Lead Us Not into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children by Jason Berry, Andrew M. Greeley (Foreword by)

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In the autumn of 1984, Jason Berry first heard reports of the sexual abuse of boys by a priest in rural Louisiana. He didn't want to believe it. As a Catholic, he loved the church. As an expectant father, he was horrified for the abused children. But as a reporter, he wanted to find out what had happened. And what he found was that the case in Louisiana was by no means unusual. In fact, between 1984 and 1992, four hundred Catholic priests in North America have been reported for molesting children. To date, Berry estimates, $400 million has been paid by the church to resolve these cases. One source projects that $1 billion may be paid by century's end. Lead Us Not into Temptation is a masterful behind-the-scenes account of this unprecedented crisis in the Catholic Church. The story begins with an in-depth look at the case in Louisiana - a case representative of many across North America. A devout community is rocked by once-unspeakable things. Church officials are tragically indifferent to the victims' plight. And one brilliant Cajun attorney charges the church with a coverup, while another attorney learns that his client is one of many local priests who have abused boys. The story moves next to the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., where a secret pedophilia report warns American bishops of the staggering implications if a forthright policy is not developed to deal with the crisis. Yet cases keep cropping up. New York City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, Cleveland, Newfoundland, Honolulu, Seattle, New Orleans - in these and other locales Berry courageously reveals a web of suffering and of struggles for justice. Slowly a picture emerges of a venerable, age-old institution grappling in a strange world. While abusive priests are quietly posted to new clerical duties, liberal theologians are loudly sent packing by the Vatican. While seminaries, by many accounts, admit an increasing number of homosexuals, women are strictly barred from ministerial roles. The chur

USA Today

Berry is the rare investigative reporter whose scholarship, compassion, and ability to write with the poetic power of Robert Penn Warren are in perfect balance…Fair-minded.

Kirkus Reviews

Berry, a New Orleans journalist, tips over a religious rock and finds a nest of corruption, deceit, and despair. Despite a hyperventilating foreword by Andrew Greeley ("perhaps the most serious crisis Catholicism has faced since the Reformation"), this proves to be a temperate, detailed investigation of a religious tragedy: pedophilia among Roman Catholic priests. According to the statistics given here, perhaps two percent of them lust after children; what shocks is that any man devoted to pastoral care would act on such impulses, and that local Church authorities sometimes covered up the evidence. Berry (a Catholic) discovered the scandal in 1984, when rumors began to spread about Gilbert Gauthe, a priest in Cajun country, Louisiana. In gritty, novelistic fashion ("A dread feeling lodged in Roy's intestines. `What the hell. Did he suck people off?' "), Berry tracks the Gauthe case and his own sense of outrage. An angry attorney confronts Catholic bishops, who turn turtle; media outlets run away from the story; Berry hunts down experts on sexual deviation; more pedophilia cases emerge. One encouraging note sounds as Berry meets Michael Peterson, a benign, street-wise priest who runs a center for dysfunctional priests; sadly, Peterson later dies of AIDS. As the investigation proceeds, broader sexual issues emerge. Why are there so many homosexual priests? Where does priestly celibacy fit in? Here, Berry switches from reporter to crusader, launching an attack against Church views on sexuality that becomes a blast against Catholic traditionalism ("a medieval church turning its back on the church of the space age"). Looking at floundering seminaries, depressed parishes, and corruptionin Newfoundland, Chicago, and N.Y.C. (where one priest, a tenured professor at CUNY, makes amateur porno films), Berry concludes that the Church is a "dysfunctional family" and argues for optional priestly celibacy. Despite the "old church vs. new church" political brief: superb investigative reporting.

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