Stuff
Adobe DRM
Product Details
Free Press, February 2004
eBook, 368 pages
ISBN-10: 0743253817
ISBN-13: 9780743253819
Description
Going deep behind the headlines about scandals in the Catholic Church, Jason Berry and Gerald Renner's Vows of Silence follows the staggering trail of evasions and deceit that leads directly to the Vatican and taints the legacy of Pope John Paul II. Based on more than six years of investigative reporting and hundreds of interviews, this book is a riveting account of Vatican cover-ups. Both a profound criticism and a wake-up call to reform by two Catholic writers, Vows of Silence reveals an agenda of top-down control under John Paul II and a hierarchy so obsessed with secrecy as to spawn disinformation. It is not a book about sexual abuse; it is a book about abuse of power, throughout the Vatican.
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Table of Contents"Berry and Renner paint a portrait of a clueless, isolatedCatholic hierarchy that is Orwellian in its absurd embrace of dubious figureslike Maciel and its paranoid rejection of good priests like Tom Doyle . . . ."
-- The Boston Globe
"Vows of Silence" findsthe same system of secrecy and protection that pervaded the American scandalsin evidence in the Vatican. Itchronicles the way in which top church officials squelched an investigationinto accusations of sex abuse by the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, theinfluential founder of the Legionaries of Christ. . . ."
-- Newsday
"No intelligenceorganization is as wrapped in secrecy as the hierarchy of the Roman CatholicChurch, and nothing inspires silence in the Vatican more than scandal involvingpriests and sex. The story that unfoldsin Vows of Silence is carefullydocumented by two veteran reporters--both Catholics--who penetrated the defensesof the Vatican to give us a powerful account of failures about which churchauthorities never wanted anyone to now."
-- Thomas Powers, author of Intelligence Wars: American Secret Historyfrom Hitler to Al Queda
"Berry and Renner properly trace the basic cause of thesexual abuse crisis to the church's historic obsession--at the very highestlevels--with secrecy. The propensity tostonewall, cover-up and deceive 'for the good of the church' seems irresistibleeven in an age in which, as the Lord said, that which is whispered in theclosets is proclaimed from the housetop.Readers will find it a fascinating account."
-- Father Andrew Greeley
Carl M. CannonWhite House correspondent for National JournalVows of Silence is a must read
-- investigative journalism at its best, tracking abuses that were decades in the making and go far beyond the American clergy, with responsibility at the highest levels of the Vatican. Jason Berry and Gerald Renner are tough-minded, but fair; the book is painstakingly researched, beautifully written and gives sweeping historical context on issues of specific, current relevance. If this were fiction, it would be a chilling narrative. Alas, it's contemporary human history, brought to you by the two American authors who know more about this subject than anyone else writing about it.
James Carrollauthor of Constantine's SwordA chronicle of hard truths that shows why the Catholic Church must undergo reform -- or burial. Berry and Renner address their tragic subject with wide knowledge, impressive research, courage
-- and authentic love of the Faith. Everyone who reveres the memory of Jesus Christ, or who cares for justice, should read this book.
National Catholic Reporter, September 28, 2011
...the next scandal to hit the Catholic church after the sexual-abuse crisis in the priesthood would be financial. Jason Berry has turned now from the former to the latter in his Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church ...
Catholic San Francisco, September 6, 2011
..."RENDER UNTO ROME: THE SECRET LIFE OF MONEY IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH" by Jason Berry is a story of money and personality. "RENDER UNTO ROME: THE SECRET LIFE OF MONEY IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH" by Jason Berry. Crown Publishers (New York, 2011). ...
Kansas City Star, August 4, 2011
...The new book Render to Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church, by Jason Berry, is distressing on so many levels. And I don't mean it's a bad book. Indeed, it's a really important book, well reported, well documented, well ...
