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Drawing on the author’s unusual background as a seminarian turned scientist and business executive, Boys of the Cloth presents a unique analysis of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. The book combines a first-hand account of seminary life during the 1960s—a period that turns out to be crucial for understanding the crisis—with explorations of the history of the seminary system, current scientific knowledge about abusive behavior, and the Church’s own investigations into the “epidemic” of abuse by its priests. Through the interplay between these topics, two paradoxical conclusions emerge. First, that the epidemic was caused by an ancient reform intended to eradicate rather than encourage clerical corruption. Second, that it was reversed by modern Church policies with no obvious connection to sexual abuse. Boys of the Cloth will transform your understanding of predatory behavior by priests and of measures that will be crucial to prevent it.
Essays in Unruly Catholics explore how renowned Catholic literary figures Dante Alighieri, Oscar Wilde, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, and Gerard Manley Hopkins dealt with the disparities between their personal beliefs and the Church’s official teachings. Contributors also suggest how controversial entertainers such as Madonna, Kevin Smith, Michael Moore, and Stephen Colbert practice forms of Catholicism perhaps worthy of respect. Most pointedly, Unruly Catholics addresses the recent sex abuse scandals, considers the possibility that the Church might be reformed from within, and presents three iconic figures—Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and C.S. Lewis—as models of compassionate and reformist Christianity.
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