I am a former Catholic priest who served in the Diocese of Owensboro, Kentucky, for 13 years, and published a book dealing with my reasons for leaving. In a nutshell, the reason was the official Catholic Church’s lack of sensitivity to the real lives and needs of the people it was designed to serve, and its preoccupation with itself, its manmade laws and its institutional image before the world.

The purpose of the book was to awaken the laity (members) to the biblical reality that they are the church, and therefore have the power to bring the bishops into alignment with the Gospel.

As the world turns, we see the consequences of the church’s blind neglect, and its failure to be true to the fundamental mandates of Jesus Christ. I, for one, a former Catholic and priest, am appalled, outraged and bewildered at the silence of the vast majority of bishops and priests, beginning with the Vatican, in the face of the cataclysmic consequences of the unimaginable clergy attacks upon vulnerable children and young seminarians. Perhaps the disengaged and soulless apologies constitute the greatest scandal of all.

William Overstreet Field

Bristol