ABSTRACT
During the writing of this book in 2006, several colleagues expressed some surprise that I was “helping keep the subject alive.” Their line of thought went that the 2002 scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston was mostly over except for some victims’ financial settlements, that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops had “solved their problem,” and that the phenomenon I term clergy malfeasance had largely subsided. To be kind, these are social scientists, adept within their own sub-specialties, who know very little of larger organized religion’s presence in American society. Had I assumed in 1995 that the “First Wave” of scandals (as I have referred to it) was so episodic I would never have written my first book on the subject.
