Today’s literary vogue seems to be the financial exposé. Prominent financiers have avoided jail, but they haven’t escaped indictment by an army of authors who have revealed misdeeds and documented a testosterone-driven corporate culture. Passing over the architects of the recent recession, the latest contribution to the genre treats another group of powerful men - leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.
Among the first journalists to investigate clerical sex abuse during the 1980s, Jason Berry has now written a book alleging fiscal mismanagement and - worse - cynical calculation and practiced deception. “Money is a mighty force in any religion,’’ Berry observes - as it is in families, businesses, and governments, all of which can become corrupted by greed and bribery. But the details Berry presents as evidence impart the sense that monetary malfeasance is fairly common and that, like their...