⋙ [PDF] Sons of Perdition eBook Jay Nelson

Sons of Perdition eBook Jay Nelson

Download As PDF : Sons of Perdition eBook Jay Nelson

The recent global clergy sexual abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church have shocked the world. Many questions linger, but only now is the truth finally coming out.

Most disturbing of all are persistent suspicions concerning the role of the Vatican. Did it actually manage a world-wide cover-up? What does the pope know, and what does the papacy have to do with the scandal?

Other grave questions also still demand a response How and why did the scandals come about? Have the sacraments been used to hide the crimes of priests? What became of clergy who were caught? And perhaps most important of all, is it really over? Has the Church taken effective steps to truly protect the children in its care?

The answers will startle, surprise and even confound many. Jay Nelson, the author, to his own amazement, found many of them in his own backyard – in the “Land of Enchantment,” New Mexico.

As expert and victims advocate Tom Doyle put it, “New Mexico was the epicenter of the first major epidemics of Catholic clergy sexual abuse and hierarchical cover-ups.” In this ancient, religious, but impoverished land, the Church found an ideal dumping ground for the monsters in their midst. Here, where the Conquistadors imposed the faith with fire and steel on reluctant natives, where Jews and even witches fled to hide from the Spanish Inquisition, the Catholic Church embarked on a bold experiment.

Across the mountains from where the atom bomb was born, another secret project began in 1947. There, in a town called Jemez Springs, a religious order called the Servants of the Paraclete began to quietly take in and minister to priests suffering from alcoholism and worse problems, including rapists and accused murderers. From there, they would be sent back out into ministry without alerting anyone, to continue their ravages across the state, the country, and even the world.

It’s an incredible story, but it could not have happened without direction from Rome. Deciphering the codes in Church documents from the Middle Ages to Vatican II, Nelson shows that the cover-up started even before the discovery of America. They show how it was run by the Inquisition, and most startlingly of all, how the current pontiff, Pope Benedict XIV, bears unsuspected personal responsibility for the scandals happening in the first place, and their ending.
Jay Nelson, a clergy abuse survivor as well as a former cleric, also covers how the clergy abuse crisis first blossomed in New Mexico. He details how the Church’s strategy was developed there to limit disclosure, and how successful that has been.

Tom Doyle also wrote “The author thoroughly combed through a tangled array of data from divergent sources and pieced together this sordid story. Those who want to close their eyes to this sorry chapter in Catholic history will be shocked but Jay Nelson comes up with the facts and not more myth.”
This is, as Doyle said, “a chapter of Catholic history that must be told.” The sobering and thoughtful conclusions for the future of the Church, drawn from recent developments, shows why there is good reason to doubt that it can ever truly change. SONS OF PERDITION presents a challenge to believers, former members, and public citizens that anyone concerned with the fate of Catholic Church or its most vulnerable members must consider.