John Boyne addresses the issue of child abuse in the Catholic Church in Ireland in his novel “A History of Loneliness.”
This entertaining book, which has scenes that range from hilarious to desperately sad, is written in first person in the authentically Irish voice of Father Odran Yates who is no pedophile and is content in the quiet life of a priest. As the story progresses, the elephant in the room grows and grows as Father Odran, oblivious to what is happening primarily to boys, ignores all the red flags, failing to see the abuse of male family members and close friends he grew up with. He does not understand the sudden, radical changes in the behavior of these males. He knows his best friend is constantly being sent from parish to parish and is clueless as to why his stays are so short. The infamous worldwide recycling of known pedophile priests when the complaints grow too loud is a mystery to him.
Boyne deals with the problem of the inherent complicity of silence and the institutionalized nature of assaults against children in the church, collusion that goes all the way to the top. The plot twists into a painful horror as Father Odran’s eyes are forced open.
Odran has the temperament to be content and celibate, but many of the other boys have been coerced by family members, sometimes with violence, and forced into the priesthood. These males suffer horribly from lack of female sexual relationships and many are twisted into forced relationships between each other and later with children. This is not meant to be an excuse for violating the vulnerable and the innocent, but the pressure of the suppressed sexuality of these men is an inherent fault line in the basic fabric of the Catholic Church. It puts me in remembrance of the comment of a good friend of mine who said that “any religion that is based on depriving men of sex is doomed to fail.” It is not even Biblical.
The gross, vile, misogyny depicted in these pages left me breathless and nauseated. It is a sickening revelation that many of these men begin to hate women and the culture of the church encourages that hatred. I have no vendetta against religious beliefs or the humble, wise teaching of Christ, as this encourages the concept of grace, the lost message of the church, both Protestant and Catholic. The idea of “grace, unmerited favor” and mercy is a stranger to the pages of this book. Certainly, that teaching does not mean people don’t reap what they sow, but it is the only concept that opens the arms of God to everyone, all humans, all imperfect. The palpable evil of the intentional stonewalling of victims of abuse by priests is a shocking force. Reading this book will be like hitting the wall for some.
As a survivor of both emotional and physical abuse, I have been researching the subject for about five years and publishing the articles I find on my Word Press – mjpayneblog.wordpress.com/blog/ and while going through the fire of healing I wrote a memoir of the process “The Remembered Self: A Journey into the Heart of the Beast”. Survivors of any kind of brutality or non-consensual sex all have battle scars. Some are visible, those who cut themselves, and others are invisible. Every room you enter will have people in it who have survived brutality.
I wish I had read John Boyne’s book when it was first published in 2015 but I didn’t learn of it until some months ago and have just finished reading my copy from the public library. I recommend this page-turner highly. It is timely, informative and entertaining. Five stars.
INCEST CENTRAL 