| Welcome to Bill's Book Club! Each month, Bill selects a book that he's
been reading and passes it on to you. See what others have to say about the
book, and then let everyone know what you think! |
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 Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal
by David France
David France takes us back to the church of the 1950s, a time of relative innocence. With deft nuance, he crafts a panoramic portrait of the faithful, encompassing the hopes, dreams, disappointments, and courage of numerous Catholic and non-Catholic families over the last fifty years. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, private correspondence, unpublished scientific probes and secret Vatican documents, and tens of thousands of pages of court records, he shows how, ironically, the church's institutional suspicion of human sexuality lit the fuse on the crises. Our Fathers braids a heartbreaking narrative from the personal lives of good and bad priests, pious and heartless prelates, self-interested lawyers turned heroes, holy altar boys turned drug addicts, mothers torn between their children and their faith, hardbitten investigative reporters reduced to tears, and thousands of church critics who, through this crisis, returned to their faith renewed and invigorated. He shows us the intense history of dissent within the ranks, especially regarding Catholic teachings on sexuality and homosexuality. He tells the heroic stories of whistle-blowing nuns, independent pastors, church insiders trying to do the right thing, and - ultimately - a group of blue-collar men, all molested by the same priest, who overcame their bitterness and took it upon themselves to try to save their church. |
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Visit the Book Club Library to read about past book choices.
Questions for discussion on Bill's Book Club Message Boards:
1. Has the Vatican helped or hurt Catholics over the past 50 years?
2. Has the secular media in America covered the Church scandals unfairly?
3. Is the Catholic Church's approach to human sexuality wrongheaded and outdated?
4. Do you believe the Church hierarchy cared more about the institution than it cared about the faithful?
5. How much do the scandals damage the efforts of traditionalists -- who believe in Judeo-Christian ethics and values -- in the ongoing culture war vs. secularists?
6. What inspiration -- if any -- do you get from those who had the courage to expose the villains responsible for the scandals?
7. Was Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical on birth control the most disastrous in modern times for the church - as author France asserts it was?
8. If you are Catholic, and have read this book, do you still have faith in the church? If so why/why not?
9. Has the Catholic Church lost its moral authority because of the scandals -- or do the scandals represent only a small percentage of priests? Are all priests being unfairly stained by this scandal?
10. Who do YOU blame most for the scandals?
11. Has Pope John Paul II been a good Pope?
12. How can the Church best heal itself?
13. Are some sins unforgivable?
14. How can devoted Catholics reconcile the violations described in France's book?
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