For his latest novel, Father Greeley has moved away from the mystery format, and he has left his belove detective, Bishop Ryan as bit player. It is story about a priest in a fictional midwestern community who is summoned as a witness on a preliminary Motion in a lawsuit against an archdiocese for sexual abuse by a priest who has since died. It is both an passionate critique of the clerical culture of American church, and a passionate defence of the integrity of the American church and the front-line priests and clergy serving the American church.
Greeley manages to make his arguments through telling the life story of a fictional priest. This time - for a change - he is not Irish. His people are Russian-German, solid prairie farmers. Herman Hoffman was a bit of a jock, and more of a nerd. He had a passionate affair with a childhood sweetheart, but dumped her when he chose a career in the church. He isn't a mystic - no voices or visions. He just has a strong idea of God's presence and a calling to the priestly ministry.
In an early posting, he witnesses another priest sexually assaulting an alter boy. He reports it, and his superiors institutionalize him for treatment for his own allegedly homosexual fantasies. His care is managed by an incompetent GP who is influenced by the archbishop and a few corrupt clerics who are building their careers on protecting the Church's reputation. Hoffman discharges himself from hospital, leaves for graduate studies in Chicago and returns to his diocese to run a parish - with some success, but is again threatened by the bishop and his clique. However his parish is not dependent on the diocese for anything except the Catholic "brand" and Hoffman holds out until the lawsuit exposes the diocesan fraud.
Greeley is a decent writer and he cares for these characters, so there is a good story, well told, to entertain. But Greeley is also a thinker and a polemicist.
There is a sideline discussion of the role of the Church in managing the cohesion and success of Catholic immigrant communities. Greeley manages to sound off on this topic by making Hoffman an academic historian with research interests, as well as a parish priest. But mainly Greeley talks about abuse, and why it happened, why it was covered up, why priests weren't fired and why Catholics should try promote reform in their church instead of bailing out.
He disputes the conventional wisdom that sexual abuse is the result of sexual frustration in a celibate clergy. His characters in debating the issue note that sexual abuse is more an abuse of power than a sexual act, and that sexual abuse has been committed by married heterosexuals in the Protestant and Orthodox churches, and in many professions. I agree. Sexual frustration is not a good explanation for rape and other sex crimes, and the theory is a relic of Freudian thought.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
sounds like an interesting and nuanced handling of a critical topic, very fine review, thanks Tony!