PHILIPPINES
GMA News
By LUIS B. GORGONIO, GMA NewsSeptember 6, 2013
For members of the Catholic flock who may want to know how some bishops and priests sired children, squandered money offerings, and jockeyed for power to get plum positions in the hierarchical institution, the long-awaited “Altar of Secrets: Sex, Politics, and Money in the Philippine Catholic Church” by veteran journalist Aries Rufo is a worthy addition on the bookshelf.
While some of the sources were anonymous, rendering as anecdotal some of the narratives, the wealth of inside information gathered by Rufo through decades of experience in covering the church beat has lent credence to his claim that some “princes” of the Catholic Church lived immoral lives.
In the introduction, Rufo takes pains to note that the book is not “divinely inspired” and that he believes the men of the cloth are also “made of clay.”
It is not about faith, or religion, or the Catholic Church as a whole. It is about the sexual misconduct as well as injustice, corruption, financial mismanagement, and abuse of power by people who happen to be bishops and priests.
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