Rating: 
Summary: Sure to become a classic!
Review: Although it seems we've heard about this horrifying scandal over and over for the past couple of years, David France's Our Fathers proves that we still have so much to know and learn. His writing style is vivid and unflinchingly honest. He spares no detail, and the book is utterly addictive. Yet what makes the book shine is his compassion, or his empathy for not only the victims but also for the perpetuators. This is nonfiction at its best!
Rating:
Summary: Overwhelming
Review: An outstanding overview of a horrible scandal that manages to capture both the incredible scope of the crime while, at the same time, describing vividly dozens of people--victims, their families, perpetrators, bureaucratic prelates, reporters--who were caught up in the ongoing scandal. France is an excellent reporter whose humanity matches his investigatory skills.
Rating:
Summary: Tax exempt status of theistic nonprofits
Review: As a Prison Chaplain being ministered to by Offender-Veterans who are Wounded Healers suffering from documented combatedrelated PTSD, what a gift to know that we can use the prima facie evidence in this classic in our call for Restorative Justice; i.e, what is the original intent of the tax exempt status of religious institutions like the Roman Cathoilc CHurch; how can we identify these funds must be used for a Vatican III a/k/a FOUNDATIONS FOR A SOCIAL THEOLOGY, PRAXIS, PROCESS AND SALVATION (fR dERMOT a. lANE, pAULIST 1980)pRAISE THE lORD, cHRIST IS RISEN IN dAVID fRANCE'S pROPHETIC STUDY. cHAPLAIN mARY mURPHY, wAR wIDOW
Colorado Faith Based Health Care Association
c/o The Bishop George Evans Center
Rating: 
Summary: A Page Turner With a Few Holes
Review: As other reviewers have commented this book is a page turner. You can't put it down because of the tight, fast paced style, the incredibly colorful characters (with colorful language to match!).
Not being a Catholic I can't comment from that perspective but from the perspective of someone who has followed the story, it was sadly fascinating to read about the process of obtaining information, bringing legal action, creating support systems and the Church's reaction to the attacks. At the end though I didn't feel the writer connected the dots well and that would be the major hole in the book. Maybe the 'end' coincided with the departure of Cardinal Law but I felt that there was much more to the story than the fall of one very powerful church offical.
Obviously this was written from the viewpoint of the victims but their overall focus seemed more on running Cardinal Law to ground and removing him from office than in changing the institution so that such horrors would not happen in the future. Cardinal Law as an individual was *a* problem, not *the* problem. Predatory priests were an institutional problem and I didn't see either side really trying to determine how this happened at this time period. Was it a function of the times and rapidly changing mores? Was it a lack of screening both prior to and during a priest's career to identify and treat mental health issues? Was it the emergence of gay activism? Were church officials simply ignorant of the terrible consequences of predatory priests or did they simply think they could hide the problem? As a reader I was left with as many questions as answers and I hope the writer does something to follow up on this book. It's a great read but I wish a few of the loose ends had been tied up at the end.
Rating:
Summary: France takes aim, and hits the target...
Review: David France deserves to be congratulated for his meaningful and enlightening work. Not unlike Sartre, France's aim is not to comfort his readers by helping them to ignore or blur the truth. He wants readers (especially Catholics) to know the transgressions of the church, so the situation may be addressed head-on - and so that important questions will be asked: (1) Are individuals who observe religious dogma prone to be more or less moral? (2) Does practicing the religious observances on one's faith have any impact at all on morality? (3) Is it the repressive attitude of some religious organizations (ie, the Catholic church) that contributes to the "sins of the fathers"(ie, pedophilia). Indeed, France reminds society that it is time to address these critical issues without being intimiated by the clergy and by the Vatican. (Review by: Jerry Marcus, author of The Last Pope: A Novel)
Rating:
Summary: Read...for a better understanding
Review: David France did an excellent job getting the story out. Until now, I heard only fragments of the fifty year span. He brought the history of my childhood and adulthood together into perspective in relation to the Catholic church which I belong. Everything makes much better sense to me. Hopeless is not understanding. Understanding is power. Thank you David.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking and behind the headlines
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Garbage
Review: Don't waste your time or money on this book. While accurate in describing the crimes of numerous priests and bishops, the author's presuppositions and conclusions are devoid of reality. If you would like to get a true picture of the problem and its real cause, read "The Devils Final Battle" by Fr Paul Kramer. "Goodbye, Goodmen" is also an excellent, accurate book. Most salient of all, the author of "Our Fathers", completely avoids the fact that the problems in the Catholic Church are the result of rampant influx of homosexuals, liberals, humanists, and modernists who continue to be ordained to this day. "Know the Truth and the Truth will set you free. The man who sins becomes a slave to sin, and the slave does not continue in the house forever."
Rating:
Summary: Finally
Review: Finally the truth behind what goes on inside the church is revealed. Finally the doors are opened up and the hidden secrets have come flowing out. Maybe this book will help for the future. Mybe it will help to keep a child from falling into the trap. ...
Rating:
Summary: Are all religious hierarchies ultimately corrupt?
Review: I believe so. And the Catholic hierarchy of today ranks close to the top. Setting aside the monstrous abuses involving thousands of clergy members, the Vatican's reaction and unwillingness to stand up and atone for these horrors is the greatest outrage of all. But don't think that these abuses are limited to the United States, or are anything new. They aren't. Ever since the church instituted its doctrinally bankrupt policy prohibiting priests from marrying (the vow of celibacy was a political move intended to shift money and assets from individual priest's families to the Vatican), the church has attracted men who are either in denial of their own sexuality (whether deviant or not), or looking for easy access to their prey or sexual partners. Now, this certainly isn't all or most priests, but it is a significant minority. Those who think that this scandal doesn't go the very heart of the church are avoiding reality, in my opinion. This book takes a compelling slice of the modern cases and shows a church seeking little other than to avoid responsibility. I would like to get these so-called religious men--not the perpetrators, but those who protect them to protect the church--and ask them, "What would Jesus do?" Protect the abusers? Feign ignorance? Try to avoid paying compensation? Interpose technical legal defenses? Just read the Gospels and the answers to these questions become very, very clear.
|
