Entertainment & Music In God's House: A Novel About the Greatest Scandal of Our Time

“In God’s House” by Ray Mouton is a fictional novel. It’s about a lawyer who is called to defend a paedophile priest. In the process, he loses his faith, his family and his profession.

This starts in 1985, well before the events which have unfolded in more recent years in a number of countries.

It’s fiction. But it’s based on the author’s experience, who as a lawyer, was called to defend a paedophile priest (Gilbert Gauthe- Google uncovers lot of information on this real life case). In the process, he lost his faith, his family and his profession.

While it is fiction, and real life doesn’t exactly correspond with the novel, it is powerful and eye opening stuff.

In the novel, the priest has abused a score of young boys. The actions are horrific; many of them with more than one at a time. He was convicted of the abuse of 39 boys up to that time. He claims at one stage that he rarely went a night without sex.

He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years. He served less than 10. He was put into a special jail where he had access to young men.

But the horror goes far beyond that.

We’ve heard reports of priests, who when discovered behaving inappropriately with boys, are simply moved to another parish.

But the book details a systematic cover up. Not just an ignorance of facts as detailed by George Pell recently, but an active and systematic cover up from the very top. The victims must go to confession to confess their sins. The church is to be protected at all times, no matter what the cost. George Pell is only one member of the hierarchy who was directed about how to handle matters of sexual abuse of boys.

This priest should not have passed seminary. He was twice discovered with boys before he even finished seminary, and again from the very first church he served. Yet nothing was ever done.

The book claims that in 1962, an edict was sent out from John XXIII, to be kept secret; under this edict, nothing must be said about any misbehaviour to any civil authority, even under oath.

It goes further back. There are claims that there were similar problems in the church dating back to the fourth century, and for many years after.

Interestingly, he goes on to say

– which is a different view from one I have stated before in this forum.

It is stated that the Catholic Church isn’t the only place where these abuses take place. Wherever there are opportunities, paedophiles will gravitate. The book though is about one priest, and about the Catholic hierarchy, going right to the top, who sought to protect their church no matter how it was done.

Without wanting to give away too much, in the book, the priest is finally served justice. This does not appear to have happened in real life.

Highly recommended. A good read, although very difficult to read at some stages.
Edit: difficult to read because of what it portrays, not the writing style.

Available on Amazon.com.au for $5.18.
In God's House: A Novel About the Greatest Scandal of Our Time eBook: Ray Mouton: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store

I rate it 5 out of 5. There's not many books I've read recently come close to that.

 

It seems that many people who are against dogma become very dogmatic themselves.

Religion was born out of a search for spirituality. Many people find their own path to spirituality through religion. Many others don't. It's up to people to find their own truth. And not to assume that what works for them works for everybody as well.

 

It's not just religious institutions where these things have occurred. There have been reports recently of sports coaches abusing young people under their care. Victims of cricket coach sexual abuse thought they would not be believed, royal commission told - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

And apparently it happened in a number of prestigious schools - Prestigious private schools face multi-million dollar lawsuits from alleged abuse victims - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I believe that the abuse does not occur because of the institution, but rather that paedophiles are drawn to professions where they can come into contact with young people.

And it appears that the way that the schools in question dealt with the matter was very similar to the way that the Catholic Church dealt with it.