Shaw, widely known Catholic writer, speaker and former communications director for the U S Bishops, discusses the abuse of secrecy in the Church, the scandals it has caused and the serious problem of mistrust that exists in the credibility of the Church. Not concerned with the legitimate secrecy that is necessary to protect confidentiality and people’s reputations, Shaw is rather concerned here with the stifling, deadening misuse of secrecy that has done immense harm to communion and community in the Church in America.

Shaw shows the secrecy issue is a theological as well as practical problem that raises such questions as: What kind of Church do we want our Church to be, open or closed? What kind of Church should it be? And how much secrecy is compatible with having such a Church? As Pope Benedict XVI has stated, “The consequence is clear: we cannot communicate with the Lord if we do not communicate with one another.”

The Church is a communion, not a political democracy, and thus openness and accountability are even more crucial for the life of the Church than they are in a democracy. In a talk he gave many years before he became the current Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had this to say about the reality of ecclesial communion: “Fellowship in the Body of Christ and receiving the Body of Christ means fellowship with one another. This of its very nature includes mutual acceptance, giving and receiving on both sides, and readiness to share one’s goods . . . In this sense, the social question is given quite a central place in the theological heart of the concept of communion.”

This is a beautiful vision of the Church. Shaw’s aim in his book is to make a contribution to realizing this vision in the concrete circumstances of the present day, by helping to end the culture of secrecy, especially within American Catholicism, and replacing the destructive culture with an open, accountable community of faith.

"Throughout his career, Russell Shaw has served admirably Mother Church through his balanced, reasonable, informed, accessible, and forthright writings. Understanding that there are legitimate applications for the use of secrecy in both everyday religious life and secular society, he now addresses the unfortunate and long standing consequences of unnecessary secrecy and the lack of open and effective communication within the Catholic Church. Inhibiting the promotion of truth, knowledge, and accountability and increasing the chances of corruption, the author notes how unnecessary secrecy in the Church also weakens community/"communio;" maintains a second class status for the laity, furthers its "clericalization" and lessens its influence in worldly affairs; creates suspicion both internally and in the outside world; and impedes the speedy and effective just resolution of any number of crises affecting the religious institution today, most conspicuously, the recent sexual scandal. Let's hope the Bishops and other Church insiders recognize this important message of reform on the part of someone so committed to the Catholic faith.
- Joseph A. Varacalli, author, The Catholic Experience in America

Russell Shaw has long been a unique -- and uniquely valuable -- voice in American Catholicism. He was for many years the US Bishops' official spokesman, and he has the perspective and insights of an "insider". But Shaw is not an apologist for the hierarchy. He is at once a devout and loyal (and orthodox) member of the faithful, and a sharp critic of the cult of secrecy which so many bishops have cultivated. In this sobering but much-needed book, Shaw shows how some shepherds abused secrecy, and in doing so compounded the sex misconduct crisis with a broader crisis of trust in clerical leadership. But this is not a book about sex-abuse. I