In my opinion this is a valuable book, especially for Catholics who are very perplexed as to how the sexual abuse scandal happened. Both the history and recent events in this area are covered and explained very well. However, the book comes across as one in which independent writings of the three authors were lumped together with very little coordination or joint editing. In particular, Chapter 4: " The Doyle-Mouton-Peterson Manual ..." should, in my opinion, have been an appendix, and is a distraction in the body of the book. Also, there is significant repetition in the first and latter sections.Nevertheless, I think this is an important book which should be read by all American Catholics.