Garry Wills sets himself a high goal in this book -- to provide evidence of not only the Catholic Church leadership's "structures of conservatism" or "structures of tradition," but actual "Structures of Deceit." Garry Wills clearly presents more evidence and argument in favor of his views than in opposition to his views. He is not quite an "honest broker" in this sense. Yet, most of his points are well-argued, and while one may certainly disagree with at least some of his conclusions, Wills makes a very good case for the proposition that the church leadership, in many ways in the past and present, twists scriptures and facts, and exposes the most vulnerable of its membership to abuse and unscriptural teachings and needless strictures on their lives, in order to maintain the power and reputation of the church leadership and priesthood.

Wills assumes too much prior knowledge on the part of the reader in the chapters on Newman and Acton.
Wills is a scholar of the highest standing, and while this book is passionate and provocative it is NEVER offensive or anything less than scholarship of the highest order. People's reaction only further proves his point that the Church [Catholic] has become an all or nothing entity wherein anyone who doesn't agree with something the Pope says is condemned by unthinking people as a bad catholic! Anyhow, I really did enjoy reading this book, particularly his chapter on the Holocaust and on the ordination of women. Read it and give it some serious thought--you won't be disappointed.

Gary Wills is professor of history at Northwestern University and also a practicing, notably liberal Roman Catholic. "PAPAL SIN" is a popular book which draws selectively on scholarship both solid and speculative, biblical, historical and theological, using up to date sources. It dashes angrily across too many topics: contraception, abortion, a celibate priesthood, the role of Catholics in the Holocaust, freedom of expression and on and on.

Professor Wills complains that the Roman Catholic church has become needlessly over centralized and administered top down. This makes the church too prone to the book's subtitle, "structures of deceit." These structures predispose clerical leaders to mislead rather than admit that the church has been seriously wrong at any time on any issue.

Wills does, nonetheless, identify individuals who stood out against boneheaded errors by top officials and who were later judged correct by the consensus of the faithful. The list of heroic deeds begins with Paul publicly rebuking Peter in Antioch for backsliding on what Jewish practices pagan converts to Christianity must practice (Galatians 2: 11-14). St Augustine of Hippo took on St Jerome of Jerusalem over this very passage. In 1870 Lord Acton, John Henry Newman and many bishops were appalled by Pope Pius IX's deceptive and dishonest tactics promoting papal infallibility .

Garry Wills argues that the entire Church must follow Jesus who is Truth and be led by a Holy Spirit breathing the New Testament Greek grace of parrhesia: etymologically "pan-rhesia" or "speak all," i.e., "holding nothing back." For spiritual sins are vastly worse than bodily: lying more soul-killing than fornication.

In moral situations the church should stop teaching with false precision when solutions are not apparent, notably in key areas of sexuality. Wills offers the following principle from Epistle 190 of St Augustine:

"When a thing obscure in itself defeats our capacity, and nothing in Scripture comes to our aid, it is not safe for humans to presume they can pronounce on it."

Both Augustine and Newman fought for a church in which God speaks to everyone: clergy and laity alike. Our knowledge is always provisional, in unceasing outreach for ultimate truth.

Garry Wills is one of the most respected writers on religion today. He is the author of Saint Augustine's Childhood, Saint Augustine's Memory, and Saint Augustine's Sin, the first three volumes in this series, as well as the Penguin Lives biography Saint Augustine. His other books include “Negro President”: Jefferson and the Slave Power, Why I Am a Catholic, Papal Sin, and Lincoln at Gettysburg, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

 In the interest of full disclosure, I would point out the I was raised a Roman Catholic by good Irish parents. It wasn't until much later as a adult that I discovered that the bible wasn't originally written in Latin and from there began my search and discovery for "the Truth" It is still going on._

 Denis