Psychological profile of a sick church

books:


	• Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea Vanderbilt University Press, 2007 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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A Sweeping Overview

For those who still have the stomach for this topic, and those who care about the future of the Catholic church in the USA this book is the most comprehensive, honest, and insightful set of answers, opinions and observations about what was likely the most shattering period in the history of the church in the USA..Frawley-O'Dea has gone further and dug deeper into the data to form her conclusions. She has built on the discoveries and research and insights of others, yet drawn her own conclusions. In my opinion the future of the priesthood rests in her conclusions.

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Psychological profile of a sick church

Very expert and detailed account of the factors influencing the sexual abuse of children by priests and especially the pathological response of church leaders.

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How could this happen?

For those who wonder, "How could something like this happen?"--this fascinating, well-researched book provides the answers. And the book's simple, powerful cover graphic shows that sometimes you CAN judge a book by its cover.

Excellent and insightful book!

This is the book that connects the dots on the sexual abuse crises in the Catholic church. It helps one to understand how such a thing might have happened, giving the history of the church.
I highly recommend this book if one is interested in learning about human sexuality re: laity, priests, bishops and even the pope.

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Since 2002, the Roman Catholic Church has been in crisis over the sexual abuse of minors by priests and the cover-up of those crimes by bishops. Over 11,000 alleged victims have reported their experiences to the Church, and more than 4,700 priests since 1950 have been credibly accused of sexually victimizing minors. The Church has paid over one billion dollars to adults who claim to have been sexually abused by priests and there is no end in sight to these lawsuits. Celibacy, homosexuality in the priesthood, the infiltration into the priesthood of secular moral relativism, too much liberalism in the Church since Vatican II, damaging rollback of Vatican II reforms by conservative prelates--all have been suggested as causes for the crisis. This book, however, begins with the premise that, because the pattern of abuse and cover-up was so similar across the world, there is something fundamentally awry with Church traditions and power structures in relationship to sexuality and sexual abuse. Specifically, in chapters on suffering and sadomasochism, bodies and gender, desire and sexuality, celibacy and homosexuality, the author concludes that aspects of the Catholic theology of sexuality set the stage for the abuse of minors and its cover-up. Frawley-O'Dea also analyzes the American bishops' lack of pastoral care and tendency towards clerical narcissism--the belief that the needs of the hierarchy represent the needs of the wider Church--as central factors in the scandal. She balances this criticism with a discussion of the backgrounds of the bishops presiding over the crisis and the challenges they faced in their relationships with the Pope and Vatican officials. Drawing on twenty years of clinical experience, she imagines the dynamics of sexual abuse both from the victim's point of view and from the priest's, and she probes why the Church hierarchy, fellow priests, and lay people were silent for so long. Finally, Frawley-O'Dea examines factors internal to the Church and outside of it that drew this scandal into the public square and kept it there.

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