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The Altar Boys Paperback – March 23, 2021

by Suzanne Smith (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 103 ratings
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Boys with everything to live for ... A community betrayed ... The whistle-blower priest who paid the ultimate price



∗∗Shortlisted for the 2020 Walkley Book Award∗∗

∗∗Shortlisted for the 2021 NSW Premier's Community and Regional History Prize∗∗

∗∗ Shortlisted for the 2021 Prime Minister's Award∗∗

Glen Walsh and Steven Alward were childhood friends in their tight-knit working-class community in Newcastle, NSW. Both proud altar boys at the local Catholic church, they went on to attend the city's Catholic boys' high schools: Glen to Marist Brothers, Hamilton, and Steven to St Pius X. Both did well: Steven became a journalist; Glen a priest.

But their lives came to be burdened by secrets kept and exposed. Glen discovered that another priest was sexually abusing boys and reported the offender to police, breaking his vows to the Catholic 'brotherhood' in the process. His decision to give evidence regarding the cover-up of clerical abuse at a landmark trial ended in tragedy. Meanwhile, Steven was fighting his own battle to overcome a traumatic past, a battle that also ended in tragedy.

Ensuing investigations revealed that at least 60 men in the region had taken their own lives. What had happened, and why were so many of those men from the three Catholic high schools in the area?

By six-time Walkley Award-winning investigative reporter Suzanne Smith and shortlisted for the 2020 Walkley Book Award, The Altar Boys is the explosive expose of widespread and organised clerical abuse of children in one Australian city, and how the cover-up in the Catholic Church in Australia extended from parish priests to every echelon of the organisation. Focusing on two childhood friends, their families and community, this gripping story is backed by secret documents, diary notes and witness accounts, and details a deliberate church strategy of using psychological warfare against witnesses in key trials involving paedophile priests.

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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    ABC Books
  4. Publication date
    March 23, 2021
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0733340172
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0733340178
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Suzanne Smith is a six-time Walkley Award- and two-time Logie award-winning journalist. Her 27-year career in journalism includes senior editorial roles at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, including on Foreign Correspondent, Background Briefing, Radio National, ABC News, and Radio Current Affairs. She was the senior investigative reporter and producer at Lateline on ABC TV reporting stories on the cover up of clerical abuse, which helped trigger the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia. She has also written for Crikey and The Australian, and held various roles in the commercial media.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ ABC Books (March 23, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0733340172
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0733340178
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 103 ratings

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Suzanne Smith

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
103 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Susan
5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed Research and Wordcraft Weave an Unforgettable True Story of Evil Disguised as Faith
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2021
A compelling account, researched in detail, and evocative of the pain and emotional torment bestowed upon children all across Australia by the Catholic Church hierarchy ordained to nurture the spiritual life of children. A devastating revelation of depravity in a book that cannot be put down; and the Audible version is even more compelling--the same words but read by the gentle flowing voice of Abbe Holmes. The softness of her voice and cadence works like the charm bestowed upon young boys by the priests who violated them. And the crime sits in Rome, which ignored so many opportunities to put a stop to these tragedies. Author Suzanne Smith's research and deft wordswomanship weave a Shakespearean tragedy in our modern times.
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Dr. Eileen Quinn Knight
5.0 out of 5 stars Structural distruction in the Church
Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2020
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Suzanne Smith never expected to write a book about the clerical abuse scandal. The Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has become one of the most comprehensive public inquiries in the world. Joanne McCarthy of the Newcastle Herald was an incredible force in exposing criminal networks in the Catholic Church and other churches and institutions as well. This book is written from the point of view of the victims and their families, those lost and those left behind- the collateral damage from this huge conspiracy against children in the Maitland Newcastle Diocese, a conspiracy connected to many other schools and dioceses across New South Wales and beyond. At least 60 men who attended three Catholic schools in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese have died either from suicide or as a result of risky behavior. The local police say there are many more than sixty. The majority of these men took their own lives, and they are all believed to have been victims of clergy and religious in their diocese. And they’re far from alone-there have been similar deaths all over the nation.
In an anthropological way, Suzanne gives a history of the Newcastle Diocese when it was a settlement. The important issue in understanding this time and the time going forward is to contextualize the events. The nineteenth-century settlers had built miners’ cottages, hewn from local forests, above the old collieries. By the 1950’s most families lived in fibro-sided war service houses with manicured lawns. Catholics belonged to a parish, which was a geographical area within a diocese that included a parish priest, often assisted by assistant priests or curates. Each Catholic parish had a church and its presterby (rectory) and a convent for the nuns working at the schools.
Catholic families prayed, worked and played together. They lived and breathed the rules and rituals of their religion. To outsiders, the culture could seem impenetrable, confusing and often bizarre. But to these more working-class families, it was everything. Believing in God and following the teachings of Jesus provided the possibility of a life that could transient poverty and despair. Being part of the Church community offered hope and gave comfort in hard times, and if adherents followed the rules they were certain their prayers would be answered. The mindset of fearful obedience in order to attain salvation was ingrained from a very young age. British authorities had brought an anti-Catholic bias to the original colony of Newcastle, and antipathy between the two sides flourished until the 1970’s leading many Catholics to develop a strong solidarity with and loyalty to their Church.
The Church was a very powerful men’s club and essentially a law unto itself. It used its own internal canon law, Ecclesiastical regulations authorized by the Popes, to deal with clerical sexual abuse, sexual harassment of students and other crimes such as theft and fraud. Before the 1990’s the State did not apply appropriate checks and balances to the Church. Internal letters between the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese and the Vatican in that era reveal a complete lack of understanding among clergy and religious about the consequences of sexual abuse and the terrible harm it wrought well adulthood. Add to this a widespread ignorance about civil laws until they were reformed in the 1990s and 2000s, and you have the makings of a terrible calamity. For centuries, the Vatican had seen itself as an independent empire unaccountable to ant civil or secular authorities. In 1974 Pope Paul VI renamed “The Secret of the Holy Office’ ‘The Pontifical Secret’ which decreed that any legislation or investigation of sexual abuse against a cleric or religious was to be kept a secret. Any bishop or clergy that defied this decree and went to the local state authorities could be ex-communicated. The affected families were left to fend for themselves. Partly because of their religious devotion, parents only saw the warning signs after it was too late. Many children endured violence and abuse in silence, with devastating consequences.
This complex tale is skillfully framed by Smith around the lives of two boys who grew up across the street from one other, in suburban Newcastle of the 1970s. One, Steven Alward, would become head of international news at the ABC. The other, Glen Walsh, became a priest in the diocese. Both served as altar boys in the local parish. And both would die by their own hand, within two months over the summer of 2017-2018.
Just one measure of how corrupt this diocese became is the sheer number of the Council of Priests to former Bishop Leo Clarke found to have either enabled or perpetrated serious crimes. More than 40 years in jail sentences hang from their collective necks. Smith delivers on what this appalling institutional failure brought to pass: decades of brutal abuse; cover ups and amoral legal strategies; Mr Fix-Its and the corrupting effect of the confessional seal and the odious absurdity of the 'Pontifical Secret'. But it is her disciplined pursuit of the impact on the personal life trajectories of Alward and Walsh where Smith's insight is most acute.
Lifelong manipulation of Alward by that arch criminal, former priest John Denham, unravels like a case study of psychopathy in action. That Alward, a high-functioning professional and no stranger to the traumas of human existence, was finally undone by the predations and deceits of Denham is a salutary retelling of a tale made grimly familiar to us by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Equally compelling is the story of Walsh; the courageous whistleblower priest, ostracized and driven to despair through a decade and a half of unrestrained cruelty, meted out by his supposed brethren clergy.
There are numerous other revelations which are startling, even to someone who lived this history and has followed events closely. The depth of research undertaken by the author is apparent and fuels the compelling narrative force. The Altar Boys deserves to be widely read to help ensure we can claim no excuses for allowing anything like it to happen again. But to also ensure the lives of Alward, Walsh and others such as Andrew Nash are not lost to us, like tears in rain.
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Top reviews from other countries

Debbie Mullins
5.0 out of 5 stars An important read
Reviewed in Australia on September 21, 2020
Verified Purchase
Just finished reading #TheAltarBoys. A factual and deeply moving account of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the Maitland diocese. Having grown up a Catholic, having attended school in that diocese, knowing people who have been victims of this sort of abuse, it is also personal for me. The very great difficulties experienced by those families who loved their church, had a deep faith and were abandoned and victimised by members of the church is a heart-breaking read, but an important one. Not everyone will be able to read this book, and that is okay. Looking after your mental health is most important and only you know if you are up for it. I do recommend it for those who think they can manage it. Well done Suzanne Smith. You’ve done a great service to your friend and all those impacted by these events.
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Donny Rock
4.0 out of 5 stars Horific story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2021
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Exposé of the scandal in Australia over the paedophilic habits of some of the Catholic clergy and the cover-up by colleagues. It's not a terribly well-constructed book, but it is hugely important.
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Jim
5.0 out of 5 stars The Roman Catholic Church Hierarchy is Ruthless & Heartless
Reviewed in Australia on September 12, 2020
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This book encapsulates the fact that the hierarchy in Rome, and some bishops & cardinals around the world, only want to protect the "bella figura"......the Church's public face......and bad luck for anyone who gets in their way.......whether they be abuse victims seeking compensation or priests/bishops of good conscience, who try to push reform in the Church. Fr Glenn Walsh, a good man and dedicated priest, ended his life because he could no longer cope with the way he was treated by his Church, all because he tried to help abuse victims and fell foul of a bishop and, subsequently, fell foul of the highest echelons of the Church. Essential reading.
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mary molloy
5.0 out of 5 stars The Altar Boys
Reviewed in Australia on September 12, 2020
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This was a tragic expose of the ruination of the lives of young boys by the paedophiles priests and brothers in the Newcastle Maitland dioceses.
The Clergy acted like criminal gangs by the way they exploited these young boys, and showed no remorse for their actions either.
To make matters worse, the Catholic church covered it up by not reporting their crimes to the police, and just kept moving these paedophiles from parish to parish, where they continued their criminal activity.
The Church has much to answer.
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Amazon CustomerNoel
4.0 out of 5 stars ALTAR BOYS
Reviewed in Australia on September 24, 2020
Verified Purchase
I knew many of those mentioned in the book but still appalled by the events.
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