Just in time for the Post-Synod mess: A new English translation of the Book of Gomorrah, St. Peter Damian’s manifesto against the infestation of homosexuals in the Catholic priesthood, with a foreword by Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez“Why, I ask, O damnable sodomites, do you seek after the height of ecclesiastical dignity with such burning ambition? Why do you seek with such longing to snare the people of God in the web of your perdition? Does it not suffice for you that you cast your very selves off the high precipice of villainy, unless you also involve others in the danger of your fall?”--The Book of Gomorrah, chapter 20While some prelates at the Synod of Bishops advocated “accepting and valuing” homosexuality, a new English translation of the Book of Gomorrah has just been published that promises to bring St. Peter Damian’s powerful condemnation of the vice of sodomy to a wide audience of Catholic readers.
The Book of Gomorrah and St. Peter Damian’s Struggle Against Ecclesiastical Corruption, by Catholic journalist and scholar Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, includes a new and scrupulously accurate English translation of the Book of Gomorrah, an eloquent denunciation of a plague of homosexual vice among priests in the eleventh century. The work analyzes the devastating spiritual effects of homosexuality on the clergy, and decries the abuse of “spiritual sons” by predatory priests. It regards the coddling of homosexuals as a “cruel mercy” that fails to address the contagious, and cancerous, nature of sexual perversion. The work is preceded by a letter from Pope St. Leo IX, who praises the book for being “as opposed to diabolical fire as is water.”In addition to the Book of Gomorrah itself, this edition includes an account of Damian’s courageous fight against the corruption of the 11th century clergy, including his rebukes of popes, bishops, and the German emperor Henry IV. Damian’s defense of the integrity of marriage against the emperor’s attempt to secure an easy annulment is in stark contrast to the shameful retreat of numerous Catholic bishops in the face of the Kaspar proposal.Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez writes in the foreword that the Book of Gomorrah “brings us to the realization that a thousand years ago sexual vices were being practiced by various sons of the Church that lamentably are present today and have been the occasion of scandal, discredit, and apostasy.” Oxford professor Joseph Shaw says that “Hoffman has done a great service to his readers in preparing this edition.”The publisher is offering a 15% discount on the book to Rorate Caeli readers, who can purchase the book by clicking here.
