smear their bile all over the written page.
They actually use as one of their sources Denis Diderot's despicable fictional work "La Religieuse" which even at the time (late 1700's) was known as a "practical joke".

But somehow these two authors have taken it as a serious work worthy of being used as an historical source. Diderot, who labeled himself the "enemy of God", was one of the writers whose works laid the basis for the bloody anti-Church French Revolution, and one wonders what writers like Bruni and Burkett are up to in foisting this unhistorical piece of fictional garbage on an unsuspecting public.

The shame is on them.

5 people found this helpful

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