UNITED STATES
Huffington Post
Greg Archer
We live in an entertainment era filled with overdoses of testosterone. Let’s face it, even Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Willis refuse to let go of the bravura that catapulted them toward stardom decades ago, and female protagonists — really strong and embraceable ones — are often overshadowed by their male counterparts. We have made glorious headway in television, however — Viola Davis, Julianna Margulies and Edie Falco are among the ladies who have captured our attention in the last decade.
And, of course, we can always find compelling female characters in books, in all the forms they arrive in these days.
That said, it’s refreshing to discover a noteworthy female protagonist in Cate Harlow. She’s the fiery private investigator in author Kristen Houghton’s latest endeavor, For I Have Sinned, a memorable read peppered with sass, shame and the sex controversies surrounding Catholic priests. That may sound like a tall order to fill, but Houghton manages to thread together an engaging and often suspenseful outing.
Only those who’ve had their ears clogged with unholy water during the last three decades would be surprised to learn of the brouhaha surrounding Catholic sex abuse cases. Numerous allegations, investigations, trials and convictions of these child sex abuse cases first began chipping away at the church’s spiritual foundation decades ago, but it wasn’t until 2002, when the Boston Globe, began a deep investigation into the matter, that the scandals involving priests and other Catholic officials, spawned more headlines and regularly made the evening news. That a bevy of cases were brought against certain titans of the Catholic church who never reported sexual abuse allegations, preferring to, instead, save face and move abusive priests to other parishes, is yet another sin could forget — or forgive. Since 2001, however, we’ve uncovered more news that over the last 50 years, there have been allegations of roughly 3,000 priests.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.