Top Summer Reading Pick: A Novel on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church
Opening up the Sunday paper might lead you to the national newspaper supplement Parade Magazine, which devoted its July 10 edition to "Summer Reading" picks. Smack-dab in the middle of the issue is "12 Great Summer Books: PARADE's picks of terrific new reads, in no particular order." But that's not exactly true, since the first six are fiction, and the second six are nonfiction. Somehow it's not shocking that the number-one recommended book is "Faith" by Jennifer Haigh, a novel about a Catholic priest in Boston accused of molestation during the scandal's heyday in the last decade.
Publishers Weekly advised, "Although this all-too-plausible story offers a damning commentary on the Church's flaws and its leaders' hubris, Haigh is concerned less with religious faith than with the faith [the accused priest] Arthur's family has — and loses, and in some cases regains — in one another."
The Wall Street Journal didn't find that much hope:
"Faith" is less about sex abuse than about the existential crisis that the church faces in the wake of the scandals. The priesthood has been shorn of its mystique; a calling that once evoked reverence is more likely to stir scorn or unease. As one of Arthur's colleagues tells Sheila [the priest's half-sister]: "In the current climate, any human interaction is suspect." The picture that emerges from this engrossing novel is of a vocation broken beyond repair.
This book was also touted as a summer read this week on NBC's Today show...and is Oprah-approved. Plus:
Also in Parade, Anderson Cooper says he's reading the Game of Thrones" books, and Stephen Dubner of "Freakonomics" fame (with side gigs at the New York Times and public radio) is promoting the old leftist Neil Postman screed "Amusing Ourselves to Death." Parade recommended Katie Couric's collection of life advice as an audio book, so you can hear Katie be perky in your headphones.
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Comments
Oprah-approved.
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 8:15am.
Big surprise there.
The picture that emerges from this engrossing novel is of a vocation broken beyond repair.
Correct wording should be the picture that the author creates.
With God all things are possible
Submitted by lrgon on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 1:54pm.
The attack upon the Catholic church has been on going even before Christ organized His church here on earth. Examples of this internal subversion and the people who have contributed to the internal attack upon the Catholic church is well documented and so out in the open that most Catholics don't even see it going on. Take the late president of Notre dame University or the University of our Lady and see how far down he misdirected Catholic teachings by watch ing this short video >>>>>http://www.realcatholictv.com/cia/06Rockefeller/
Huh?
Submitted by mandrake on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 2:48pm.
The statement "The attack upon the Catholic church has been on going even before Christ". You've got me interested there because I am a Catholic and the central icon of the church is Christ upon the cross. So please explain how there could be a Catholic church before Christ...fill the room with your wisdom.
There was an article last
Submitted by kg on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 8:49am.
There was an article last week about a study that found sexual abuse is 100 times more common between teachers and students than the the churches.
"DumbAssity of Dope"
Alas, there's a good-sized helping of truth
Submitted by Kenyon Schraeder on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 1:00pm.
We've learned that although the crime itself is deplorable, the attempts made to cover it up are despicable and morally and ethically far worse. Nixon. Clinton. Weiner. Et al.
I was born and raised Catholic and although I have not practiced my faith for decades, I am thoroughly ashamed that the Church engaged in nothing more than politics, damage control and subterfuge to conceal the crimes for so long. Their willful actions helped propagate the crisis that much further and damage that many more young lives along the way.
But, my disappointment and disdain speak to the humans within the church and their reprehensible behavior, not the religious faith itself. My beliefs in the teachings of Christ Himself remain strong.
More criminal indictments along with hefty jail sentences should have trumped the parade of out-of-court settlements. The Church's hierarchy in America should have been purged and replaced wholesale as trust had already been lost.
Regrettably, too many people cannot see these distinctions and so Catholicism, as a religion, has unfortunately become cannon fodder. Catholicism may end up being the baby that gets thrown out with the bath water.
It will take many years for the stench of those crimes and ensuing coverups to dissipate to where "faith" in the Church as being an entity of human beings who are worthy of trust may eventually be restored.
What about...
Submitted by griv on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 1:32pm.
...the sex abuse in Barney Frank's basement???
Haigh the hag novelist
Submitted by lrgon on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 1:47pm.
Think about it. If you hated the church what kind of novel would you write? The da vinci code or any number of other anti-catholic books aimed at bringing down the philosophy that the Catholic Church has stood on for over two thousand years: that Christ is the Truth, the way and the light.
You attack the church and you attack Jesus by writing unsavory novels of sex about rogue priests who should never have been admitted into seminary school in the first place.
The Seminary schools and the Catholic universities have been taken over by liberals and anti-Christ followers like Theodore Hesburg who used his power as president of Notre Dame to liberalize the other Catholic colleges. http://thenewamerican.com/culture/education/1176
Hesburgh used his position at Notre Dame not to elevate the teachings of Christ but to attack them. Aren't there any novelists out there writing about that sort of treachery? They just write about sex as a way to further bring the Church down to their lascivious and debauched level.
The American Left is Godless.
Submitted by jdhawk on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 2:08pm.
The American Left is Godless. And, they want you to be as well. That is the real theme of these diatribes against the Catholic Church.
The real story is about homosexual men going into the church with the express purpose of using it for cover to perpetrate their heinous crimes of child molestation against young boys.
If you want to stop this, propose and get passed in each state that child molestation like murder has no expiration.
Meanwhile, note that all these cases are carefull to ensure that the perpetrator is outside the statute of limitations to be tried in criminal court. All the suites have been civil and have extracted hundreds of millions from the Catholic Church. While the perpertrator gets off scott free to continue molesting kids.
The Catholic Church is a beacon of good and charity. Daily it provides countless millions faith, hope, charity, the clothing on their backs, and the food in their stomachs across the planet. The priests and nuns work in some of the most inhospital areas of the world. And, I don't mean it is too hot or too cold. I mean the heads of state and the entire state aparatus where they live and work are corrupt murdering thugs. Catholic priests and nuns risk their vary lives to do good in our world. They should be lauded for their actions not vilified as the left in our country has attempted to do for decades.
For the child molesters, no matter what walk of life they choose, they should arrested, tried in criminal court and put in jail for the rest of their lives given their recidivism has proven to be near 100%.