City Journal: Perversion of Power
Clinical psychologist Frawley-O’Dea offers a detailed look at the church sex-abuse scandal.
By From a 1983 case in the Louisiana bayou to the Boston Archdiocese’s headline-fueled implosion in 2002, clinical psychologist Frawley-O’Dea offers a detailed look at the church sex-abuse scandal. Though heavily academic in tone, the book puts the Catholic Church on the couch, plumbing its psyche for things like sadomasochism and Irish cultural shame, in a way that many laypersons may find darkly fascinating. —J. L. Johnson