Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit

By Garry Wills

Book Overview

Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What The Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017.

The truth, we are told, will make us free. It is time to free Catholics, lay as well as clerical, from the structures of deceit that are our subtle modern form of papal sin. Paler, subtler, less dramatic than the sins castigated by Orcagna or Dante, these are the quiet sins of intellectual betrayal.
--from the Introduction

From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills comes an assured, acutely insightful--and occasionally stinging--critique of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy from the nineteenth century to the present.

Papal Sin in the past was blatant, as Catholics themselves realized when they painted popes roasting in hell on their own church walls. Surely, the great abuses of the past--the nepotism, murders, and wars of conquest--no longer prevail; yet, the sin of the modern papacy, as revealed by Garry Wills in his penetrating new book, is every bit as real, though less obvious than the old sins.

Wills describes a papacy that seems steadfastly unwilling to face the truth about itself, its past, and its relations with others. The refusal of the authorities of the Church to be honest about its teachings has needlessly exacerbated original mistakes. Even when the Vatican has tried to tell the truth--e.g., about Catholics and the Holocaust--it has ended up resorting to historical distortions and evasions. The same is true when the papacy has attempted to deal with its record of discrimination against women, or with its unbelievable assertion that natural law dictates its sexual code.

Though the blithe disregard of some Catholics for papal directives has occasionally been attributed to mere hedonism or willfulness, it actually reflects a failure, after long trying on their part, to find a credible level of honesty in the official positions adopted by modern popes. On many issues outside the realm of revealed doctrine, the papacy has made itself unbelievable even to the well-disposed laity.

The resulting distrust is in fact a neglected reason for the shortage of priests. Entirely aside from the public uproar over celibacy, potential clergy have proven unwilling to put themselves in a position that supports dishonest teachings.

Wills traces the rise of the papacy's stubborn resistance to the truth, beginning with the challenges posed in the nineteenth century by science, democracy, scriptural scholarship, and rigorous history. The legacy of that resistance, despite the brief flare of John XXIII's papacy and some good initiatives in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council (later baffled), is still strong in the Vatican.

Finally Wills reminds the reader of the positive potential of the Church by turning to some great truth tellers of the Catholic tradition--St. Augustine, John Henry Newman, John Acton, and John XXIII. In them, Wills shows that the righteous path can still be taken, if only the Vatican will muster the courage to speak even embarrassing truths in the name of Truth itself.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385494114
• ISBN13: 9780385494113
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Image
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A must read for every Catholic and the people who love them

When you say "papal sins," everyone thinks you're talking about promiscuity, incest, and the Renaissance popes. People get bored and roll their eyes. Since the modern popes don't sin in this way any more, it doesn't seem relevant. This reaction is itself a measure of how our view of Christianity has been distorted over the years. If you read the gospels, it's clear that Jesus did *not* see his primary task as teaching sexual morality or family values. He was up to something different. In this book, Garry Wills keeps his eye on the prize. As leader of the church on earth, the pope should be in charge of teaching and doctrine, and it is here that Wills finds that the popes have sinned. Over and over again, the pope and his advisors have turned their back on divine inspiration and church history in order to avoid being seen as having made a mistake. Institutional pride, and not a concern for truth, have guided the popes' attitude toward doctrine and teaching. *That* sin has very much haunted all the modern popes. It even keeps the popes from acknowledging that their predecessors have made mistakes on questions on which infallibility is not an issue, such as acknowledging that the Roman Catholic church has at times encouraged anti-Semitism. Wills does a great job making this case. I found the chapter on birth control at Vatican II particularly interesting, since (as Wills notes) divine inspiration seems to have been leading the Vatican's own committee in a new direction. But, in the end, the Vatican hierarchy feared looking like it had made a mistake. (And, once again, an obsession with sex led the Church astray.) This institutional pride is also the major obstacle to ecumenism in the Christian church today. Understanding it makes this book important to non-Catholics -- who, if honest, may see similar sins in their own church. Because Wills remains Roman Catholic, he makes his argument more with sadness (and some anger) than a Catholic-bashing outsider would. He has good reasons to remain Catholic, as do many others who would agree with him. Still, to accept the Roman church honestly and openly means acknowledging when human pride gets in the way of the divine. Every Catholic should read this book.

Very good read for an open mind...

I am Catholic and I picked this book up because I am truely alarmed with the path the magisterium has taken in the recent past. A lot of what the Catholic Church teaches, it demands its people to follow without question. However, in the modern age it simply isn't good enough to say "Do this because I say so". Especially when some of the teachings, such as issues like celibacy, contraception, papal infallibility, and women in the priesthood that this book brings up, defy not only common sense but also gospel teachings. Contrary to what some Catholics may say, it is normal and healthy to question and criticize institutions, especially one as important as the Catholic Church. Without this, an institution will not continually grow and mature, only stagnate. This book actually strengthened my faith with the Catholic Church because many of the questions and misgivings I had about the church were addressed here with loads of historical evidence. It showed me that I am not the only one that has problems with some of the official teachings, and there are plausible, historic, and theological reasons that others have these same problems. I think the most important message this book has is that no one individual is infallible, the Gospels teach that only the Church as a whole is infallible. Now, off my high horse and down to some book criticisms. Wills presents many topics throughout this book, and I think he does a good job interrelating each. However, this can create a tough read for someone that is not passionate about the material. Also, Wills does take some liberties with some of his arguments. Some may not agree with some of the conclusions he draws in this way, so keep a careful eye out for where the evidence ends and his opinions start. Lastly, I didn't really like the chapter on abortion. It seemed muddled and like he didn't want to take a stand one way or the other on the issue. By doing this, he really doesn't make a very important contribution to the argument, making this passage inconsequential. Very good book. I would recommend it to anyone that has an open mind about their faith.

A good read.

Every since Lincoln at Gettysburg brought Garry Wills to my attention, I have kept an eager eye out for any new work from him--whether it be reviews in the Times, articles in the NY Review of Books, or new books such as this one. Religion isn't always my reading subject of choice, but Wills' biography of Augustine was a brilliant jewel of a book (albeit a bit short). This new work obviously takes a different path, but in a sense it's a worthy companion to that bio. It's a great overview of a fascinating aspect of world (mostly European) history.

Just Read the Book First!

I can't believe this book is causing as much controversy as it is when so many people obviously haven't even read the book in the first place! Wills is a scholar of the highest standing, and while this book is passionate and provocative it is NEVER offensive or anything less than scholarship of the highest order. People's reaction only further proves his point that the Church has become an all or nothing entity wherein anyone who doesn't agree with something the Pope says is condemned by unthinking people as a bad catholic! Anyhow, I really did enjoy reading this book, particularly his chapter on the Holocaust and on the ordination of women. Read it and give it some serious thought--you won't be disappointed.

An important book

Catholic doesn't have to equal anti-intellectual. But, as Wills shows, the intellectual dishonesty of the modern papacy has fostered an environment where the one requirement for being Catholic is one's complete submission to the Pope. One's love for God, for neighbor, and for Truth all seem to take a back seat to subservience to another human being. The Pope=the Church=God? It has not always been this way, says Wills. In fact, recognition of the pope as human, capable of error, has been more the rule than the exception throughout the history of the Church. It is only over the past two centuries that this notion of absolute, inerrant authority has been developed. Papal Sin is not at all an anti-Catholic book-in the end Wills' clear vision is probably the best thing that could have happened to Catholicism.