Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism

Download Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0789029553
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (89 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism by : Myra L. Hidalgo

Download or read book Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism written by Myra L. Hidalgo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism digs beneath the public scandals to explore the underlying causes of sexual abuse by priests and nuns from the unique perspective of an abuse victim/survivor who is an experienced mental health practitioner and social science researcher. This powerful book includes the author's personal account of sexual abuse by a nun and her years of struggle to recover. Passionate but scholarly and objective, the book advocates the need for healing dialogue, empirical research, and informed prevention strategies to bring a meaningful resolution to the crisis of sexual abuse in the church.

Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism

Download Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136867937
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (368 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism by : Myra L Hidalgo

Download or read book Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism written by Myra L Hidalgo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-10-12 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inside look at the reasons Catholic priests and nuns commit sexual abuse Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism digs beneath the public scandals to explore the underlying causes of sexual abuse by priests and nuns from the unique perspective of an abuse victim/survivor who is an experienced mental health practitioner and social science researcher. This powerful book includes the author’s personal account of sexual abuse by a nun and her years of struggle to recover. Passionate but scholarly and objective, the book advocates the need for healing dialogue, empirical research, and informed prevention strategies to bring a meaningful resolution to the crisis of sexual abuse in the church. Popular explanations for the reasons behind the crisis have included issues related to celibacy, homosexuality, the power structure of the church, and poor seminary screening practices. But none of these theories are supported by research nor can they explain why Catholic priests and nuns may be more likely to abuse children that other adults in positions of trust. Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism uses a complex, systemic approach to draw parallels between the church as a human system and a family that has experienced incest, presenting a model for a sexual trauma cycle in the church based on systemic sexual shame passed down through the beliefs and practices of Catholicism. Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism examines: the prevalence and characteristics of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and nuns compared to sex offenders in the general population celibacy, homosexuality, and the power structure of the church as contributing factors in the sexual abuse crisis an analogy of the church as a family in which incest occurs the effects and causes of sexual offending from one generation to the next how current research on sexual offending applies to sexual abuse by priests and nuns healing and empowerment for those affected by religious-based sexual trauma reform and renewal within the Catholic Church and much more Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism is a unique and important resource for clergy, religious order, and lay leaders in the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations; social science researchers; social workers and mental health professionals; lay and religious members of the Catholic Church; and anyone recovering from religious-based sexual trauma.

Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church

Download Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199328978
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church by : Marie Keenan

Download or read book Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church written by Marie Keenan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A meticulously researched inside look at child sexual abuse by clergy, this exhaustive, hard-hitting analysis weaves together interviews with abusive priests and church historical and administrative details to propose a new way of thinking about clerical sexual offenders. Linking the personal and the institutional, researcher and therapist Marie Keenan locates the problem of child sexual abuse not exclusively in individual pathology, but also within larger systemic factors, such as the very institution of priesthood itself, the Catholic take on sexuality, clerical culture, power relations, governance structures of the Catholic Church, the process of formation for priesthood and religious life, and the complex manner in which these factors coalesce to create serious institutional risks for boundary violations, including child sexual abuse. Keenan draws on the priests' own words not to excuse their horrific crimes, but to offer the first in-depth account of a tragic, multi-faceted phenomenon. What emerges is a troubling portrait of a Church in crisis and a series of recommendations that call for nothing less than a new ecclesiology and a new, more critical theology. Only through radical institutional reform, Keenan argues, can a more representative and accountable Church emerge. Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church is a unique reference for scholars of the Church and therapists who work with both victims and offenders, as well as a forward-thinking blueprint for reform.

Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

Download Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313393885
Total Pages : 285 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (133 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church by : Thomas G. Plante Ph.D.

Download or read book Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church written by Thomas G. Plante Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-10-20 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking on a still-controversial topic, a diverse group of experts, including victims and clergy, offers reflections on the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, examining what the church has done—and what it still needs to do—to protect children. Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis, 2002–2012 is a thoughtful, multidisciplinary commentary. Beginning when the scandal first broke in Boston in 2002, this first-of-its-kind work offers a wide range of opinion, both positive and negative, on what has been done in the ensuing ten years to stop and prevent such abuse. Through the contributions here, readers can delve into the world of the church hierarchy and into the minds of abusive priests and their victims. The book presents the views of leading academics and psychologists, but also allows the church to speak. First-person insights from victims are shared, as in a chapter written by a woman abused by a clergy member as an adolescent. She explains what happened, the resulting trauma, how she healed, and what she thinks needs to be done to prevent future abuse—a subject that still makes headlines and stirs debate.

The Abuse of Minors in the Catholic Church

Download The Abuse of Minors in the Catholic Church PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000064921
Total Pages : 211 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Abuse of Minors in the Catholic Church by : Anthony J. Blasi

Download or read book The Abuse of Minors in the Catholic Church written by Anthony J. Blasi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-03-26 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an academically rigorous examination of the biological, psychological, social and ecclesiastical processes that allowed sexual abuse in the Catholic Church to happen and then be covered up. The collected essays provide a means to better assess systemic wrongdoing in religious institutions, so that they can be more effectively held to account. An international team of contributors apply a necessarily multi-disciplinary approach to this difficult subject. Chapters look closely at the sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic clerics, explaining the complexity of this issue, which cannot be reduced to simple misconduct, sexual deviation, or a management failure alone. The book will help the reader to better understand the social, organizational, and cultural processes in the Church over recent decades, as well as the intricate world of beliefs, moral rules, and behaviours. It concludes with some strategies for change at the individual and corporate levels that will better ensure safeguarding within the Catholic Church and its affiliate institutions. This multifaceted study gives a nuanced analysis of this huge organizational failure and offers recommendations for effective ways of preventing it in the future. As such, it will be of keen interest to scholars of Religious Studies, Sociology of Religion, Psychology, Psychiatry, Legal Studies, Ethics, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, and Theology.

Sacrilege

Download Sacrilege PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780979027994
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (279 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sacrilege by : Leon J. Podles

Download or read book Sacrilege written by Leon J. Podles and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sacrilege explores the deep roots of the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal, revealing its full depth and breadth. In horrifying yet necessary detail, former federal investigator Leon Podles surveys the full extent of the damage, showing how victims were failed by bishops, laity, therapists, police, courts, press, and even popes. Examining the history behind today's headlines, Dr. Podles reveals how centuries-old theological errors encouraged blind submission to hierarchy, by making obedience to authority the highest virtue. He also shines a light on the new theological errors, popularized since Vatican II, that glorify every type of sexual expression--including pedophilia. Sacrilege will prove an essential resource for all those concerned with the history and future of Catholicism.

Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims

Download Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136648410
Total Pages : 259 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (366 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims by : Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea

Download or read book Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims written by Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church captured headlines and mobilized public outrage in January 2002. But much of the commentary that immediately followed was reductionistic, focusing on single "causes" of clerical abuse such as mandatory celibacy, homosexuality, sexual repressiveness or sexual permissiveness, anti-Catholicism, and a decadent secular culture. Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims: The Sexual Abuse Crisis and the Catholic Church, a collection of groundbreaking articles edited by Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea and Virginia Goldner, eschews such one-size-fits-all theorizing. In its place, the abuse situation is explored in all its troubling complexity, as contributors take into account the experiences, respectively, of the victim/survivor, the abuser/perpetrator, and the bystander (whether family member, professional/clergy, or the community at large). Setting polemics to the side, Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims provides a sober and sobering analysis of the interlacing historical, doctrinal, and psychological issues that came together in the sexual abuse scandal. It is mandatory reading for all who seek thoughtful, informed commentary on a crisis long in the making and yet to be resolved.

Why I Am Catholic (and You Should Be Too)

Download Why I Am Catholic (and You Should Be Too) PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Ave Maria Press
ISBN 13 : 1594717680
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (947 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Why I Am Catholic (and You Should Be Too) by : Brandon Vogt

Download or read book Why I Am Catholic (and You Should Be Too) written by Brandon Vogt and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2017-10-06 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of a 2018 Catholic Press Association Award: Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith. (First Place). With atheism on the rise and millions tossing off religion, why would anyone consider the Catholic Church? Brandon Vogt, a bestselling author and the content director for Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, shares his passionate search for truth, a journey that culminated in the realization that Catholicism was right about a lot of things, maybe even everything. His persuasive case for the faith reveals a vision of Catholicism that has answers our world desperately needs and reminds those already in the Church what they love about it. A 2016 study by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 25 percent of adults (39 percent of young adults) describe themselves as unaffiliated with any religion. Millions of these so-called “nones” have fled organized religion and many more have rejected God altogether. Brandon Vogt was one of those nones. When he converted to Catholicism in college, he knew how confusing that decision was to many of his friends and family. But he also knew that the evidence he discovered pointed to one conclusion: Catholicism is true. To his delight, he discovered it was also exceedingly good and beautiful. Why I Am Catholic traces Vogt’s spiritual journey, making a refreshing, twenty-first century case for the faith and answering questions being asked by agnostics, nones, and atheists, the audience for his popular website, StrangeNotions.com, where Catholics and atheists dialogue. With references to Catholic thinkers such as G. K. Chesterton, Ven. Fulton Sheen, St. Teresa of Calcutta, and Bishop Robert Barron, Vogt draws together lines of evidence to help seekers discover why they should be Catholic as an alternative. Why I Am Catholic serves as a compelling reproposal of the Church for former Catholics, a persuasive argument for truth and beauty to those who have become jaded and disenchanted with religion, and at the same time offers practicing Catholics a much-needed dose of confidence and clarity to affirm their faith against an increasingly skeptical culture.

Shaken by Scandals

Download Shaken by Scandals PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Servant Books
ISBN 13 : 9781569553534
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (535 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Shaken by Scandals by : Paul Thigpen

Download or read book Shaken by Scandals written by Paul Thigpen and published by Servant Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shaken by Scandals is for both Catholics and non-Catholics who have been grieved, angered, and confused by Church scandals and are asking, How did this terrible situation come about, and how should we respond to it? This book offers practical, pastoral, theological, biblical, and historical insights into scandals from a variety of perspectives from key leaders of the Church.

My Peace I Give You

Download My Peace I Give You PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Ave Maria Press
ISBN 13 : 1594713464
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (947 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis My Peace I Give You by : Dawn Eden

Download or read book My Peace I Give You written by Dawn Eden and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2012-05-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dawn Eden, internationally known speaker and author of the bestselling The Thrill of the Chaste, shows how the lives of the saints have given her hope and aided her journey of spiritual healing after childhood sexual abuse. One in four American women and one in six American men report having been sexually abused during childhood and My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints provides a much-needed resource for spiritual healing from the isolating effects of these wounds. Eden uses her own story as a backdrop to introduce numerous holy people— like Laura Vicuña, Thomas Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux—who suffered sexual abuse or sexual inappropriateness, as well as saints such as Ignatius of Loyola who suffered other forms of mistreatment and abandonment. Readers seeking wholeness will discover saints with wounds like their own, whose stories bear witness to the transforming power of grace. Eden explores different dimensions of divine love—sheltering, compassionate, purifying, etc.—to help those sexually wounded in childhood understand their identity in the abiding love of Christ.

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Download Lead Us Not Into Temptation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 9780252068126
Total Pages : 446 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (681 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Lead Us Not Into Temptation by : Jason Berry

Download or read book Lead Us Not Into Temptation written by Jason Berry and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While seminaries, by many accounts, admit an increasing number of homosexuals, women are strictly barred from ministerial roles. The church's time-honored tradition of "avoiding scandal" also backfires. For by the shielding of fallen clerics, Berry shows, the suffering of the abused is often compounded.

Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims

Download Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136648402
Total Pages : 214 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (366 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims by : Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea

Download or read book Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims written by Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church captured headlines and mobilized public outrage in January 2002. But much of the commentary that immediately followed was reductionistic, focusing on single "causes" of clerical abuse such as mandatory celibacy, homosexuality, sexual repressiveness or sexual permissiveness, anti-Catholicism, and a decadent secular culture. Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims: The Sexual Abuse Crisis and the Catholic Church, a collection of groundbreaking articles edited by Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea and Virginia Goldner, eschews such one-size-fits-all theorizing. In its place, the abuse situation is explored in all its troubling complexity, as contributors take into account the experiences, respectively, of the victim/survivor, the abuser/perpetrator, and the bystander (whether family member, professional/clergy, or the community at large). Setting polemics to the side, Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims provides a sober and sobering analysis of the interlacing historical, doctrinal, and psychological issues that came together in the sexual abuse scandal. It is mandatory reading for all who seek thoughtful, informed commentary on a crisis long in the making and yet to be resolved.

The Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal

Download The Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Fides et Spes Press.
ISBN 13 : 1647043972
Total Pages : 189 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (47 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal by : Jerry J. Paresa

Download or read book The Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal written by Jerry J. Paresa and published by Fides et Spes Press.. This book was released on 2021-09-23 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An enduring solution starts with the correct diagnosis… The Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse Scandal has haunted the lives of its victims and the Catholic community at large for decades. Even today, it continues to undermine the credibility of the Church and dishearten its faithful. Catholics remain rightfully frustrated and disappointed as Church leaders try to move beyond this ugly chapter without creating a cohesive plan to address the underlying issues that contributed to the scandal in the first place. Media coverage has often oversimplified these contributing factors, leaving many with the impression that simplistic solutions can fix the Church's problems. This is not the case. Written from an insider's perspective, this book strives to dispel unhelpful caricatures and more fully examine the broad contextual and aggravating factors that make the Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse Scandal. It is heavily researched work designed to help parishioners, priests, and Church leaders more clearly consider the complexities of the crisis so that they may continue to make informed, concrete, and effective steps to heal the Church and its people.

Abuse and Cover-Up

Download Abuse and Cover-Up PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Orbis Books
ISBN 13 : 1608338037
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (83 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Abuse and Cover-Up by : Arbuckle, Gerald A.

Download or read book Abuse and Cover-Up written by Arbuckle, Gerald A. and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2019-09-26 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written for readers deeply concerned for the future of the church, this book seeks to answer two questions: Why is the culture of the Catholic Church, despite Vatican II's emphasis on collegiality and transparency, still prone to covering up abuses of power? How can this culture change in order to move forward? A timely book on the sex abuse crisis by a scholar who is adept at weaving insights from the social sciences into a framework of practical theology.

Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church

Download Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199328994
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church by : Marie Keenan

Download or read book Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church written by Marie Keenan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A meticulously researched inside look at child sexual abuse by clergy, this exhaustive, hard-hitting analysis weaves together interviews with abusive priests and church historical and administrative details to propose a new way of thinking about clerical sexual offenders. Linking the personal and the institutional, researcher and therapist Marie Keenan locates the problem of child sexual abuse not exclusively in individual pathology, but also within larger systemic factors, such as the very institution of priesthood itself, the Catholic take on sexuality, clerical culture, power relations, governance structures of the Catholic Church, the process of formation for priesthood and religious life, and the complex manner in which these factors coalesce to create serious institutional risks for boundary violations, including child sexual abuse. Keenan draws on the priests' own words not to excuse their horrific crimes, but to offer the first in-depth account of a tragic, multi-faceted phenomenon. What emerges is a troubling portrait of a Church in crisis and a series of recommendations that call for nothing less than a new ecclesiology and a new, more critical theology. Only through radical institutional reform, Keenan argues, can a more representative and accountable Church emerge. Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church is a unique reference for scholars of the Church and therapists who work with both victims and offenders, as well as a forward-thinking blueprint for reform.

Perversion of Power

Download Perversion of Power PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Vanderbilt University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780826515476
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (154 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Perversion of Power by : Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea

Download or read book Perversion of Power written by Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea and published by Vanderbilt University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Trapped in a Closed World

Download Trapped in a Closed World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781925073409
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (734 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Trapped in a Closed World by : Kevin Peoples

Download or read book Trapped in a Closed World written by Kevin Peoples and published by . This book was released on 2017-10 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disclaimer As at 1 September 2017, and in advance of publication, Trapped in a Closed World: Catholic Culture and Sexual Abuse, has officially been withdrawn from sale in Victoria, Australia due to current court proceedings. A lived expose of the poisonous clerical culture dominating life in a typical Catholic seminary in Australia in the 1960s, which links this culture to the clerical abuse highlighted in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The God Kevin Peoples met as a seminarian was not the God he knew and loved and wanted to serve. Trapped in a Closed World is his first-hand account of the harmful clerical culture that dominated Catholic seminary life in Australia in the 1960s - an endemic culture that still exists in some seminaries today. The Catholic beliefs taught date back to medieval times, and have made the Church hierarchical, misogynistic, and exclusive. For the young men training to be Catholic priests, this meant being 'special', being 'chosen' directly by God to serve the institution of the Holy Mother Church. Told with the tenderness and humour of a memoir, it nonetheless rigorously investigates the extreme beliefs and practices that paved the way for many Catholic priests to sexually abuse those in their care, and for the bishops to protect their clergy before victims. Ignorant and innocent at the time of the sexual abuse affecting the community outside the closed gates of St. Columba's, Springwood and his home Diocese, Ballarat, Victoria, Kevin makes up for lost time with this tour de force. This is more than just a memoir. It is an insightful and compelling examination of clerical culture and its link to sexual abuse in Catholic institutions.