First published 2019
Frédéric Martel spent four years conducting interviews with Vatican insiders to uncover the hidden realities of Catholic Church leadership. His investigation reveals how clerical secrecy shapes everything from seminary training to papal politics. Martel documents the cover-up of sexual abuse cases, the circumstances behind Benedict XVI's resignation, and the internal resistance facing Pope Francis. The author argues that homophobia within the Church often masks the sexual orientation of its most rigid opponents of reform. He traces how this contradiction creates institutional schizophrenia that affects major Church positions on celibacy, contraception, and gender roles. The book connects declining European vocations to these systemic problems. Martel uses Pope Francis's own words about hidden motivations behind clerical rigidity to support his central thesis. The investigation exposes how double lives among clergy perpetuate a culture of secrecy that extends from local seminaries to the highest levels of Vatican power.
Genres: abuse, crime, biography-memoir, 21st-century, current-affairs, church-history, church, catholic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: cover-up, institutional-corruption
Setting: Vatican
Period: 21st-century
580 pages · Kindle Edition · Bloomsbury Continuum
Content warnings: abuse, sexual-assault