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| The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston's Catholic Culture | 
 enlarge | Author: Philip F. Lawler
Publisher: Encounter Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $14.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (18 reviews)
Sales Rank: 39170
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 280
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 1594032114
Dewey Decimal Number: 282.74461
EAN: 9781594032110
ASIN: 1594032114
Publication Date: February 11, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Where's the proposals? March 24, 2008
7 out of 17 found this review helpful
I suspect that all thinking Catholics, at least in the New England area are well aware of the scandal(s). Mr. Lawler reviews the facts and points a few fingers but doesn't offer any real direction or solutions. Too many of the people and issues still exist. Unworthy Bishops are still in power or protected. The Bishop from Western Mass creeped away in the middle of the night and is living well outside the state. If her were to return to the stated he's be subject to arrest. Why is this allowed? A gay culture continues to thrive within some rectories and at St. John's Seminary. Too many people are still winking at the problem and looking the other way. What can we do?
good with caveats March 18, 2008
19 out of 36 found this review helpful
This is an excellent overview of the clergy-abuse scandal, specifically in the degree to which it documents and strongly condemns the corruption of the American hierarchy. But it's more ambitious, stepping back to take a wider view of how the Church has declined since the alleged 'good old days' before Vatican II when bishops had real clout. The truth is, as Lawler points out, the church was already ossifying from a lack of spiritual leadership among bishops that were too much caught up in the institution of the church as a secular corporation. In many ways the scandals that followed over the decades were predictable, if not inevitable.
The book suffers from a thin index and a complete lack of notes. Lawler is a veteran journalist, so I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. Nevertheless, right smack in the middle of the book he unloads a real howler, which I have to say is astonishing in someone who, according to the back book flap was "born and raised in the Boston area."
From p. 113, where Lawler is discussing the unpopularity of pro-life politicians running for office in Massachusetts, he writes:
"Shamie, Hyatt, McCarthy, and McNamara had something else in common: they were all pro-life Catholics. And in the Boston of the 1980s, who would come to the defense of a pro-life Catholic Republican? Neither political party was hospitable. The Globe was an implacable enemy, the Herald at best an inconstant friend. There were liberal op-ed columnists and talk-show hosts aplenty around the Boston area, whose intellectual hegemony was contested by a few feisty libertarians. There were two tradition-minded Jewish columnists (Don Feder and Jeff Jacoby), and a conservative Baptist (Joe Fitzgerald), but not a single prominent newspaper columnist or talk-show host who could plausibly be described as a Catholic conservative."
Huh?? I almost threw the book at the wall. You could ask Boston Globe op-ed columnist Ellen Goodman if she thought the late David J. Farrell --who was an op-ed columnist for the Globe from 1972 until November 1985-- could not plausibly be described as a Catholic conservative. You could also ask her colleague Joan Vennochi. Or Don Feder or Jeff Jacoby. Or Mike Barnicle. Dave Nyhan, RIP, isn't around, but he'd chime in too, if he could.
And David J. wasn't alone. David B. Wilson, who retired from the Globe just a year or so before Farrell left the paper (if I recall correctly), also wrote regularly against abortion among other things (although Wilson's a Protestant).
 NEEDS PROOFREADING March 12, 2008
19 out of 22 found this review helpful
This work, from a deeply invested observer, is well worth the read for anyone interested in making sense of the debacle served up by the ranks of American Catholic prelates over the past 30 years.
A small caveat: It provides a very conservative Catholic's view of the mess, and there is little patience displayed with things Catholic that arose post-1960.
This book deserved a much better editorial effort and a much more professional publishing house. Sadly, a reader often has to supply entire missing words, and re-reread whole passages to make sense of poorly punctuated text.
 A Must Read March 6, 2008
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
This book is essential reading for anyone -- Catholic or non-Catholic -- who wants to understand better the root of the sex-abuse crisis and the current state of the Catholic Church in the United States. In a clear and extremely readable way, Mr. Lawler shows how the entire hierarchy of the American Church -- from the bishops on down -- let down the faithful.
If Boston is viewed as the epicenter of the abuse crisis, it also can be seen as the archetype for the decline in the Catholic Church's influence in the U.S. and many other parts of the world. Mr. Lawler ties this together better than anyone else.
Haven't departed, but thoroughly demoralized February 26, 2008
37 out of 40 found this review helpful
Philip Lawler has written a history of my life in the Boston church since 1941. I suppose many of the "faithful" were naive and had no idea of the political tensions over the years, but we did see the destruction of our places of worship in the "spirit of Vatican II" and the wholesale repudiation of Catholic piety and devotion valid for centuries. The 60's and 70's popular culture invaded seminaries and changed the thinking of church leaders. The sense of the sacred departed and capitulation to politically correct attitudes robbed the bishops of their moral leadership. The consequences were empty churches and a thundering stampede from convents, monastaries and the priesthood. This book is essentially a damning condemnation of the US cardinals, archbishops and bishops. The confusion and lack of leadership created the climate for defying moral authority, indifference to church pronouncements on divorce, contraception, and other moral issues set the stage for the sordid child abuse scandal. The covering up of scandal was the only motive and we all suffered immeasurably. In a way, we in Boston are going through purgatory at the present time. Mr. Lawler is optimistic that the church will overcome this, and I am too. The gates of Hell shall not prevail.
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