The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston's Catholic Culture, by Philip F. Lawler
I think this is an important book. Philip Lawler correctly identified the Boston clergy sexual abuse scandal as being composed of three distinct elements, and I think his analysis, that only one of those issues has been addressed, is correct.
Lawler's thesis is this: the scandal is not merely about priests abusing adolescents, but it is also a scandal about homosexuality in the clergy, and, most importantly, a scandal about the failure of bishops to act as faithful shepherds for their flocks. He clearly makes the point that while the sex-abuse scandal involved a small minority of priests, it involved a majority of bishops, who either acted to cover up the scandals, or who, in the cases of the bishops who resigned to avoid scandals of their own, were guilty directly of offenses themselves.
This third aspect of the scandal is certainly discussed by Catholic bloggers, but the second aspect of the scandal is a third rail both within the church and outside it. Yet the numbers are hardly reassuring. As Lawler points out, 81% of the sexual abuse was same-sex in nature, from which one of two very troubling conclusions could be drawn: if gay priests comprise the same percentage of the population that gay men comprise, then one must conclude that gay men are much more likely to abuse teenagers than straight men are; or, one most conclude that if gay men are equally as likely to abuse as straight men, then based on the numbers, one must conclude that gay men are greatly overrepresented in the Catholic priesthood, statistically speaking. I personally think it is much more the latter than the former, but I do not discount that gay men are more likely to abuse than straight men -- Catholic doctrine believes that homosexuality represents a disorder, whatever its cause, and as such, it may include behaviors, such as preying on the young, that are also disordered. That is a view so unpopular that it will likely gain me condemnation by almost everyone that reads it, but nevertheless, that is part of my hypothesis.
And the vast majority of cases, strictly speaking, do not involve pedophilia -- preying on pre-adolsecent children. The vast majority of cases involve adolescents, which is to say, young people capable of having sex physically, but who are undoubtedly emotionally and psychologically unprepared for it.
The book is not a treatise on the scandal, though -- it is a broader study of how the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston developed a culture of accommodation in order to preserve institutional privileges at the expense of the faith. There are many turning points and villains to be found. The candidacy of John F. Kennedy, for instance, Lawler interprets as a defeat for Catholic culture -- an unusual view, but one in which it I am persuaded he is correct. For John F. Kennedy, in distancing himself from Catholicism, got himself elected President while denying the Church its proper role in shaping and influencing the issues of the day. In a sense, Kennedy did damage to future Catholic politicians and to the church by his formulation that Catholicism would not effect his decision-making as President. This same path has been trod by other Catholic politicians from Ted Kennedy to Mario Cuomo to John Kerry to Nancy Pelosi and has allowed them to deny key aspects of the Catholic faith on issues from birth control to abortion.
I also believe a special circle of Hell is prepared for Catholic theologians who gave this position political cover.
While Lawler informs us that the collapse of the Boston Archdiocese is likely to continue, given the demographics, he is hopeful that the Church may yet find its way. The key will be to renounce the institutional prerogatives in favor of the truth of the faith, and the action of the Holy Spirit in reviving the church. I think it will happen, but if the bishops in America are as corrupt as he indicates, I think that Catholicism will most likely be saved not by its bishops, but more likely from a missionary religious order from the outside, alongside the lines of the Jesuits.
I doubt it will be the Jesuits, though, as I think their order has become far too corrupt and incapable of self-reform.
At any rate, I highly recommend this book.