"Courageous and inspiring."--Karen Armstrong, author of The Case for
God
"James Carroll takes us to the heart of one of the great crises of our
times."--Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve
An eloquent memoir by a former priest and National Book Award-winning
writer who traces the roots of the Catholic sexual abuse scandal back to
the power structure of the Church itself, as he explores his own crisis
of faith and journey to renewal
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
James Carroll weaves together the story of his quest to understand his
personal beliefs and his relationship to the Catholic Church with the
history of the Church itself. From his first awakening of faith as a boy
to his gradual disillusionment as a Catholic, Carroll offers a
razor-sharp examination both of himself and of how the Church became an
institution that places power and dominance over people through an
all-male clergy.
Carroll argues that a male-supremacist clericalism is both the root
cause and the ongoing enabler of the sexual abuse crisis. The power
structure of clericalism poses an existential threat to the Church and
compromises the ability of even a progressive pope like Pope Francis to
advance change in an institution accountable only to itself. Carroll
traces this dilemma back to the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages, when
Scripture, Jesus Christ, and His teachings were reinterpreted as the
Church became an empire. In a deeply personal re-examination of self,
Carroll grapples with his own feelings of being chosen, his experiences
as a priest, and the moments of doubt that made him leave the priesthood
and embark on a long personal journey toward renewal--including his
tenure as an op-ed columnist at The Boston Globe writing about sexual
abuse in the Church.
Ultimately, Carroll calls on the Church and all reform-minded Catholics
to revive the culture from within by embracing anti-clerical,
anti-misogynist resistance and staying grounded in the spirit of love
that is the essential truth at the heart of Christian belief and
Christian life.
