A01=Kevin Lewis O'Neill
allegations
Author_Kevin Lewis O'Neill
avoid litigation
Category=JBFK2
Category=JHMC
Category=QRMB1
Catholic Church sex abuse scandals
Church cover-up
clerical molestation
Clerical power
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
forthcoming
guatemala
Latin America
misconduct
Moving priests to avoid scandal
Parishioners
pope
power dynamics
protecting abusers
secrecy
survivor
underdeveloped countries
war zones
Product details
- ISBN 9780520435421
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 06 Oct 2026
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The first book to expose how the Catholic Church systematically covers up scandal by moving abusers across borders.
Clerical sexual abuse is as global as the Roman Catholic Church, with bishops moving credibly accused priests not simply between parishes but also across international borders. Unforgivable follows the movement of one such perpetrator from the Great Plains of central Minnesota to the Indigenous highlands of Guatemala, where this priest had access to children and even raised one as his own.
Although Father David Roney is at the center of this particular story, author Kevin Lewis O'Neill offers ample evidence that offshoring priests is a common practice. These maneuvers and the callous indifference of the Church—even once caught red-handed—reveal the limits of justice. They also lay bare the disturbing fact that the scale of clerical sexual abuse is far bigger than anyone has yet considered. Rigorously researched and viscerally important, this book raises urgent questions about holding the Catholic Church accountable.
Clerical sexual abuse is as global as the Roman Catholic Church, with bishops moving credibly accused priests not simply between parishes but also across international borders. Unforgivable follows the movement of one such perpetrator from the Great Plains of central Minnesota to the Indigenous highlands of Guatemala, where this priest had access to children and even raised one as his own.
Although Father David Roney is at the center of this particular story, author Kevin Lewis O'Neill offers ample evidence that offshoring priests is a common practice. These maneuvers and the callous indifference of the Church—even once caught red-handed—reveal the limits of justice. They also lay bare the disturbing fact that the scale of clerical sexual abuse is far bigger than anyone has yet considered. Rigorously researched and viscerally important, this book raises urgent questions about holding the Catholic Church accountable.
Kevin Lewis O’Neill is Professor in the Department for the Study of Religion as well as in the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto. A cultural anthropologist, his work focuses on the moral dimensions of contemporary political practice in Latin America. His previous books include City of God, Secure the Soul, and Hunted.
