Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal
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3.3 • 9 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction Book of 2013
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2013
An Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime Nominee
An explosive, sweeping account of the scandal that has sent the Catholic Church into a tailspin -- and the brave few who fought for justice
In the mid-1980s a dynamic young monsignor assigned to the Vatican's embassy in Washington set out to investigate the problem of sexually abusive priests. He found a scandal in the making, confirmed by secret files revealing complaints that had been hidden from police and covered up by the Church hierarchy. He also understood that the United States judicial system was eager to punish offenders and those who aided them. He presented all of this to the American bishops, warning that the Church could be devastated by negative publicity and bankrupted by its legal liability. They ignored him.
Meanwhile, a young lawyer listened to a new client describe an abusive sexual history with a priest that began when he was ten years old. His parents' complaints were downplayed by Church officials who offered them money to go away. The lawyer saw a claim that any defendant would want to settle. Then he began to suspect he was onto something bigger, involving thousands of priests who had abused countless children while the Church had done almost nothing about it. The lawsuit he filed would touch off a legal war of historic and global proportions.
Part history, part journalism, and part true-crime thriller, Michael D'Antonio's Mortal Sins brings to mind landmark books such as All the President's Men, And the Band Played On, and The Informant, as it reveals a long and ferocious battle for the soul of the largest and oldest organization in the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pulitzer Prize winning journo D'Antonio (Atomic Harvest) pens what will be widely regarded as the definitive history of the Catholic Church's "most severe crisis since the Reformation": the revelations of endemic sexual abuse of minors by priests in the United States and Europe. Employing his considerable gift for sifting through mountains of facts, the author carves out a coherent and enthralling narrative, and brings the long-running tragedy to life by focusing on the handful of individuals responsible for bravely exposing the pain and horror of the abused children. In 1984, American priest Thomas Doyle learned of a lawsuit brought by parents of a victim, and was deeply troubled by his superiors' callous nonchalance toward the suit, and more alarmingly, toward the suffering child. (When Doyle asked a monsignor, "What are you doing for the boys?," he responded, "As far as I know, nothing.") Along with plaintiffs' attorney Jeffrey Anderson, Doyle and a few others worked tirelessly to get the church, the media, and the public to pay attention; their persistence eventually paid off. D'Antonio peoples his reportage with fully realized individuals, and their plight not to mention the stakes makes for feverish reading.
