THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS IN CRISIS, NOT AS A CHURCH BUT AS A HIERARCHICAL organization. Perched atop an institution modeled on monarchy, its leaders could not see down to the level where its people were suffering sexual abuse by the clergy. Their hierarchical tactics of trying to control this crisis from above have foundered, revealing that the hierarchs acted more like CEOs worried about pre-tecting assets than pastors concerned about the safety of their flocks. This is the same disastrous view by which they have misread and distarted human sexuality for centuries. Pope John Paul II seems mystified by a problem that was worsened by his massive efforts to restore outmoded and unworkable hierarchy to the Church. He speaks of the "mystery of iniquity" but there is no mystery here. This is human behavior that we can understand and assess if we make the effort to do so. in The Unhealed Wound, Eugene Kennedy succeeds in revealing the true nature of the wound Catholics have suffered from its leadership's repression, debasing, and cover-up of sexuality in the church, and sheds real light on one of the darkest chapters in its history.

"Eugene Kennedy has looked directly at the true condition of our beloved, belea-guered church, with brave lucidity." -James Carroll, author of Constantine's Sword and the National Book Award winner An American Requiem