The mask has been removed and a virus has decimated the Catholic Church. Disclosures about the systemic child abuse and the criminal cover-ups have brought the institution to its knees. Will it ever recover?
This book of poems compiled in 2020, the time of the virus, documents one person's journey through the various stages of Catholicism, from true believer to agnostic. Many of the poems are light-hearted glimpses at the absurdity of the dogma we were taught as children, others give voice to the hurt and suffering inflicted upon many helpless children at the hands of the people they trusted and admired.
Included are poems that touch on the sport and politics of our times. Religion, politics and professional sport are all based on the same premise — domination of the weak by the strong, supremacy of the institution over the individual, with a huge dose of self-interest thrown in.
My family sacrificed two men to the Catholic Church, one who went willingly and who did good work and was loved by the people he served. I am very proud of him.
The other had his future taken from him at the age of twelve years, by an evil man of the church who was protected by the institution. My brother lived on for forty angst-filled years and never resolved his pain.
