To Save The Church, Dismantle The Priesthood
The Atlantic|June 2019

Catholics must detach themselves from the clerical hierarchy— and take the faith back into their own hands.

James Carroll
To Save The Church, Dismantle The Priesthood

I. “THE MURDER OF A SOUL”

To feel relief at my mother’s being dead was once unthinkable, but then the news came from Ireland. It would have crushed her. An immigrant’s daughter, my mother lived with an eye cast back to the old country, the land against which she measured every virtue. Ireland was heaven to her, and the Catholic Church was heaven’s choir. Then came the Ryan Report.

Not long before The Boston Globe began publishing its series on predator priests, in 2002—the “Spotlight” series that became a movie of the same name—the government of Ireland established a commission, ultimately chaired by Judge Sean Ryan, to investigate accounts and rumors of child abuse in Ireland’s residential institutions for children, nearly all of which were run by the Catholic Church.

This story is from the June 2019 edition of The Atlantic.

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This story is from the June 2019 edition of The Atlantic.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.