An Irish Tragedy: How Sex Abuse By Irish Priests Helped Cripple The Catholic Church

The story of how Irish immigrants helped to build the American Catholic Church is well-known. But the sad tale of how Irish priests later undermined the Church has gone untold, until now.

Investigative reporter Joe Rigert's search for the roots of the Catholic sex-abuse scandals led him to Ireland, where he found that rigid sexual repression in both society and the priesthood has had the opposite of its intended effect, fostering bizarre and criminal sexual expression. Though a tiny country, Ireland has been a chief exporter of abusers to America, making the Catholic Church's darkest crisis a true Irish tragedy.

"A riveting read with many remarkable insights." --Terrance Dosh, Catholic historian

"An original contribution toward understanding the awful secret of clerical abuse and subterfuge in the Catholic Church across the decades." --James Langford, director emeritus, University of Notre Dame Press