Smoke of Satan

The Smoke of Satan: How Corrupt and Cowardly Bishops Betrayed Christ, His Church, and the Faithful...  And What Can Be Done About It by Philip F Lawler, 193 pages

In 1972, St Paul VI chose to use the ninth anniversary of his election as the 261st successor of St Peter to warn the faithful that "through some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God."  Indeed, by then the smoke was already oppressively thick, but, as Phil Lawler explains, most of the bishops responsible for teaching, governing, and sanctifying their dioceses were unwilling to admit it.  Chosen for high office on the basis of administrative ability rather than spiritual, moral, or intellectual virtues, these false pastors abdicated their responsibilities in order to maintain the pretense that all was well, even as corruption rotted the Church from within and entire generations were given pottage in place of their birthright.

This is a necessary book, and Lawler is the necessary man to write it.  Certainly no one can honestly accuse him, with his long history of criticism of the handling of sexual abuse cases by bishops and popes alike, of exploiting the present phase of the crisis to attack a pope he disagrees with theologically or politically.  Indeed, there is little he says here that he did not already say a decade ago in his seminal work on the Boston abuse crisis, The Faithful Departed.  The difference is in the approach and tone - the earlier book was primarily a historical analysis, while the current work is an urgent call to action.  This is, of course, a reflection of the pontificates in which they were written - whereas in 2008 it seemed as if the forces of renewal were in the ascendant, by 2018 it was clear that the highest offices in the Church were occupied by men who prefer vague sentimentality and the esteem of the powerful to right reason and the salvation of souls.