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The Smoke of Satan: How Corrupt and Cowardly Bishops Betrayed Christ, His Church, and the Faithful...and What Can be Done About It
The sex-abuse scandal, which has erupted anew in 2018, poses the greatest challenge that the Catholic Church has faced since the Reformation. In The Smoke of Satan, veteran Catholic journalist Philip Lawler explains why the crisis is even more severe than when it first commanded headlines in 2002, and how the failure of Church leaders goes all the way to the Vatican.
In this unflinching look at the crisis threatening the Church and her members, Lawler:
Shows how the sex-abuse scandal is not a question of pedophilia, but of homosexual activity within the clergy.
Explains how Catholic bishops have developed a habit of covering up serious problems, to avoid the serious divisions that have developed within the faith since Vatican II.
Demonstrates a catastrophic rupture in Church unity, causing a breakdown in morale and discipline among priests, bishops, and laity, paving the way for the current crisis.
Reveals the growth of a faction within the Vatican that is ready to make peace with secularism.
Details the charges in the explosive “Vigano testimony,”— and the efforts by Vatican officials including Pope Francis himself to ward off a thorough investigation.
Concludes with a program for reform, led by faithful lay Catholics, demanding a new policy of candor and a forthright proclamation of Church teaching.
This crisis, brought about by the failures of corrupt and cowardly bishops and clerics, has been allowed to fester long enough. It is well past time for serious action to be taken at every level before more lives are ruined, more souls are lost, and more fractures divide the Church.
In these pages, Lawler details the problems besetting the Church…and lays out a clear plan to overcome them in order that the Church and Her members may once again thrive and bring souls to Christ.
In this unflinching look at the crisis threatening the Church and her members, Lawler:
Shows how the sex-abuse scandal is not a question of pedophilia, but of homosexual activity within the clergy.
Explains how Catholic bishops have developed a habit of covering up serious problems, to avoid the serious divisions that have developed within the faith since Vatican II.
Demonstrates a catastrophic rupture in Church unity, causing a breakdown in morale and discipline among priests, bishops, and laity, paving the way for the current crisis.
Reveals the growth of a faction within the Vatican that is ready to make peace with secularism.
Details the charges in the explosive “Vigano testimony,”— and the efforts by Vatican officials including Pope Francis himself to ward off a thorough investigation.
Concludes with a program for reform, led by faithful lay Catholics, demanding a new policy of candor and a forthright proclamation of Church teaching.
This crisis, brought about by the failures of corrupt and cowardly bishops and clerics, has been allowed to fester long enough. It is well past time for serious action to be taken at every level before more lives are ruined, more souls are lost, and more fractures divide the Church.
In these pages, Lawler details the problems besetting the Church…and lays out a clear plan to overcome them in order that the Church and Her members may once again thrive and bring souls to Christ.
216 pages, Paperback
Published November 5, 2018
216 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Philip F. Lawler
20 books8 followersPhil Lawler is the editor of Catholic World News (CWN), the first English-language Catholic news service operating on the internet, which he founded in 1995. CWN provides daily headline news coverage for the Catholic Culture site, where Phil Lawler also offers regular analysis and commentary.
Born and raised in the Boston area, Phil attended Harvard College and did graduate work in political philosophy at the University of Chicago before entering a career in journalism. He has previously served as Director of Studies for the Heritage Foundation, as editor of Crisis magazine, and as editor of the international monthly magazine Catholic World Report.
His essays, book reviews, and editorial columns have appeared in over 100 newspapers around the United States and abroad. A pro-life activist and veteran of many political campaigns, Phil was himself a candidate for the US Senate in 2000, running against the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
Born and raised in the Boston area, Phil attended Harvard College and did graduate work in political philosophy at the University of Chicago before entering a career in journalism. He has previously served as Director of Studies for the Heritage Foundation, as editor of Crisis magazine, and as editor of the international monthly magazine Catholic World Report.
His essays, book reviews, and editorial columns have appeared in over 100 newspapers around the United States and abroad. A pro-life activist and veteran of many political campaigns, Phil was himself a candidate for the US Senate in 2000, running against the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
December 27, 2018
A very timely book that the author rushed out in light of the newest round of scandals in the Catholic Church in America. While this offering is from a "conservative" writer (Phil Lawler) and is published by a house with a "traditionalist" bent (Tan), the prospective reader should not be particularly drawn to, or repulsed by, those factors. I think the subtitle rather unfortunate because, while Lawler makes no bones about his problem with bishops (a particular focus of the Conclusion), much of the book challenges the lay faithful (those in all places on the "conservative"-"liberal" scale) to reform.
Lawler goes into some detail outlining the current problems in the Church (not just the recent scandals -- although he aims at those in the first two chapters) and how we got here. He sees Vatican II as a major turning point but not because he has problems with the council itself but because of how it was misappropriated by those with agendas foreign to the Fathers who developed the documents resulting from those gathereings.
He does not stop at detailing the problems but offers solutions, or at least actions, by the laity to slow down or even reverse the trends of a shrinking Church too often failing to declare boldly the truths of the Catholic Faith (without and within). The closing pages have lists of do's and don'ts, worthy of thoughtful consideration and implementations, that will lead to a "Catholic revival," as he puts it.
Live George Weigel's "Evangelical Catholicism" before it, this is a must read for serious Catholics of all stripes. One might not agree with all of the analyses and prescriptions (as mentioned earlier, no group is spared criticism) but it will provide food for thought for every person who wishes to evangelize outside the Church and within.
Lawler goes into some detail outlining the current problems in the Church (not just the recent scandals -- although he aims at those in the first two chapters) and how we got here. He sees Vatican II as a major turning point but not because he has problems with the council itself but because of how it was misappropriated by those with agendas foreign to the Fathers who developed the documents resulting from those gathereings.
He does not stop at detailing the problems but offers solutions, or at least actions, by the laity to slow down or even reverse the trends of a shrinking Church too often failing to declare boldly the truths of the Catholic Faith (without and within). The closing pages have lists of do's and don'ts, worthy of thoughtful consideration and implementations, that will lead to a "Catholic revival," as he puts it.
Live George Weigel's "Evangelical Catholicism" before it, this is a must read for serious Catholics of all stripes. One might not agree with all of the analyses and prescriptions (as mentioned earlier, no group is spared criticism) but it will provide food for thought for every person who wishes to evangelize outside the Church and within.
April 12, 2021
A powerful read that offers a great deal of insight and information. The fact that people fail is no huge surprise. The fact that humanity recognizes our failures and that we can grow beyond them inspires real hope.
May 22, 2024
A CATHOLIC JOURNALIST LOOKS AT CLERGY SEX ABUSE AND OTHER ISSUES
Philip F. Lawler is Editor of Catholic World News, and a prominent Catholic Journalist. He wrote in the first chapter of this 2018 book, “How did our bishops lose the confidence of the faithful, and how can the profound damage to the Church be repaired? This book is written in an effort to answer those questions. On one level, the first question can be answered quite simply. The bishops lost our confidence because, as a group, they were---and were shown to be---dishonest. They covered up evidence of sexual abuse and misled the public with claims that the problem had been resolved. Still worse, their dishonesty continued even after their negligence had been painfully, thoroughly exposed… Somehow bishops had become convinced that by suppressing the truth about clerical misconduct, they were serving the Church… This habit of dishonesty, I will argue, has been built up in the Catholic hierarchy through years of avoiding conflicts, managing the control of information, and preserving appearances---all motivated by a powerful desire to avoid confronting some fundamental problems… Pope Paul’s evocative image of the ‘smoke of Satan’ also suggested that the atmosphere within the Church had been tainted, that vision had been obscured, so that pastors no longer saw issues clearly. And sad to say… Pope Paul was unable to avert it. The secular tide kept rising, while the divisions within the Catholic community grew wider.” (Pg. 4-8)
He recounts that in August 2018, “The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania released a devastating grand jury report on sexual within the Church, covering seventy years of clerical misconduct. The report was heart-rending… There were hundreds of cases in which priests molested children, and when bishops failed to take effective action, the children were molested again. Some of the abuse was gruesome almost beyond belief: groups of priests who passed around their young partners, rapists who forced their victims to pose on crosses in a bizarre parody of the Crucifixion that suggested satanic involvement… In one case after another, bishops shuffled the predators from one parish to another, helping them to avoid detection… there were no prosecutions planned; the statute of limitations protected the accused priests---if they were still alive.” (Pg. 20)
He reports, “Archbishop Viganò’s remarkable letter hit Church leaders like a thunderbolt. Never before had a veteran Curial official made such a detailed charge against top Vatican officials, including the pope himself. The archbishop… had also implicated three Vatican Secretaries of State… in the cover-up of abuse. If the Viganò testimony was accurate, the Vatican administration was thoroughly corrupt… Pope Francis himself was almost entirely silent about the Viganò testimony… The pope’s defenders… reminded reporters that Archbishop Viganò had clashed with other officials at the Vatican during his tenure there… Now he was taking his revenge, they hinted… In fact, Archbishop Viganò himself had joined in ceremonies with the disgraced cardinals…. Even someone inclined to believe the Viganò testimony was forced to acknowledge that on several points, his accounts … seemed inconsistent with known facts. But on each point, there was a plausible explanation for the inconsistency…” (Pg. 22-24)
He summarizes, “The picture that emerged in the summer of 2018, then, was not simply a matter of sinful priests and overly lenient bishops. Something more sinister was visible here: a fifth column within the clergy a cabal of priests (and bishops and even cardinals) with purposes radically at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church.” (Pg. 37-38)
He explains, “spokesmen for the American bishops have taken great pains to insist that there is no scientific evidence of a tie between pedophilia and homosexuality. That statement is true, if the issue is ‘true’ pedophilia---that is an attraction to young children. The horrible cases of true pedophilia, involving the brutal molestation of children too young and innocent to understand … understandably caused the greatest outrage when the tales of abuse were told. But the vast majority of cases … involving Catholic clerics---well over 80 percent---involved teenage boys. An attraction to teenagers is not true pedophilia.” (Pg. 41-42)
He admits, “We KNOW that bishops have lied. We know that other bishops were aware of the lies. And we know that the liars have never acknowledged, much less apologized for, their offenses. The case-studies of 2002 had shown how often bishops, upon receiving a complaint about sexual abuse, had not only denied the truth but also attacked the messenger who brought the complaint.” (Pg. 47)
He observes, “In a typical American Catholic parish today, only a small handful of people take advantage of the opportunity for sacramental confession on Saturday… but hundreds line up to receive Communion on Sunday. One would have to be willfully blind… to deny that simple arithmetic supports the conclusion that many Catholics are receiving the Eucharist while in a state of sin, committing sacrilege and endangering their immortal souls.” (Pg. 68)
He notes, “Oddly enough, while American bishops have been extraordinarily patient with proponents of theological dissent and liturgical novelty, they have often been quite intolerant of criticism from the other end of the spectrum… Which Catholics are criticized more frequently in diocesan newspaper editorials: those who persistent attack the Church’s teachings on controversial issues are those who stalwartly defend them? Sadly, the latter. Catholic groups lobbying for the ordination of women are treated more cordially than those asking for the widespread availability of the traditional Latin Mass. Bishops are more likely to rebuke loyal Catholics who complain about religious-education programs than to correct the teachers who are introducing strange ideas. Pious Catholics learn… that often Church leaders are more polite to those who have contempt for doctrine than they are to those who strive to live their lives in accordance with it. Why is this? One main reason… is that our bishops learned from experience that they can use their authority to rein in critics on one end of the spectrum but not the other… Catholics who respect the bishop’s authority may grumble about his policies, but ultimately they will feel bound in conscience to accept them… In short, the rules are applied to those who will obey the rules.” (Pg. 72-74)
He asserts, “What I do NOT understand is the comparative case with which American political leaders today convince Catholic leaders to must their public criticism of immoral public policies… For forty years not, prominent Catholic politicians have defied the teachings of the Church by supporting legal abortion… Catholic politicians have become even more brazen in their defiance, and bishops even more reluctant to confront them, so that now it would take a great deal more courage for a prelate to announce that an erring public figure cannot receive the Eucharist until he repents…” (Pg. 87-88)
He states, “working-class Catholics bequeathed us beautiful churches, parish schools, hospitals, and universities. Now many of those churches and schools are closed, while the hospitals are being sold off to secular corporations. We cannot ignore the spending of over $3 billion to pay the costs incurred by an inexcusable failure to curb sexual abuse among the clergy---a squandering of resources that has not driven ten dioceses into bankruptcy.” (Pg. 114-115)
He argues, “If there is one issue on which the teachings of the Catholic Church are most dramatically at odds with the common morality of Americans today, it is the issue of contraception… Everyone knows that the Catholic Church regards contraception as a grave evil… [Yet] at least 90 percent of Catholic couples use contraception…Clearly the Church has failed to communicate a convincing against contraception to the vast majority of her own faithful. If ‘everyone knows’ that the Church sees contraception as gravely wrong and yet ‘everyone knows’ that most Catholics persist in using birth control, the Catholic community is exposed to charges of hypocrisy.” (Pg. 121)
He summarizes, “The years of moral decadence in American public life have undeniably coincided with years of decline in the practice of the Catholic faith… if we hope for Catholicism to exsert a positive moral force upon our society, we must restore the active practice of the Catholic faith. We must address the internal problems of the Church before we can solve the troubles of society…” (Pg. 149)
This book will be of keen interest to Conservative and Traditional Catholics.
Philip F. Lawler is Editor of Catholic World News, and a prominent Catholic Journalist. He wrote in the first chapter of this 2018 book, “How did our bishops lose the confidence of the faithful, and how can the profound damage to the Church be repaired? This book is written in an effort to answer those questions. On one level, the first question can be answered quite simply. The bishops lost our confidence because, as a group, they were---and were shown to be---dishonest. They covered up evidence of sexual abuse and misled the public with claims that the problem had been resolved. Still worse, their dishonesty continued even after their negligence had been painfully, thoroughly exposed… Somehow bishops had become convinced that by suppressing the truth about clerical misconduct, they were serving the Church… This habit of dishonesty, I will argue, has been built up in the Catholic hierarchy through years of avoiding conflicts, managing the control of information, and preserving appearances---all motivated by a powerful desire to avoid confronting some fundamental problems… Pope Paul’s evocative image of the ‘smoke of Satan’ also suggested that the atmosphere within the Church had been tainted, that vision had been obscured, so that pastors no longer saw issues clearly. And sad to say… Pope Paul was unable to avert it. The secular tide kept rising, while the divisions within the Catholic community grew wider.” (Pg. 4-8)
He recounts that in August 2018, “The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania released a devastating grand jury report on sexual within the Church, covering seventy years of clerical misconduct. The report was heart-rending… There were hundreds of cases in which priests molested children, and when bishops failed to take effective action, the children were molested again. Some of the abuse was gruesome almost beyond belief: groups of priests who passed around their young partners, rapists who forced their victims to pose on crosses in a bizarre parody of the Crucifixion that suggested satanic involvement… In one case after another, bishops shuffled the predators from one parish to another, helping them to avoid detection… there were no prosecutions planned; the statute of limitations protected the accused priests---if they were still alive.” (Pg. 20)
He reports, “Archbishop Viganò’s remarkable letter hit Church leaders like a thunderbolt. Never before had a veteran Curial official made such a detailed charge against top Vatican officials, including the pope himself. The archbishop… had also implicated three Vatican Secretaries of State… in the cover-up of abuse. If the Viganò testimony was accurate, the Vatican administration was thoroughly corrupt… Pope Francis himself was almost entirely silent about the Viganò testimony… The pope’s defenders… reminded reporters that Archbishop Viganò had clashed with other officials at the Vatican during his tenure there… Now he was taking his revenge, they hinted… In fact, Archbishop Viganò himself had joined in ceremonies with the disgraced cardinals…. Even someone inclined to believe the Viganò testimony was forced to acknowledge that on several points, his accounts … seemed inconsistent with known facts. But on each point, there was a plausible explanation for the inconsistency…” (Pg. 22-24)
He summarizes, “The picture that emerged in the summer of 2018, then, was not simply a matter of sinful priests and overly lenient bishops. Something more sinister was visible here: a fifth column within the clergy a cabal of priests (and bishops and even cardinals) with purposes radically at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church.” (Pg. 37-38)
He explains, “spokesmen for the American bishops have taken great pains to insist that there is no scientific evidence of a tie between pedophilia and homosexuality. That statement is true, if the issue is ‘true’ pedophilia---that is an attraction to young children. The horrible cases of true pedophilia, involving the brutal molestation of children too young and innocent to understand … understandably caused the greatest outrage when the tales of abuse were told. But the vast majority of cases … involving Catholic clerics---well over 80 percent---involved teenage boys. An attraction to teenagers is not true pedophilia.” (Pg. 41-42)
He admits, “We KNOW that bishops have lied. We know that other bishops were aware of the lies. And we know that the liars have never acknowledged, much less apologized for, their offenses. The case-studies of 2002 had shown how often bishops, upon receiving a complaint about sexual abuse, had not only denied the truth but also attacked the messenger who brought the complaint.” (Pg. 47)
He observes, “In a typical American Catholic parish today, only a small handful of people take advantage of the opportunity for sacramental confession on Saturday… but hundreds line up to receive Communion on Sunday. One would have to be willfully blind… to deny that simple arithmetic supports the conclusion that many Catholics are receiving the Eucharist while in a state of sin, committing sacrilege and endangering their immortal souls.” (Pg. 68)
He notes, “Oddly enough, while American bishops have been extraordinarily patient with proponents of theological dissent and liturgical novelty, they have often been quite intolerant of criticism from the other end of the spectrum… Which Catholics are criticized more frequently in diocesan newspaper editorials: those who persistent attack the Church’s teachings on controversial issues are those who stalwartly defend them? Sadly, the latter. Catholic groups lobbying for the ordination of women are treated more cordially than those asking for the widespread availability of the traditional Latin Mass. Bishops are more likely to rebuke loyal Catholics who complain about religious-education programs than to correct the teachers who are introducing strange ideas. Pious Catholics learn… that often Church leaders are more polite to those who have contempt for doctrine than they are to those who strive to live their lives in accordance with it. Why is this? One main reason… is that our bishops learned from experience that they can use their authority to rein in critics on one end of the spectrum but not the other… Catholics who respect the bishop’s authority may grumble about his policies, but ultimately they will feel bound in conscience to accept them… In short, the rules are applied to those who will obey the rules.” (Pg. 72-74)
He asserts, “What I do NOT understand is the comparative case with which American political leaders today convince Catholic leaders to must their public criticism of immoral public policies… For forty years not, prominent Catholic politicians have defied the teachings of the Church by supporting legal abortion… Catholic politicians have become even more brazen in their defiance, and bishops even more reluctant to confront them, so that now it would take a great deal more courage for a prelate to announce that an erring public figure cannot receive the Eucharist until he repents…” (Pg. 87-88)
He states, “working-class Catholics bequeathed us beautiful churches, parish schools, hospitals, and universities. Now many of those churches and schools are closed, while the hospitals are being sold off to secular corporations. We cannot ignore the spending of over $3 billion to pay the costs incurred by an inexcusable failure to curb sexual abuse among the clergy---a squandering of resources that has not driven ten dioceses into bankruptcy.” (Pg. 114-115)
He argues, “If there is one issue on which the teachings of the Catholic Church are most dramatically at odds with the common morality of Americans today, it is the issue of contraception… Everyone knows that the Catholic Church regards contraception as a grave evil… [Yet] at least 90 percent of Catholic couples use contraception…Clearly the Church has failed to communicate a convincing against contraception to the vast majority of her own faithful. If ‘everyone knows’ that the Church sees contraception as gravely wrong and yet ‘everyone knows’ that most Catholics persist in using birth control, the Catholic community is exposed to charges of hypocrisy.” (Pg. 121)
He summarizes, “The years of moral decadence in American public life have undeniably coincided with years of decline in the practice of the Catholic faith… if we hope for Catholicism to exsert a positive moral force upon our society, we must restore the active practice of the Catholic faith. We must address the internal problems of the Church before we can solve the troubles of society…” (Pg. 149)
This book will be of keen interest to Conservative and Traditional Catholics.
January 26, 2019
This was not a bad book, the reason for the lower rating is the lack of research. I get the feeling that the writer has cherry picked from facts and ideas that he likes (or agrees with) but ignore the science (both social and theological) that does not fit his decision. While I agree that the sexual abuse scandal is real and bishops have mishandled the matter, I think that the author does not understand the social science that has developed in the field of deviant sexuality (which is made notable by the total lack of scientific references in this area). Another example, the author makes no reference to why canon law was note used early in the scandal. In fact, canon law almost never makes an appearance (neither does civil law for the matter of that). Another example, to defend (I presume) Popes with whom he has greater agreement, he ignores their role in the crisis. As a result, I cannot recommend this particular book, but I would not condemn it either. Perhaps some (though not without qualification) of his "dos" and "don'ts" are possibly his best contribution.
December 18, 2018
One easy thing that every aspiring Catholic should do is this; VOTE, keeping the following in mind. Any politician who is pro-choice cannot be trusted with making public policy (quote by Saint Mother Teresa).
You can change the world. It starts with you. First pray. Second, Vote. When you VOTE know this: a pro-choice politician cannot be trusted with making public policy (quote by Saint Mother Teresa). Never VOTE for a pro-choice politician! Two easy steps between you and God. Thirdly, speak up. Your voice could be just what someone needs to hear. Be a good Catholic, go to Confession.
You can change the world. It starts with you. First pray. Second, Vote. When you VOTE know this: a pro-choice politician cannot be trusted with making public policy (quote by Saint Mother Teresa). Never VOTE for a pro-choice politician! Two easy steps between you and God. Thirdly, speak up. Your voice could be just what someone needs to hear. Be a good Catholic, go to Confession.
September 9, 2020
The book opens with dialogue exposing the corruption in the Catholic Church and the hierarchy that has enabled this behavior. Bishops are named and once again, you realize the expanse and depth of the issues and how the members of the clergy are protected all the way to Rome. Disgusting.
It moves on to a broader view of the church and its culture, post Vatican II, and the inconsistency of what it means to sin and offers ideas on how the religious clergy and laity can aid in bringing back the religious power the church once held. After reading this book, I question my own beliefs...how Catholic am I?
It moves on to a broader view of the church and its culture, post Vatican II, and the inconsistency of what it means to sin and offers ideas on how the religious clergy and laity can aid in bringing back the religious power the church once held. After reading this book, I question my own beliefs...how Catholic am I?
January 2, 2019
A must read by all who call themselves spiritual Catholics
The Smoke of Satan is a powerful look at the Catholic Church through historical truths and a where the Catholic Church is headed for today. It asks the question: Are we as Children of Jesus and our heavenly Father willing to make the sacrifices which must be made to bring our Faith back to Jesus.
The Smoke of Satan is a powerful look at the Catholic Church through historical truths and a where the Catholic Church is headed for today. It asks the question: Are we as Children of Jesus and our heavenly Father willing to make the sacrifices which must be made to bring our Faith back to Jesus.
March 18, 2019
A Catholic Revival is very much needed!
After reading this book, I am incredibly thankful that Philip F. Lawler has contributed his time, mind, and soul to this work, especially in aiding the Church. We are in grave need of the revival he speaks of, and the concluding chapter exquisitely wraps up the book.
After reading this book, I am incredibly thankful that Philip F. Lawler has contributed his time, mind, and soul to this work, especially in aiding the Church. We are in grave need of the revival he speaks of, and the concluding chapter exquisitely wraps up the book.
December 26, 2018
Worth the read!
The author presents the issues facing the Church today. He also unpacks the deeper cause which precipitated them. Finally there are “To-do’s” and “Dont’s” with practical steps to improve your life as Catholic.
The author presents the issues facing the Church today. He also unpacks the deeper cause which precipitated them. Finally there are “To-do’s” and “Dont’s” with practical steps to improve your life as Catholic.
December 10, 2018
A good analysis on what has gone wrong in the Church since Vatican II and it isn't limited to the sex abuse crisis. Gives some concrete steps that faithful Catholics can take to restore the Church.
December 13, 2018
Timely
Read this book to read what is right in your practice of the faith and the challenges and wrongs that have been festering.
Read this book to read what is right in your practice of the faith and the challenges and wrongs that have been festering.
July 3, 2019
powerful reading
I enjoyed this book to learn more now corrupt out church is. I want to the Catholic and never dreamed this stuff was going on.!
I enjoyed this book to learn more now corrupt out church is. I want to the Catholic and never dreamed this stuff was going on.!
November 16, 2021
Much of the material seemed already familiar. I appreciate the sentiment to address the corruption in the Church. But I did not agree that Vatican II and modernity hold the answers
September 4, 2019
If you want a really solid assessment of the 'Crisis in the Catholic Church' (pun intended from the Boston Globe's excellent 2003 book), Philip Lawler really does an excellent job of recapping recent history and articulating the complexities between the two opposing mindsets. This book is not a comfortable read - not that it's sexually graphic - rather, as Lawler opens up the story, he inadvertently takes the reader through a pseudo-examination of conscious. The only downside is that the book does seem to address an exclusively Catholic audience, which might be a hindrance for others to read (which is unfortunate because it's so rich). I have to admit, I would love for Catholic priests to read this book so that the understand where a major source of frustration is coming from within the 'flock'.
December 27, 2018
For anyone who has been following the sex abuse scandal, there's not a lot of new information here, as there's really only a chapter devoted to it. The other chapters, however, do a good job of hitting other issues involved in the scandal. There are a number of things at play with the Catholic Church these days and this book does well in explaining them. I'm hoping that at some point, there will be a far deeper investigative dive into the sex abuse scandal itself, but in order to do that, someone will really need access to documents with are under lock and key.
4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5 stars
December 12, 2020
Good recent history. Good use of many sources with excellent choice of further suggested reading in the back of the book. Many very good points made and suggestions for making a difference in renewal of the church. A little repetitive in the middle. A fairly quick read but interesting.
December 28, 2018
The title comes off like this is going to be a rant, but I was surprised at how even and respectful this book was. A great wake up call especially for those of us who work in ministry.
February 8, 2020
It's more of a 3.5 stars. I would have given it 4, but it got redundant towards the end.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews