The Conspiracy chronicles the monumental struggles of an innocent priest, Monsignor William McCarthy, falsely accused in 2003 of molesting two young sisters more than 23 years earlier. On the eve of his retirement from a stellar career as a priest and pastor, for the next five tortuous years, he was the victim of an anonymous complaint that was accepted as true by his bishop and friend of 40 years. Share his travails and see how ones faith can overcome the worst injustices that man can heap on a holy and totally innocent person." -- Jack Kraft, Esq. Monsignor William McCarthy paints a picture embracing a situation that is almost impossible to comprehend. Had I not stood by him throughout the years of pure hell he experienced, I would not have believed the outright calumny by a detective, and how the subsequent action of his bishop and diocesan staff could have occurred. Child abuse is a terrible thing, but equally horrible is when innocent priests are unjustly condemned and destroyed by the hierarchy of their church. -- Arthur N. Hoagland, M.D. This book is a must read for any Catholic who loves their Church but is concerned about its often self-destructive response to the tragedy of clerical pedophilia. It is story about tragedy and triumph. The tragedy of the Church that Monsignor McCarthy loves deeply, and into which he has selflessly devoted his entire life, but is sometimes governed by people who have lost all sense of justice. It is a Church that betrayed him. In its attempt to protect the victims of child abuse, it established a new category of victims: its faithful priests. The triumph of Monsignor McCarthy is his faith and love of Jesus, which saw him through his terrible ordeal in spite of the evil that was perpetrated against him. -- Deacon Joseph Keenan

Yes, Catholic priests terribly abused minors, and bishops failed to stop the unspeakable harm. That is an undeniable truth. Nothing justifies such an evil. However, major media outlets are unfairly attacking the Catholic Church, and this fast-paced, compelling book has the shocking evidence to prove it. This book addresses numerous topics, including: ... appalling cases of abuse and cover-ups happening today - but they're not happening in the Catholic Church ... proof that Catholic clergy do not offend more than teachers or those of other religious denominations ... data that shows that the Catholic clergy scandal is not about "pedophilia" ... affirmation that the Catholic Church may be the safest environment for children today ... research that uncovers the shady relationships between SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests), lawyers, and the media ... the alarming roots of SNAP's attacks on the Church ... the surprising truth about "repressed memories" ... unheard, agonized priests who deny the accusations against them ... evidence of how the "documentary" Deliver Us From Evil deceived moviegoers plus much more. Double Standard covers topics that the major media won't. There is no other book about the Catholic Church abuse narrative like this one.

The Greatest Fraud Never Told is the side of the Catholic Church abuse story that the media has not told you. In this easy-to-read, fast-paced, and highly informative book, you will learn: ... the truth about the rampancy of false accusations against Catholic priests and why genuine abuse victims should be outraged; ... the story of a single fraudster who sent three innocent Catholic priests and a school teacher to prison and also scored a $5 million settlement; ... how Pope Francis championed an abuse case that gained worldwide attention but turned out to be completely bogus; ... how the 2018 Pennsylvania "grand jury report" that shook the world is flatly discredited; ... why bishops decades ago sent abusive priests off to treatment centers - it's not for the reasons you think; ... the story of a falsely accused priest who fought back against the activist group SNAP and won; and much, much more. There is no other book like The Greatest Fraud Never Told.

We must continue to demand justice and compassion for victims of Catholic clergy abuse. This is not optional. Time and time again in recent years, Catholics and non-Catholics alike have been horrified by hideous stories of wretched abuse and betrayal. However, there is a side of the Catholic Church abuse narrative that is not getting the attention it warrants. Countless priests in the United States have been falsely accused of committing horrendous child abuse. Topics in this book include: ... how the most recent figures indicate that one third of accused priests have been accused falsely; ... the stunning court declaration with the opinion from a retired FBI investigator that "one half" of all accusations are "entirely false" or "greatly exaggerated"; ... the American cardinal who has been the target of two bogus abuse charges; ... how accusers have retained huge monetary settlements even though their allegations later proved to be false; ... the father of an accuser who appeared at the funeral of an accused priest and apologized for the false allegation that his son leveled; ... the Catholic archbishop who tells of being spat upon by a member of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests); ... the monsignor who waited five years to be exonerated of abuse charges even though his alleged victims denied that they were molested; plus much more.

The clergy abuse scandal has posed the greatest threat to the traditional understanding of the Catholic priesthood since the Protestant Reformation. Now, as then, the deadliest attacks are coming from within the Church. In an attempt to improve a system that allowed a small minority of the clergy to violate children and ameliorate the gross negligence of some bishops who recycled these predators, the American bishops instituted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002. It is, unfortunately, doing the Church more harm than good. In Hope Springs Eternal in the Priestly Breast, Fr. James Valladares shows how justice and charity have been violated by some bishops in dealing with accused priests. He examines the pertinent canons that guide the Churchs judicial system and finds that these are often ignored or wrongly applied. He provides true cases that highlight the injustice of the process and the agony of priests who have been subjected to the charters draconian mandates. The Church has incurred tremendous financial losses because of settlements rising from both legitimate and false claims. Her image has been marred by the secular media, which has taken advantage of the crisis. Even so, we often fail to understand how trivial these are in comparison to the damage done to the priesthood by the enactment of the charters policies. This is the most pressing issue that the bishops need to address.

Since 2002, the Roman Catholic Church has been in crisis over the sexual abuse of minors by priests and the cover-up of those crimes by bishops. Over 11,000 alleged victims have reported their experiences to the Church, and more than 4,700 priests since 1950 have been credibly accused of sexually victimizing minors. The Church has paid over one billion dollars to adults who claim to have been sexually abused by priests and there is no end in sight to these lawsuits. Celibacy, homosexuality in the priesthood, the infiltration into the priesthood of secular moral relativism, too much liberalism in the Church since Vatican II, damaging rollback of Vatican II reforms by conservative prelates--all have been suggested as causes for the crisis. This book, however, begins with the premise that, because the pattern of abuse and cover-up was so similar across the world, there is something fundamentally awry with Church traditions and power structures in relationship to sexuality and sexual abuse. Specifically, in chapters on suffering and sadomasochism, bodies and gender, desire and sexuality, celibacy and homosexuality, the author concludes that aspects of the Catholic theology of sexuality set the stage for the abuse of minors and its cover-up. Frawley-O'Dea also analyzes the American bishops' lack of pastoral care and tendency towards clerical narcissism--the belief that the needs of the hierarchy represent the needs of the wider Church--as central factors in the scandal. She balances this criticism with a discussion of the backgrounds of the bishops presiding over the crisis and the challenges they faced in their relationships with the Pope and Vatican officials. Drawing on twenty years of clinical experience, she imagines the dynamics of sexual abuse both from the victim's point of view and from the priest's, and she probes why the Church hierarchy, fellow priests, and lay people were silent for so long. Finally, Frawley-O'Dea examines factors internal to the Church and outside of it that drew this scandal into the public square and kept it there.

Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What The Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017. "The truth, we are told, will make us free. It is time to free Catholics, lay as well as clerical, from the structures of deceit that are our subtle modern form of papal sin. Paler, subtler, less dramatic than the sins castigated by Orcagna or Dante, these are the quiet sins of intellectual betrayal." --from the Introduction From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills comes an assured, acutely insightful--and occasionally stinging--critique of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy from the nineteenth century to the present. Papal Sin in the past was blatant, as Catholics themselves realized when they painted popes roasting in hell on their own church walls. Surely, the great abuses of the past--the nepotism, murders, and wars of conquest--no longer prevail; yet, the sin of the modern papacy, as revealed by Garry Wills in his penetrating new book, is every bit as real, though less obvious than the old sins. Wills describes a papacy that seems steadfastly unwilling to face the truth about itself, its past, and its relations with others. The refusal of the authorities of the Church to be honest about its teachings has needlessly exacerbated original mistakes. Even when the Vatican has tried to tell the truth--e.g., about Catholics and the Holocaust--it has ended up resorting to historical distortions and evasions. The same is true when the papacy has attempted to deal with its record of discrimination against women, or with its unbelievable assertion that "natural law" dictates its sexual code. Though the blithe disregard of some Catholics for papal directives has occasionally been attributed to mere hedonism or willfulness, it actually reflects a failure, after long trying on their part, to find a credible level of honesty in the official positions adopted by modern popes. On many issues outside the realm of revealed doctrine, the papacy has made itself unbelievable even to the well-disposed laity. The resulting distrust is in fact a neglected reason for the shortage of priests. Entirely aside from the public uproar over celibacy, potential clergy have proven unwilling to put themselves in a position that supports dishonest teachings. Wills traces the rise of the papacy's stubborn resistance to the truth, beginning with the challenges posed in the nineteenth century by science, democracy, scriptural scholarship, and rigorous history. The legacy of that resistance, despite the brief flare of John XXIII's papacy and some good initiatives in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council (later baffled), is still strong in the Vatican. Finally Wills reminds the reader of the positive potential of the Church by turning to some great truth tellers of the Catholic tradition--St. Augustine, John Henry Newman, John Acton, and John XXIII. In them, Wills shows that the righteous path can still be taken, if only the Vatican will muster the courage to speak even embarrassing truths in the name of Truth itself.