>>5155039 (pb)

It's difficult for me to know how to take the claims of this book. On the one hand, I have do doubt that a "double life" culture prevails at the Vatican, as elsewhere, and that there is vicious hypocrisy (conflict between what is claimed and what those men actually do in secret), and that the Vatican itself is a nightmare.

But–

The guy who wrote this book is a non-believer and gay himself, so it's not hard to see what his bias is and what axe he's grinding. Especially when he goes after clergy "in denial" of their sexual identities. It seems clear he has no understanding of the difference between an "orientation" and an ordained priest who breaks his vows to act upon that orientation (straight or gay). By all means let's expose the hypocritical conduct and double life scandals, but because of my skepticism towards this author's biases, it's going to take some heavy lifting to sort through this book's claims, IMV.