Am returning The Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church to OP Library, which got it for me from the Oak Lawn Library.  It’s a 1,282–page stunner, both in intensity — fascinating in sense that watching a car wreck is fascinating — and shock effect.

Almost 13 years ago, I stood in the old Kroch’s & Brentano’s on Lake Street in Oak Park and brought the store to complete silence with the mention of “gay priests.”  I was at a mike in the rear of the store facing 40 or so people who were there to hear me talk about my just published Bending the Rules: What American Priests Tell American Catholics. 

I was saying how I’d run across reference to the phenomenon while interviewing for my book.  Priests had mentioned their being out of the gay loop among fellow priests.  Bishop Bill McManus had told me he knew of gay priests who kept their vows and did good work.

But the very concept had quieted book buyers on a summer night.  Now we have heard much about it, even from the head U.S. bishop a few years back, and I have written about it.  And there’s this book, about which more later . . .