[.ca] Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in ... (ISBN 0767914066)

Truth Behind the Collar:
It all started back in the 1950's, and the story and horror of what happened to thousands of boys across the country is simply unimaginable. Somehow, David France's book "Our Fathers" manages to encapsulate the events into a very approachable, readable tome that documents thoroughly the eventual unmasking of the American Catholic church in its response to child abuse. The scope of abuse in the Catholic church, and the equally vile attempts to cover it up, rivals the atrocities of Watergate. Certain priests, who violated boys, some even in there own homes, were merely reassigned to another parish to start victimizing a new batch of boys. Some were sent to a wayward house, and after spending a few months there, deemed themselves "cured" and then were foisted out on more unsuspecting parishoners. France details these accounts accurately and honestly, including the total destruction these boys and in some cases girls faced in their lives, without going into too graphic descriptions. Painstakingly researched, France has made this huge topic extremely accessible. One great problem with reading non-ficiton books is that there are usually a host of characters, all with important roles, and it's very easy to confuse one with another. France goes out of his way in this book to delinate between the different priests, and often will remind you of a certain trait or habit of a priest to trigger your memory. I never once was confused as to who was who, thanks to France's effort. This is a must read book for anyone; part mystery, part historical record, you are rooting for the vicitms to have their day, and when the last page is turned, you are somewhat releaved as to the results, but still enraged that anything like this happened; and hopefully enraged enough to ensure it will never happen again.

Thought provoking and behind the headlines:
David France has done an interesting job of bringing together many threads in a very complex story. He starts well back with the seminary days of some of the figures that will come to be players in this story. Much of what he does is to place this story in context - in context of the church during this period, and of society in general. Was the non-celibacy of priests a problem that came to light in the past decade an aberration? Was it a product of the sexual revolution? Was it a reflection of society in general? Or was it an exposed side of a more deeply rooted problem? France leans towards the latter, but gives each of these ideas some thought. Upon first glance, one would assume it is about the recent priest child molestation cases. But the author moves beyond this, to note a range of sexuality related problems, not only with the child molester, but also with the priest engaged in illicit sexual affairs, and the self identified gay priests. I give France high kudos for his work sifting through thousands and thousands of pages of legal records and history to distill the important points into his narrative. The book is anything but dry. While not light reading, it is captivating and introduces you to a whole spectrum of players in this drama. No, the book is not positive. In fact very few from within the church leadership come across in much positive light, though there are some. Rather the positive light is shone upon the laity, trying to take back the church and correct the wrongs that have been perpetrated. It's the David and Goliath story of people moved to bring change facing an entrenched bureaucracy, and one that for many is unassailable. A bureaucracy that could and would not see a pattern until too late, and then would be too tied up in the problem to face the issue. French has done a very good job trying to show all the sides in these issues, and try to find where the motivation for their reactions come from. While he is sympathetic to the victims, he does not blindly anoint them with right. Rather he does entertain the possibility of some mistaken "memories" that came about from supposed 'repressed memory' therapy. No one in this story is above reproach. As a lapsed Catholic, the most common reaction I had as I read this was sadness. Sadness for what had happened, and what had been allowed to happen. And anger at how it was allowed to happen. The second half of the book is centered around Cardinal Bernard Law, and how his actions, and inactions, while not causing the scandal, certainly helped bring about the eventual explosion of allegations, and his lack of reaction fueled the fire of anger burning within the victims, and many members of the church. This is a sad story, and a sad chapter in history. This book helps to tries to bring together what happened, and to try and untangle the threads that make the story so complex. A must read for anyone who wants to try and understand what happened in the Catholic Church, and hope that it cannot happen again.

Lay support in Church corruption:
I have many of the books published on the sex scandal in the Catholic Church. This book is thorough and is written with clairity. The book also brings forward the untruths and extent that LAY employees will go to continue to support corruption against their brothers and sisters as evidenced on page 356 and 357 of a conversation occurring between Bernard Law and the Press Secretary, Donna Morrissey. If this woman did not resign with Law, I hope she soon does and extends an apology to the gentleman she garnerned into cuffs and to the people of Boston. The Mass is A sacrifice and here before this woman stood a live, talking sacrifice which she decided to "be careful about precedents," ignoring the REAL meaning of the MASS she was participating in. Not alot has changed from the Gospels of NT.

Great writing (a little but though):
It's heroic, epic writing. Layer upon layer peeled off this mystery that really passed me by, the author sets about the writing in such a compelling manner, it's hard to put the book down. A little but though, sometimes it seems like he's not taking sides, other times, it seems he wants you to dislike certain people involved in the whole affair, he does all this without seeming to though. But overall, buy it!

A New Look At Some Never Forget History:
I have followed the clergy abuse scandal fairly closely over the years. I have felt horror for the treatment of the victims of the disturbed priests who stole away childhood for so many. And I have felt incredible anger and hurt at the conduct of the Catholic Church hierarchy in their arrogant, legalistic and un-Christian behavior toward the victims and their families of these crimes. Like many Catholics, I was glad to see the Church hierarchy finally be forced to begin to recognize and take responsibility for its collective complicity in compounding the damage of the priests who were abusing children over the years. For so many of the victims, the affirmation of what happened to them and the financial settlements can no way make up for their lifetime losses. As Americans I sometimes fear that we have too short an attention span on some pretty serious issues. I am not sure if that is due to the complexity of life or the pace of twenty-four hour news with its ever-changing most urgent story. We seem to reach overload, perhaps exhaustion. I have observed this with the AIDS Crisis, with the tragedies of September 11th and most recently with the clergy abuse situation. We become emotionally exhausted and shut down. I know that I had gotten to that point. I did not want to see one more thing about the clergy scandals. The whole thing made me deeply ashamed of my Church, angry at the disgraceful behavior of most of the Church hierarchy and repelled by the individual perpetrators. With some time having passed since the Boston Clergy Crisis of 2002, I found myself again willing to look at the new information that has become available on the clergy abuse situation. While certainly Our Fathers is a difficult read because of its very subject, David France has written a very readable, almost hauntingly cadenced collection of vignettes that when drawn together in one book, provides the reader with a pretty complete view of important never forget history of the American Catholic Church. Further, France indirectly reminds the reader that without change, the Catholic Church and its hierarchy as an institution, have a less than promising future for many people. Not beach reading, but highly recommended nonetheless. Daniel J. Maloney Saint Paul, Minnesota USA