A Movie Deal and Two New Books Guarantee that the World Will Finally Understand the Catholic Church Child Sex Abuse Scandal

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Posted in: Book Reviews

Michael D’Antonio, Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal (Thomas Dunne Books 2013)

Ray Mouton, In God’s House: A Novel About One of the Great Scandals of Our Time (Head of Zeus 2012)

No matter how hard they try—and they have given it all they have—the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy cannot keep the truth of its callous and calculated disregard of children from reaching the mainstream media and seeping into our common culture.   You may think that you already know all there is to know on this topic, but three recent developments in the media—one movie deal, a non-fiction book, and a novel—will laudably raise the level of awareness to new levels.  These works should push even those in denial to reconsider their position, and our federal and state legislators to do what is right, which is to focus on the victims, not the lobbyists for the Church.

The Movie Deal With DreamWorks Studios

The Boston Globe reporters who, in 2002, broke the story of the Catholic hierarchy’s cover up of child sex abuse by priests in the Boston Archdiocese recently inked a deal with DreamWorks Studios and Participant Media to produce a feature film on the subject.  DreamWorks does nothing by halves, so this should be a strong contribution to the question of how the public came to know that bishops were vulnerable children’s worst enemies.   It is important that a movie be made that focuses on the reporters’ breaking the story itself, and I hope that the screenwriters and director will be searingly honest about how long the story sat at the Boston Globe before it was finally printed.

Until the Boston Globe made history in 2002, and its reporters accordingly won the Pulitzer Prize, the media was actually complicit in the cover-up of abuse in the dioceses.   Until relatively recently, the media was frightened of stories putting the Catholic Church in a bad light.  DreamWorks would do well to include some of the media history that occurred before this story broke, including the pressure that bishops put on papers to let them take care of the issue in private.  There was an egregious lack of coverage across the country, with reporters losing their jobs or being re-assigned to another beat if they broached the topic, and editors resolutely refusing to bring such stories to print.  Indeed, one Milwaukee reporter, Marie Rhode, had the story first, but was re-assigned to another beat, which created the opening for the Boston Globe reporters to work on the story

That was the era that I have dubbed our “Pollyanna years,” when we all shared a belief in the myth that religious groups only do good.  It was taboo to point to the bad behavior of some religious organizations, which, of course, was disastrous for the vulnerable, like children left alone with predatory adults, who used the blind faith in religious organizations and cunning to persuade adults to trust them. I was chastised as recently as 1997 for using the term “religious lobbyist.”  Of course, between the clergy sex abuse crises and 9/11, those days are over.

The Nonfiction Book, Mortal Sins, by Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Investigative Journalist Michael D’Antonio on the Clergy Child Sex Abuse Scandal in the United States

A new non-fiction book is a tremendous addition to the fund of our understanding of this crisis. It is entitled Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal, and it is a searing and deeply engaging account of the contemporary battles that have been waged against the culture of secrecy and cover-up maintained by the Catholic hierarchy.   The extraordinary quality of the writing makes this difficult story both readable and impossible to put down.

The crusaders for the victims, so hated by the hierarchy, feature prominently. They include survivors and national leaders Barbara Blaine and David Clohessy of SNAP; former monk and brilliant psychologist Richard Sipe; pioneering and visionary trial lawyer Jeff Anderson; and the heroic Fr. Tom Doyle, who is also a central character in the amazing historical novel In God’s House, which I review below.  While each of them have had their fair share of press on the issues, there are stories here that have never been put together for the public before.

You will be shocked and disgusted at the hierarchy, and you will find yourself cheering for the survivors who had the guts to tell the truth about the abuse, as they distanced themselves from their past, and sometimes their families, and, at the same time, turned away in anger and disgust from the largest and oldest religious organization in the world.  There are also the parents, who suffer torments typically relegated to a parent who has lost a child.  At the same time, there are moments of triumph, hope, and heroism.

Mortal Sins is filled with facts and sharply-drawn people, and includes a very useful Index on the crisis, but it is far more than a collection of facts.  In fact, D’Antonio has crafted a compelling story that needed to be told with his big-picture focus, and gifted way with words.  He keeps the reader’s attention despite a storyline that spans decades, and includes dozens of players.

The book is larger than its topic, as well, because abuse has reared its ugly head in our churches, synagogues, mosques, universities, schools, teams, and families.  It is a moral necessity that we examine this monster closely, memorize its features, and never forget it.  Then we must devise by all means possible the traps that will remove the monster from our midst, and find the sunlight that will illuminate a path out of this dense thicket.  It is really too late to be shocked, because it is time, right now, to fix our ways.  Mortal Sins takes us past the shock, into the understanding that is the precursor to a society solving its most deep-seated problems.  Please read this book for our children, and their children.

A Great Southern Novel, In God’s House, on the Beginning of the Abuse Scandal in the United States, Written by One Who Was There

While fact-based books document the truth, it is rare that they fully capture it.  Ray Mouton’s recently published In God’s House pierces to the beating heart of the scandal in a riveting novel.  It is written in the best of the Southern novel tradition, and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the greatest.

The irony of this book is that Mr. Mouton was the devoutly Catholic young, Louisiana lawyer who was hired by the Diocese of Lafayette in 1984 to defend the serial pedophile Fr. Gilbert Gauthe, who had made a habit of having the altar boys sleep over the night before altar practice.  In Mouton’s words in a 2002 CBS story, Gauthe did “[e]very sexual act you can imagine two males doing” with these boys, night after night.

In God’s House, though, does not focus on the acts of abuse, but rather illuminates the twisted darkness in the hearts of the bishops (and eventually the Pope) as they reacted to the emergence of a scandal for which they lacked the skills, morals, or souls to fix.  This is the account of where the scandal began in the United States.  Abuse has been going on for centuries, but the public scandal is mere decades ago.

It is to Mouton’s credit that he opted to write a great Southern novel, rather than an autobiography.  No one would have blamed him if he had done the latter, given his heroic and early role in this story.  But the Southern literature genre is a perfect fit for the clandestine, backward-looking hierarchy, and the deep but often muted suffering of the victims and their families.  That means that the story is riveting and truly impossible to put down, despite its 500+ pages! At the same time, it is filled with accurate historical detail, because, of course, he was there.

I do not believe that any other account of the scandal does a better job than Mouton’s novel does of peering into the essential craziness of the men in power in the Church who used theology to justify the persistent endangerment of children by men whom they knew full well were abnormal.   Mouton’s character development is masterful, as it brings to life the faces and mannerisms of the evil that is cloaked in clerical garb and installed in the mansions of the bishops.  There are echoes here of the South African Dutch Reformists who crafted the foundation of apartheid straight out of their theology, and the American Protestant ministers who enlisted the Bible to justify slavery.

The story starts in Louisiana as it focuses on this one pedophile priest, and I dare not give away too much, but the protagonist is transformed by what he learns, which drives him to eventually find his way to a fictionalized Tom Doyle, a rising star priest who was in the Papal Nunciature in Washington, DC, and, who, to those who know him, leaps from the page as the man we deeply admire.   It is worth your while to read both Mortal Sins and In God’s House even if you only do so to become acquainted with this giant in the movement for justice for our children.

Both of these books, so very different, but both so illuminating, have the goods to make them candidates for feature films of their own, each of which may one day be rightfully honored at the Academy Awards.  That means we may have a trilogy of popular movies someday on the clergy sex abuse crisis.  Children will be safer if we do.

Posted in: Book Reviews

11 responses to “A Movie Deal and Two New Books Guarantee that the World Will Finally Understand the Catholic Church Child Sex Abuse Scandal”

  1. Stephanie Antonia Thompson says:

    Professor Hamilton’s continued beatings on the Church sadden and fatigue me. Full disclosure: I love my Church, just as I love my sons, even when they do something to disappoint me. Yes, absolutely there were and are bad actors, and men in leadership who were ill-equipped to deal with what happened. Our Archibishop said that “we can not say we are sorry enough.”
    The Church leaders have learned, and are continuing to learn new ways to keep this from happening, and are working with seminaries to weed out any potential abusers before they are assigned to a parish. Every adult volunteer at Church or Catholic school must submit to background checks.
    Perhaps Professor Hamilton could review some books on prevention. Or evangelization.

    • ThatGirl says:

      Your archbishop’s apologies mean nothing unless they are backed up by action. Background checks for lay people are not action. They are smoke and mirrors. The bishops and cardinals have been covering for and transferring known pedophiles for nearly 2 thousand years and getting away with it. They have not been doing that for lay volunteers.
      They have had 25 years since they were warned about the problem of rampant pedophilia in the priesthood and how they could address it to stop it and to prevent scandal and enormous payouts. They have done nothing to change their policies and patterns. Meanwhile the scandal and the payouts grow while people stream away from the Church. As long as the bishops fight changes to Statutes of Limitations for crimes against children, it is true: They can never say they are sorry enough if all they are doing is saying it.
      When they start making documentation available, when they turn over priests to criminal justice authorities when complaints are lodged, when they turn themselves in for their own blatant and willful obstruction of justice, maybe their apologies will be more believable.
      They are not ill-equipped to deal with what happened. They can call the police rather than transfer them and lie in their legal depositions. And to talk about it in the past tense is naive. It is still happening–the rapes of children and the covering up. It’s all part of a hierarchical culture of secrecy meant to protect the power of the few who ordain themselves and behave as though they are above everyone else. This is most certainly not what Jesus would do. And not worthy of a defense by anyone who considers themselves faithful to the Word of God.

    • EricWelch says:

      No disrespect intended, Stephanie, but it’s precisely this “heads-in-the-sand” attitude that promotes continued inaction. This is not a case of being “disappointed” in their actions. We have a situation where priests not only committed heinous acts (would you be just disappointed in your sons if they raped a six-year-old?) in isolation. They consistently violated the law and the archbishops and church hierarchy who did nothing also broke the law. The ex-President of Penn State is under indictment for failing to do anything and not informing authorities, yet church leaders have consistently been given a pass often because of attitudes like yours. Until there is pressure from the rank-and-file to insist that church leaders be subject to the same laws as the rest of us, nothing will change. Or are people afraid of the church hierarchy because thanks to the “sanctity” of the confessional, the church knows “where the bodies are buried.”

  2. Thank you, Marci, for all of the great work that you are doing to get the truth out about the lies and duplicity of the popes and cardinals and bishops for many years, and probably for centuries. They have protected themselves and predator priests and nuns from accountability in the clergy sexual abuse scandals. Maybe because none of them had children of their own, the popes and hierarchy lacked any care for the innocent children who were sexually abused and even revictimized them through their lawyers in court. To this day, Pope Benedict Emeritus refuses to admit his role in allowing clergy sexual abuse to flourish worldwide from the 24 years that he was head of the office that dealt with clergy sexual abuse cases and since 2005 as Pope. He has claimed diplomatic immunity to protect himself from prosecution. Where is Jesus in the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church? Even Pope Francis has protected at least one, maybe two predator priests in the past. Hopefully, he will come to realize that he was wrong and needs to protect the innocence of children and make predator priests accountable to the police and to civil law.
    Sincerely, Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh, Chicago

  3. Judy Block-Jones says:

    Right on and way to go Marci…. !!

  4. briannity says:

    Why doesn’t Hamilton ever write anything about sex abuse in the government schools where it is occurring TODAY at a rate 100 times that than ever occurred in the Catholic church 50 years ago?

  5. William Smith says:

    I don’t think most of these priests went into the priesthood as perverts and pedophiles. I believe many of them became perverts and pedophiles because they lacked the self control to lead a celibate life. This is why Paul called forced celibacy a ‘doctrine of demons’ 2000 years ago in his letter to Timothy. That institution is reaping the fruit of its unbiblical doctrine. I pray that all is brought to light so that no more kids have to endure this kind of abuse.

  6. tcdelfin says:

    Stephanie, they are criminals..and their apologies now, after their crimes, are a legal and moral abomination. If this sickens you, justice for child victims of sick and twisted abusers, and the church admins that shelter them, perhaps being part of the solution? Advocating for justice for the most innocent among us? Would help ” you ” feel better? No cruelty intended here, I find your comment short sided, and disconnected with the painful reality of this global situation…and why I suggest digging in, from the truth side, through victims eyes and hearts, it will help you connect, and perhaps empowered to do something constructive to help Marci in her efforts to put an end to this grevious crime. Taking literary pop shots at a genuine effort..not helpful..facing reality and being proactive to support a just effort..helpful..and sane. Maybe reconsider your position in this?

  7. tcdelfin says:

    And Stephanie..it continues to this day..nothing has been learned, and the save face for reputations sake, and fear of related legal expenses, etc..are still strong motivators. A criminal is a criminal, the church needed to turn them over to civil authorities, and protect their flock. Intead they knowingly hid wolves among the sheep, then litigated against the very sheep devoured, and their families, for trying to seek restitution for the crimes endured. We’d all like to believe that churches all operate from a moral high ground. Unfortunately, this is simply not the case. But it is a starting point, now that the scandal has breached public awareness levels. A line must be drawn in the sand..zero tolerance now, and the laws to enforce it. The church simply cannot act as a state within a state, bypassing the existing laws of the land, especially in regard to vile crimonals of this nature..The state has a responsibility to take down this protection, and render these institutions liable to the same criminal justice system as the rest of a nation states citizens. The war on terror is fought against terrorists and the states that aid them. I see no difference in the war on child abuse..in regards to abusers and the institutions that harbor/protect them..It is a moral war and must be fought in the same principled light. So safe harbor for child abusers, nor the institutions that shelter them from the law. Both are to be found guilty under the consistency of just and moral law.. and litigated as criminals.

  8. tcdelfin says:

    Please pardon any spelling errors..I typed passionately with one finger on the Ipad here..and wasn’t able to make a few corrections ;-) Dont let that detract from the message presented! And Stephanie..its passionate, as is your comment..which I do appreciate. We just have to understand evil exists and do our part to stop it. Hoping it will go away is not good enough with this mess..its an actual fight we must fight..for the sake of our children. I hope you will sincerely reflect on this, its not easy, but we really do need to defeat this wolf.