Synopses & Reviews
They were the men most trusted: Father Geoghan, Father Birmingham, Father Shanley, Father Trupia, and hundreds of others. They were the rulers of the Catholic Church: Cardinal Law, Cardinal Egan, Cardinal Mahony, and others. They had all taken vows to live by the gospel and to care for their parishioners.
And they were believed.
Now, the investigative staff of the Boston Globe delivers the full, devastating account of the Church's decades-long cover-up that has left millions of American Catholics shocked and angry. Spanning the United States and the entire Church hierarchy, Betrayal tells the story of a platoon of abusive priests who preyed upon innocent children, and the cabal of senior Church officials who covered up their crimes.
When accused, abusive priests were quietly whisked away by Church officials to new parishes. Church leaders treated priests who were alleged to have raped children with excessive compassion, and victims with scorn and cold indifference. Politicians, police, and prosecutors often followed the Church's lead, allowing habitual abusers shelter and escape. The Church secretly paid out more than $1.3 billion in "hush money" to buy victims' silence and thus keep tens of millions of Catholics from knowing the truth about the men who ran their parishes.
It was the Boston Globe in January 2002 that originally broke the story of how the Boston archdiocese coddled pedophile priest John Geoghan, triggering the scandal within the Catholic Church, and throughout the crisis the Globe has continued to lead the media in reporting on major new developments. Betrayal adds new, never-before-disclosed details. It shows exactly how and to where abusive priests were shuffled, as well as who knew about the problem and did nothing to stop it. Betrayal also explores the nature of sexual abuse and whether a disproportionate number of abusers are found in the priesthood and, if so, why. And the book paints a vivid picture of the struggle ahead, as Catholics confront their Church and call for sweeping change.
Review
"[A] classic example of what serious, long-form investigative reporting and dedicated community service by the press can accomplish. In an era of declining journalistic standards, commercialization and cost-cutting, the Boston Globe showed that one newspaper can still rise above legal obstacles and institutional roadblocks." Buffalo News
Review
"[R]ecast[s] the Globe's findings into compelling, fresh, flowing narrative....[W]renching, but never lurid....This book belongs on the bookshelf of those seriously concerned about the governance of clerical sexual abusers." St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Review
"[Betrayal] provides the fullest account to date of the...sins and crimes that occurred at the epicenter of what almost immediately became a national crisis....The authors of Betrayal are largely successful in their attempt to achieve balance in their description and analysis of the events that caused the crisis..." R. Scott Appleby, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"The investigative staff of The Boston Globe has done the Catholic Church an enormous favor....It has revealed to the Catholic laity the ignorance, arrogance, stupidity, and insensitivity of the hierarchy. It has bared a pattern of sinfulness that has been a cancer eating at the church and has forced the bishops to excise it....God bless the Globe, says I." Andrew Greeley, The Boston Globe
Review
"A riveting, tragic read." Irish Times
Review
"The only reason that some of the truth has been revealed is because the Boston Globe got a judge to open documents that the Boston archdiocese fought to keep closed." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Review
"This is a watershed moment for the Boston Globe. Taking on the Catholic Church in this town is journalistically risky. They brought the Church to heel. The Globe sent a signal that it will go after the story, whatever the story is. The Globe set the agenda. Not only was it an outstanding piece of reporting, but a brave piece of publishing." Alex Jones, Director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, American Journalism Review
Synopsis
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
The story behind this groundbreaking book--one of the most significant works of investigative journalism since Woodward and Bernstein's reporting on Watergate--has been brought brilliantly to life on the screen in the major new movie Spotlight.
Here are the devastating revelations that triggered a crisis within the Catholic Church. Here is the truth about the scores of abusive priests who preyed upon innocent children and the cabal of senior Church officials who covered up their crimes. Here is the trail of "hush money" that the Catholic Church secretly paid to buy victims' silence--deeds that left millions of the faithful in the U.S. and around the world shocked, angry, and confused. Here as well is a vivid account of the ongoing struggle, as Catholics confront their Church and call for sweeping change.
Synopsis
A team of reporters writing for The Boston Globe has amassed evidence that points to a long history of cover-ups, hush money, and emotional blackmail used by the Catholic Church to hide sexual abuse within its ranks. Their investigation is the subject of this book.
Synopsis
Brought completely up to date in this new paperback edition, this groundbreaking book provides a detailed, devastating account of the Catholic Church's decades-long cover-up that has left millions of American Catholics shocked, angry, and confused. Encompassing the story in its entirety--as it has unfolded throughout the U.S. and throughout the Church hierarchy--BETRAYAL brings into focus the scores of abusive priests who preyed upon innocent children, and the cabal of senior Church officials who covered up their crimes.
- One of the most resonant and influential works of investigative journalism since Woodward and Bernstein's reporting on Watergate.
- Astonishing court documents, secured through the efforts of Globe journalists, are reproduced in an appendix.
- An essential, insightful, helpful text for the Church leaders, both lay and clergy, who have already begun charting a new course for the Catholic Church in America.
- The hardcover edition of BETRAYAL is now in its fourth printing with more than 50,000 copies in print.
About the Author
The writers of this book, and the reporters principally responsible for the Globe's coverage of the scandal, are Matt Carroll, Kevin Cullen, Thomas Farragher, Stephen Kurkjian, Michael Paulson, Sacha Pfeiffer, Michael Rezendes, and Spotlight Team editor Walter V. Robinson. The coverage and the book were overseen by Deputy Managing Editor Ben Bradlee Jr.