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BOOKS ON THE CATHOLIC SEXUAL ABUSE CRISIS
AND RELATED ISSUES
This list includes many perspectives on the crisis: traditional
Catholic, progressive Catholic, and analysis by scholars and journalists
unaffiliated with the church. Listing does not constitute endorsement.
Please email
us with suggestions for adding to the list.
If you are interested in purchasing one of these books, may we suggest
that you click on the Powells icon below and do your buying at that wonderful
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pictures of each book, which will bring you directly to the appropriate
Powells Web page for the book that interests you.
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The Investigative Staff
of the Boston Globe, Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic
Church (Boston MA: Little, Brown, 2002). Amazon
Hardcover Price: $16.77
An account of the crisis from a Boston perspective, by the Pulitzer
Prize-winning team that covered the story so aggressively for the
Boston Globe in 2002. With 40 pages of documents in facsimile.
"The only reason that some of the truth has been revealed
is because the Boston Globe got a judge to open documents
that the Boston archdiocese fought to keep closed." - Peggy Noonan,
Wall Street Journal |
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Catechism of the
Catholic Church (2d ed., Washington DC: United
States Catholic Conference, 2000) with glossary and analytical index.
Amazon Paperback Price: $10.47
The official compendium of Catholic doctrine sets out church teaching
on such relevant matters as homosexuality, the role of bishops, and
the status of the laity. "A sure norm for teaching the
faith" and an "authentic reference text." - Pope John
Paul II |
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Donald B. Cozzens, The
Changing Face of the Priesthood
(Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2000). Amazon Paperback
Price: $10.47
Cozzens draws on his experience as a seminary rector to examine the
problems and promise of the contemporary priesthood. Includes a frank
discussion of seminary formation and homosexuality among priests.
"The reading and discussion of this work by priests and
parishioners alike will provide insight, argumentation, challenge
and hope." - Bishop Robert Morneau |
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Cardinal John Henry Newman,
Conscience, Consensus, and the Development of Doctrine
(New York: Doubleday Image, 1992). Amazon Paperback Price: $22.95
Gathers four works by Newman that pertain to current discussions of
doctrine, dissent, papal authority, and the role of the laity: The
Theory of Developments in Religious Doctrine, An Essay on the Development
of Christian Doctrine, "On Consulting the Faithful in Matters
of Doctrine," and "Letter Addressed to His Grace the Duke
of Norfolk." |
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George Weigel, The
Courage to Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church
(New York: Basic, 2002). Amazon Hardcover Price: $15.40
Offers fidelity as a solution to the crisis, against the claims of
the "Light Brigade," whose dissenting Catholicism, Weigel
argues, is responsible for the mess. "Anybody ... will
find here a short, masterful, information-packed examination, a book
that is thoroughly trustworthy, and spot-on." - National
Review Online |
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Robert McClory, Faithful
Dissenters: Stories of Men and Women Who Loved and Changed the Church
(New York: Orbis, 2001). Amazon Paperback Price: $11.20
Tells the stories of Catherine of Siena, Thomas Aquinas, Mary Ward,
Yves Congar, and others who were viewed as dissenters by some of their
contemporaries, but who helped the church change and are no longer
seen as dissenting. "Makes fascinating and instructive
reading for all those who are convinced that faith is not an immovable
set of propositions, but rather an organic and growing treasure."
- William J. La Due |
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Benedict J. Groeschel,
From Scandal to Hope (with a preface by Timothy
M. Dolan, Huntington IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2002). Amazon Paperback
Price $9.95
Groeschel examines the roots of the current troubles, both within
and without the Catholic church. Calling upon the example of St. Francis,
the founder of the rule he and his fellow Franciscans observe, Fr.
Benedict encourages Catholics "to rebuild the Church, which is
falling into ruin." |
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Michael S. Rose, Goodbye,
Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church
(Washington DC: Regnery, 2002). Amazon Hardcover Price: $19.57
An orthodox analysis of the crisis that traces the problem to seminary
formation which, in Rose's view, prefers dissenting and homosexual
candidates to orthodox and heterosexual ones. "A devastating
account of what has been going on in Catholic seminaries. It will
unnerve readers of all philosophical bents and is certain to provoke
a very spirited debate." - William A. Donohue, President of the
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights |
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Frank Bruni and Elinor
Burkett, A Gospel of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse, and the Catholic
Church (New York: Harper Perennial, 2002, with
a new introduction and afterword by the authors; originally published
by Viking, 1993). Amazon Paperback Price: $11.16
An early study that analyzes the cooperation between church and government
to keep clergy abuse secret. One focus of the book is Frank Fitzpatrick's
successful pursuit of James Porter. "What makes the
book noteworthy is its attempt to show the hesitation by the media,
the mental health community, and law enforcement agencies to treat
priests like other sexual offenders." - Library Journal |
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Thomas J. Reese, Inside
the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church
(Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1996). Amazon Paperback Price:
$12.57
A firsthand look at the people, the politics, and the organization
of the Vatican, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, now so important in the church's handling of abuse cases.
"This even-handed and meticulously researched study of Vatican
City and the papal bureaucracy couldn't come at a better time."
- San Francisco Chronicle |
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Jason Berry, Lead
Us Not into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children
(Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press, 2000; originally published
by Doubleday, 1992). Amazon Paperback Price: $13.97
Jason Berry's groundbreaking story of the Gauthe sexual abuse case
in Louisiana and its continuing implications. "The church
itself could not have asked for a more fair-minded instrument of its
own indictment." -USA Today |
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Paul Lakeland, The
Liberation of the Laity: In Search of an Accountable Church
(New York: Continuum, 2002). Amazon Hardcover Price: $20.27
Lakeland, professor of religious studies at Fairfield University,
surveys the development of a theology of the laity between the first
and second Vatican Councils, culminating in the work of Yves Congar.
He describes how the church can recover from what he sees as the missed
opportunities of the post-conciliar years and bring accountability
to the bishops through lay involvement in ministry and governing structures.
"Nothing less than a blueprint for the future of the church....
His theology of the laity is indeed liberating--and timely."
- Donald Cozzens |
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John P. Beal, James A.
Coriden, and Thomas J. Green, eds., New Commentary on the Code
of Canon Law (New York: Paulist Press, 2000).
Amazon Hardcover Price: $62.97
An entirely new and comprehensive commentary by canonists from North
America and Europe, with a revised English translation of the Code,
this book was commissioned by the Canon Law Society of America. It
is an essential tool for researching the church law of tribunals,
pastoral and finance councils, and lay associations. "Its
historical depth and interpretive balance render the meaning of the
canons accessible not only to canon lawyers but to all those in the
church and beyond it who want to understand canon law." - Margaret
A. Farley, Yale University Divinity School |
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Paul E. Dinter, The
Other Side of the Altar: One Man's Life in the Catholic Priesthood
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003). Amazon Hardcover Price:
$16.10
Dinter describes his life as a priest ordained in the sixties, his
struggle with celibacy, and his departure from the priesthood in 1994,
disillusioned by what he sees as a church culture of denial and duplicity.
"Paul Dinter emerges as a significant truth teller . . .
honest, informative, and riveting . . . His honesty is moving and
at times wrenching." - Bill Cozzens, Commonweal |
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Philip Jenkins, Pedophiles
and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996; preface to paperback edition,
2000). Amazon Paperback Price: $4.49.
A challenging and revisionist analysis published after the Porter
scandal. "Describes the different connstituencies active in recognizing
and delineating the emerging problem," including the media, therapists,
traditionalists and progressives, feminists, and lawyers.
"A fine cautionary tale that should give all parties to the pedophile-priest
crisis something to think about." - New York Times Book Review |
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Peter Steinfels, A
People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003). Amazon Hardcover Price: $18.20
American Catholicism "is on the verge of either an irreversible
decline or a thoroughgoing transformation," according to Steinfels,
veteran religion reporter and writer of the "Beliefs" column
for the New York Times. "If you want to know
what is happening in the American Catholic Church, you must read this
book. It is provocative. You may find yourself arguing with the author's
diagnoses or his prescriptions for the future, but you will not be
able to ignore him." - Monika Hellwig, President of the Association
of Catholic Colleges and Universities |
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Donald Cozzens, Sacred
Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church
(Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2002). Amazon $13.97
Cozzens probes the conscious and unconscious dynamics that sustain
the Church’s culture of silence and points the Church in the
direction of candor and honest dialogue. "at once readable
and insightful ... [a] lucid, accessible, and sensitive consideration
of issues both deeply troubling and intensely important." - Margaret
Susan Thompson, Syracuse University |
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A.W. Richard Sipe, Sex,
Priests, and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis (New
York: Brunner-Routledge, 1995). Amazon Hardcover Price: $18.20
Sipe's second book on the crisis analyzes sexual abuse, AIDS in the
priesthood, and other problems, and their source, as he sees it, in
seminary formation and a fundamental tension between church structures
and doctrine and the biology of sexuality. "ambitious
and intellectually distinguished" - Andrea Dworkin |
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Paul Thigpen, ed., Shaken
by Scandals: Catholics Speak Out about Priests' Sexual Abuse
(Ann Arbor MI: Servant Publications). Amazon Paperback Price: $8.79.
An anthology of essays by Philip Lawler, Michael Novak, Rod Dreher,
Mark Shea, and others. Sections on understanding and responding to
the crisis are supplemented by scripture readings, reflections, prayers,
and a small collection of responses from church officials. |
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Mark D. Jordan, The
Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism
(Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press, 2002). Amazon Paperback
Price: $17.48 "Jordan investigates the ambiguous nature
of the historical and the contemporary relationship between Catholicism
and male homosexuality. Arguing that the Catholic Church is paradoxically
both homophobic and homoerotic, he analyzes the established, and essentially
hypocritical, church rhetoric concerning sexual morality." -
Margaret Flanagan, Booklist |
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Eugene Kennedy, The
Unhealed Wound: The Church, the Priesthood, and the Question of Sexuality
(New York: St. Martin's, 2001). Amazon Paperback Price $10.36
A study of human sexuality and the institutional church.
"Kennedy is a long-time observer of a church he clearly loves....
The Unhealed Wound will be a source of healing and liberation."
- National Catholic Reporter |
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