The Dark Box: A Secret History of Confession
Cornwell was raised Catholic and began studying for the priesthood at an early age. While in seminary, a priest attempted to seduce him during confession. Although Cornwell subsequently left the church, he occasionally wonders whether his journey masks a search for the lost abusers of one’s childhood. Read as a personal odyssey, his book is quite interesting. Cornwell is less successful proving in any rigorous historical or social-scientific manner his provocative claim that the church’s 1910 decision to lower the age for confession from 14 to 7, and increase its frequency, eventually resulted in the sex-abuse scandal that plagues the church today. That said, he asks important questions about confession’s potential to inflict lasting psychological damage on children with the concept of sin and evil, especially as they concern one’s physical body and natural urges, and the requirement to confess transgressions are introduced at too early an age. Cornwell’s book also underscores the sad fact that some priests used the cover of the confessional for their evil purposes. --Christopher McConnell