Heartbreaking

This book was very well researched and if you finish it you will not be able to think of the Catholic Church the same way again. The author does a tremendous job shedding light on the Vaticans closet and it’s extreme hypocrisy. He diagnoses the problems in the Vatican from an insiders perspective. He had an unusual level of access to high ranking officials within the Holy See. He exposes rank corruption at the highest levels as well as the worst sins of Princes or “Queens” of the Church.

Sadly the author is a militant homosexual and this colors almost the entire book. Anyone who is to the right of him is an extremist or “far right”. He attempts to marginalize traditional Catholics and other Christians this way. He is a textbook bigot, in the classical sense. The sad thing is that he doesn’t see it. The sees the world through the lenses of his sexuality. He freely admits his ignorance of the Bible and for that matter the Christian faith. He idolizes sexuality and it prevents him from truly understanding the religion that built Western Civilization. He is self impoverished in the truest sense.

5 people found this helpful

An engaging story of something not so secret!

First, the only drawback of this book is the amount of tangents and digressions. From the narrator to the interviewees, there are a lot of sequence breaks.

It may be a narration which turns to a quote. A quote that's reminiscing to a quote that they're making from someone else. That choppy flow with names (excellently pronounced) in multiple languages make this listen difficult to follow at times.

Aside from that, the book is amazing. It explains so much on how the Vatican came to be so gay. Why the contradictions with condemning homosexual acts but never punishing child molesters. It's complex and sad. And there's just so much. The absurdity to which some of these men exploited their power will have you yelling out loud.

But there are touching, humanizing points as well. The book is a emotional rollercoaster. I strongly recommend this book. Not because I'm gay or because I'm an atheist. But because it's a fascinating story about humans and their inner struggles.

10 people found this helpful

Where was the editor?

Such a poorly edited book with whole long sections repeated and repeated. Also not particularly interested in know what the author ate in every restaurant. Expected something more factual and coherent.

9 people found this helpful

Very disappointing

Perhaps the author thought he was Voltaire but he comes across like a gossip queen gaily being a bitch about everyone he ever met in the Catholic Church. More real evidence for his grand Continental theses would have been appreciated.

2 people found this helpful

As a Catholic myself the book has real force.

The writing style of the book is a mix of academic work, methodic and involved, and yet it steps back from being only thing by a large amount of story telling and reports of a large number of interviews If one was asked is this book primarily a psychological reflection or a sociological one, then sociology gets the tick in its box. A number of times Martel is able to point to how the story of the individual is linked to the problem and issue a whole society experiences and is required to face as a result of the telling of that individual's story. Finally there is one idea Martel offers which is noteworthy. He points to the presence of both gay people and non-gays in the Vatican but does not then argue there are two lobbies, one gay and the other straight. He observes while there are gay individuals, group formation for them, the capacity to be a political block is not there because that sexual orientation or interest can't be socially acknowledged. There is the ability for a political movement that attacks gays to be formed, and it is there in the Vatican, and it is populated by many who are homophile. There is permission for this group formation and Martel gives time to explain how this faction operates. This book is socking for some, as a Catholic the news that some in the Vatican are gay is no surprise, however the goings on, the things said and done, that can be indeed unsettling. A book which can be recommended to those who are willing to be open to what it offers.

2 people found this helpful

Interresting , to a point

This book could and should have been written with only half the pages ... It is 576 pages long, that's 22 hours of reading ! The author spends pages after pages giving details that are not always necessary but that are repetitive. Also you get lost in the endless list of names. You lose interest in his argument because it so long , it's a bit like when you are in a maze and you realise you've been there for too long and you get tired of it. The prologue however really impressed me : it is both illuminating and beautifully written. Some portraits he draws of some cardinals are also very striking, sometimes downright hilarious. But definetly not a book I will ever read again.

4 people found this helpful

Rings True and Explains Much about the Church

First, about the book itself. The author is a gifted narrator and obviously did extensive research. The nature of the subject means that often he is relying on second hand information but he weighs this information and often explains why he disbelieved some accusations. Sometimes he gives elaborate descriptions of his interviewees and some may wish less detail had been given. Still his prose in English translation is excellent and worth the read. The audio performance is outstanding and the reader handles the embedded foreign words (usually explained by the author) and names flawlessly. Yes, a good portion of the book is hearsay but it rings true and matches my own observations over the years.

1 person found this helpful

one-sided account approved by the current regime

the book gives an account of homosexuality in the Vatican that suits the needs of the closet. Martel simultaneously claims that homosexuality has nothing to do with pedophilia in the Church, and that it is result of clergy having to live in the closet. The central thesis of the book is that homophobes in the Vatican are actually gay people covering for their own homosexuality is supported in a few cases, but the stretching of it to a tautology would require much more evidence than Martel provides. He states he does not want to "out" people, but systematically outs conservatives who are gay, giving cover to the progressives. All credibility is lost at the point where he exonerated Francis from culpability when he lashed-out at the accusers of the priests and bishops in Chile. Martel jumps the shark when he implies that this wasn't an error, but a necessary move to save the entire structure of the Church in Chile from collapsing. Even if those were the stakes, the action was not justified. He claims to be progressive, but attacks the powerful intellectual Robert Sarah in the most shameful of racial terms. Speaking of Sarah living in an earthen hut with witchcraft, and utterly dismissing this man's mind, was oddly reminiscent of Reagan's views on the Tanzanian UN contingent. It shows the condescension of French progressivism that is at it's heart. The French intellectual will share with you, as it is the "White Man's Burden" as long as you behave as you should, but if you politically oppose him he will turn every stereotype against you... it's because he never stopped believing them, but he found playing as if he rejected them politically useful. The book contains useful information in many parts, and I think he is correct about the Church in Cuba, and about the escorts. The lack of objective data calls conclusions into question, the one time in the book that he called-on quantitative data--counting priests on Grinder--he was disappointed with the low sum, and trumped this objective data with reports of hearsay that better supported his conclusions. This book was allowed to be written because it protected the current Papal regime's Power-brokers at every turn, while never failing to cast Benedict XVI in a wicked light. To this end, he claims that Benedict only laicized a few dozen priests--the data was out there before the publication of this book and rapidly showed up on a Google search that he rocked 260 in 2011 and 124 in 2012. Furthermore, the lists of de-frocked clergy in the US frequently bear the phrase "laicized by Pope Benedict XVI on xx/xx/20xx", many more were laicized by Pope JP2 after 2001 when Ratzinger asked JP2 to let him deal with it. In the simplest tasks of reporting data, Martel brazenly chooses propaganda over fact. it's no wonder this was released the day of the Vatican's child abuse conference, it dove-tailed with their insistence that the scandal had nothing to do with homosexuality. And, who, I may ask benefitted? I don't know, but don't look in the closet!

4 people found this helpful

"Houston, we have a problem."

As a socially conservative Democrat and a Roman Catholic I could have taken offense at the author's numerous accusations that anyone being anti-gay was automatically gay. Case in point being the numerous members of the Curia, from priest to Pope accused of being gay or assumed to be, Due to their "fake" social conservatism such as the Traditionalist Burke "the Cardinal queen." It is amazing how many members of the Curia were in fact, interviewed by this author. And even more amazing just how many of the Curia is thought to be gay or gay homophiles. It is as if the entire circle of men around the Popes (Pope Saint John XXIII to the Blessed Pope Paul VI to Pope Saint John Paul II to Pope Francis today) e.g. the entire cadre of responsible men around the Holy See and his Cardinals (and the Cardinals too) and their Bishops and priests (and the Bishops and priests too) have been nothing more than maniacal sex fiends addicted to plush surroundings and expensive accouterment. From the paintings on the office walls to the luxuriant carpets (all strewn about) to the equally luxuriant furniture. The author spent a great deal of time making the point that the Blessed Pope Paul VI was NOT gay. Why? Not until in the last paragraph of the book does the author admit being gay himself. I found this book to be self-serving on his part (in the sense that he thinks that he and everyone are gay). If clerics do not soon begin legal proceedings for libel and slander then one must assume we are reading the truth. The Roman Catholic Church is being led by degenerate homosexuals. I must say that the author is a very high-quality writer. The translator was of high-quality too. The performer was near perfect. The church lingo was perfectly brought to the ear. I must say, though, that the author is astonishingly cynical and sure of himself but well informed of history. How he obtained all the sensitive interviews remains to be seen. And the Curia was cleaned like a trout before frying. Its guts spilled out and all about. (I gave the story a two because it was gratuitous)

4 people found this helpful

outstanding

open your eyes and see the sad truth. the church doesn't want you to know what was willingly disclosed to this man. as for those of you who say it's gossip, he has 300 pages of citations.