Sex, Priests And Power Researcher And Author Richard Sipe Reveals Personal Life Experiences In New Book "I Confess"
"Catholics Finally Have a Philip Roth"
LA JOLLA, Calif., Sept. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- You expect confession from a Catholic priest. What is unexpected about the new tell-all book I Confess, is the raw vulnerability from psychotherapist and author A.W. Richard Sipe. The 83-year-old former Benedictine monk and Catholic priest captures his life experiences in poetry.
"I have spent decades encouraging the hurt and the hurting to face the truth about themselves," Sipe writes, "and share it fearlessly to aid their own healing and in the service of helping others. My moral obligation – duty – is to practice what I have counseled others: Embrace the truth. It will free you."
Tom Roberts, editor at large for the National Catholic Reporter, said "I Confess is courageous, funny, provocative, raw, delightful. Catholics finally have a Philip Roth!" Roberts added "Some of it, too, is downright searing, the Catholic reality that I am glad is, in this elegantly subjective way, preserved."
Sipe's lifelong work counseling priests led to his research and observations about celibacy, sexual practice and abuse of minors within the Church. His 1995 book Sex, Priests and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis was highlighted in the award-winning film Spotlight and Sipe's data was pivotal to the expanded scope of the investigation by the Boston Globe's investigative reporting unit.
His new book I Confess is written in verse. Sipe said the poetic inspiration hit at the age of 80.
"I want to encourage older people not to give up on their spiritual search, no matter how old they are," Sipe explained.
Published by FriesenPress, I Confess is available at amazon.com and friesenpress.com in hard cover, paperback and ebook.
About Richard Sipe
A.W. Richard Sipe spent 18 years serving the Church as a Benedictine monk and Catholic priest. In those capacities he was trained to deal with the mental health problems of clergy. Sipe practiced psychotherapy as a priest and married man, taught on the faculties of major Catholic seminaries and universities, lectured in medical schools, and served as a consultant and expert witness in both civil and criminal cases involving the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests. He and Marianne have been married since 1970 and have one son.
SOURCE A.W. Richard Sipe
Share this article