Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church

Rating:
Summary: A painful read, but a must read
Review: 1. This book is an excellent investigation into what occured in Boston involving the Catholic church and sex abuse.

2. It is also an excellent book in explaining the power of the Catholic Church in the culture and politics of Boston. This power may explain why Cardinal Law and others were able to get away with such abuses of power.

3. This is an extremely painful read as it details exactly what occurred to these children while they were being abused.

4. With that said, THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ FOR ALL CATHOLICS!

Rating:
Summary: Kudo's to Globe Staff.
Review: Absolutely shocking!. An in depth review of the pedophile priest scandal that rocked the diocese of Boston and sent shock waves across America eventually rattling the Vatican.

The Globe staff gives us a sinister peek into the psyche of the malevolent pedophile. Conspiracy, treachery, cover-ups, payoffs...no stone goes unturned. A land mark in investigative reporting.

Rating:
Summary: Kudo's to Globe Staff.
Review: Absolutely shocking!. An in depth review of the pedophile priest scandal that rocked the diocese of Boston and sent shock waves across America eventually rattling the Vatican.

The Globe staff gives us a sinister peek into the psyche of the malevolent pedophile. Conspiracy, treachery, cover-ups, payoffs...no stone goes unturned. A land mark in investigative reporting.

Rating:
Summary: Betrayal The Crisis in the Catholic Church
Review: Although most of this information has been in the papers, it is a well written book and there are some real eye openers here!

Rating:
Summary: All the answers
Review: As a Catholic, recent events have left me questioning the leadership of the church. After reading this book, I feel like I understand how we've gotten to this point, who is responisible, and what we can do to make things better and get on with our lives in the church. This book gave me hope that we will come out of this stronger than ever. Everyone looking for answers, and healing or hope, should read Betrayal.

Rating:
Summary: Appalling Indictment of Catholic Heirarchy
Review: I was raised Catholic and educated at both the high school and college level by the Jesuits. All through school, there was not the slightest indication of abusive propensities, yet today, we see that many, many Catholic priests molested children over the years, and were assisted in this horrific behavior by Church leaders. This book ably and frighteningly illustrates the betrayal of trust on the part of these "Princes of the Church", who actively enabled these predatory monsters to engage in their obscene behavior by moving them from parish to parish, and defended these men and what they did when confronted by parents of the child victims. "Betrayal" is an apt title of a work that shows how the bishops betrayed not only their obligation to children, but their faith as well. Instances are also described where other priests who observed active child molestation did nothing to stop it.In my value system, catching one of these guys "in the act" would result in anything BUT passivity! As a retired lawyer with 30 years in the Courts, I cannot even begin to comprehend the mind set of men who preached, "Suffer the little children to come unto me" and "Whatever you do to the least of my little ones, you do unto me", yet knowingly engaged in and/or permitted the ongoing sexual abuse of children. This book is a must read for all Catholics, because if the Church can't or won't protect their children, informed Catholics must, and, perhaps, finally cast off the yoke of "pray, pay and obey". The Boston Globe has done a huge public service in producing this excellent reportorial work. Yet it does raise questions in my mind about the unthinking and uncritical belief systems of some of my still practicing Catholic friends who react rather placidly to this scandal.

Rating:
Summary: Documents of a horrendous crime
Review: It doesn't matter if one is Catholic or not, one thing that must be agreed upon is that the abuse and mistreatment of children must not be tolerated. Therefore, it is disturbing to read such an account as this; that one can see the mechanisms that were systematically used to protect the perpetrators of these crimes, rather than the slew of victims.

This book is NOT a book condemning Catholism or Christianity. I am not Catholic myself, but I have enough respect for Christianity and the Catholic Church, that had it been merely thus, I probably wouldn't have wasted my time reading it.

With the persistance of the staff of the Boston Globe, though, much of this information, which was previously off-limits, has been opened and researched. This book is a product of that research, and without drowning the reader in tons of details, goes into many aspects of this story - how the story broke, victims' stories, profiles of some of the most heinous perpetrators, the Catholic culture around Boston, and the heirarchical structure of the Catholic Church, and the effects this scandal has had on the Catholic Church in America and in the world.

As late as this has come to many people, I am glad that somebody had the nerve to pursue the story. For those who still want to believe that this isn't a major problem, remember that what is written here is just Boston's story, and just a small bit, at that. The priests who committed these crimes are criminals, and should be recognized as such, both inside and outside the Catholic Church.

Rating:
Summary: Documents of a horrendous crime
Review: It doesn't matter if one is Catholic or not, one thing that must be agreed upon is that the abuse and mistreatment of children must not be tolerated. Therefore, it is disturbing to read such an account as this; that one can see the mechanisms that were systematically used to protect the perpetrators of these crimes, rather than the slew of victims.

This book is NOT a book condemning Catholism or Christianity. I am not Catholic myself, but I have enough respect for Christianity and the Catholic Church, that had it been merely thus, I probably wouldn't have wasted my time reading it.

With the persistance of the staff of the Boston Globe, though, much of this information, which was previously off-limits, has been opened and researched. This book is a product of that research, and without drowning the reader in tons of details, goes into many aspects of this story - how the story broke, victims' stories, profiles of some of the most heinous perpetrators, the Catholic culture around Boston, and the heirarchical structure of the Catholic Church, and the effects this scandal has had on the Catholic Church in America and in the world.

As late as this has come to many people, I am glad that somebody had the nerve to pursue the story. For those who still want to believe that this isn't a major problem, remember that what is written here is just Boston's story, and just a small bit, at that. The priests who committed these crimes are criminals, and should be recognized as such, both inside and outside the Catholic Church.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed...not an even-handed approach
Review: Let me start by saying that it did not meet my expectations. I was expecting to have my socks knocked off by their investigative reporting. That didn't happen. They threw a lot of stones, and I just don't feel like they backed enough of it up with evidence.

They also made their liberal bias clearly known.

The interviews the book did from a collegiate perspective were all done at Boston College, who has a notoriously liberal theology bent. The people they interviewed are not middle of the road liberals by any stretch of the imagination. Cardinal Law criticized BC long before they asked him not to speak at commencement.

It's not an even-handed approach to the scandal, which is what I was hoping for. They're using it to drive home old hurts. It was too polarized and politicized for my taste.

Rating:
Summary: A Crisis of Man, not Faith
Review: Ripped from headlines that have been contemporary for more than a year, "Betrayal ..." is the Boston Globe newspaper's investigative staff product of the problem of pedophiles and molesters (and there's a significant distinction between the two) in the Catholic priesthood. What may sound like editorializing seems to be verified by supporting documentation of priests who victimize boys of all from adolesence to young adulthood, and the book reads more like an elongated newspaper article, not that that's bad. But, at its heart, "Betrayal ..." maps out what a convincing argument that an inordinate number of child molesters seem to be in the clergy. If you can get past the sheer devastation of divine trust shattered and totally destroyed and the childhoods literally decimated, "Betrayal ..." also posits the question of why the child abuse crisis exists. One plausible theory, though certainly not justification for sex with children, is that the celibate nature of the priesthood perverts sexual desire to the expression of child molesting. That one sounds, and one would hope, more plausible than the terrifying other possibility that the priesthood attracts what "Betrayal ..." classifies as homosexuals. With that theory, however, the unfair and inaccurate implication that homosexuals are also child molesters isn't satisfactorily explored and dismissed. On this count, "Betrayal ..." might be serving the hopefully unintended fears that fuel homophobia. More fully, though, the book states clearly what is indeed a crisis by any standard. The non-Catholic whose church is not under fire may not be as moved by the sense of betrayal that the Catholic faithful may inevitably suffer. However, "Betrayal ..." and the priests who offer their commentary are barely spared from coming off as a crisis of faith and, instead, must be read as a crisis of man and not the God of worship. In the end, the Catholics among us cannot help but feel betrayed by the men in whom we have entrusted our children. And by remembering the crisis is man-made, we don't have to lose our faith in the God of our worship. In the end, those of us who are Catholic may conclude that our church's heirarchy has to be dismantled, accountability institutionally implemented and the demons of our children prosecuted along with being treated.