Book dossier

Vows of silence

by Jason Berry

Berry and Renner follow the trail of evasions and deceit that leads directly to the Vatican--and taints the legacy of Pope John Paul II. Based on more than six years of investigative reporting and hundreds of interviews, this book is an account of Vatican cover-ups and the tumult they have caused in the church worldwide. The book reveals an agenda of top-down control under John Paul II and a hierarchy so obsessed with secrecy as to spawn disinformation. This is not a book about sexual abuse; it is a book about abuse of power, throughout the Vatican. The book cuts between the life story of Father Tom Doyle, who sacrificed a diplomatic career with the Vatican to seek justice for sex-abuse victims, and Father Marcial Maciel, an accused pedophile and founder of the militaristic religious order, the Legion of Christ. One of the most mysterious and powerful men in the Catholic Church, Maciel has built a network of priests, lay people, and elite prep schools in more than twenty countries, using the Legion as a fundraising machine to position himself as a favored figure of John Paul II. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Father Doyle and with ex-Legionaries who filed a canonical suit against Maciel, as well as interviews with Vatican insiders and an array of sources in Mexico, Ireland, Canada, and Australia, the authors provide a penetrating account of a hierarchy directly in conflict with its followers.--Publisher.