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.
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.
"A pioneering ethnography of clerical child abuse, bringing to light its transnational dimensions. Unforgivable offers a highly readable narrative that is both thought-provoking and enlightening."—David Kertzer, author of The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler
"Unforgivable is a jolting study of Cold War Catholic sexual exploitation. By focusing on the case of Father David Roney, Kevin O'Neill demonstrates that stories of abuse that we often think of as localized to a particular place are really international in scope—as international as the Catholic Church itself, which had the power to shuffle its abusers to remote parishes in powerless countries like Guatemala. The way Roney was able to rehabilitate his reputation and continue his crimes in the mountains of Guatemala is a harrowing story told with empathetic skill by O'Neill."—Greg Grandin, Professor of History, Yale University
"For decades, the Catholic Church has systematically shielded predatory priests, moving them across borders with impunity. O'Neill's explosive ethnography reveals the global scale of this crisis. With chilling detail, unwavering determination, and extraordinary compassion, Unforgivable unveils a dark truth: the Church's reach is vast, its power immense, and its victims worldwide."—Laurence Ralph, author of Sito: An American Teenager and the City That Failed Him
"An intense, disquieting, and beautifully crafted book. Unforgivable is a meticulously researched account that uncovers the disturbing network of deceit and protection within the Catholic Church, focusing on U.S. priests who either moved or were relocated to Central America to evade prosecution for sexual abuse. Through an unflinching investigation that combines lyrical prose with deep compassion for the victims, the book draws readers into a gripping exploration in which past and present converge in a quest for justice and redemption—one that is both deeply personal and emblematic of the broader suffering caused by the Church's neglect and willful blindness to abuse."—Shaylih Muehlmann, author of Call the Mothers: Searching for Mexico's Disappeared in the War on Drugs
280 pp.6 x 9
9780520409118$29.95|£25.00Hardcover
Feb 2025