About this item
A startling account of corruption and hypocrisy at the heart of the Vatican. In the Closet of the Vatican exposes the rot at the heart of the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church today. This brilliant piece of investigative writing is based on four years' authoritative research, including extensive interviews with those in power. The celibacy of priests, the condemnation of the use of contraceptives, countless cases of sexual abuse, the resignation of Benedict XVI, misogyny among the clergy, the dramatic fall in Europe of the number of vocations to the priesthood, the plotting against Pope Francis - all these issues are clouded in mystery and secrecy.In the Closet of the Vatican is a book that reveals these secrets and penetrates this enigma. It derives from a system founded on a clerical culture of secrecy which starts in junior seminaries and continues right up to the Vatican itself. It is based on the double lives of priests and on extreme homophobia. The resulting schizophrenia in the Church is hard to fathom. But the more a prelate is homophobic, the more likely it is that he is himself gay."Behind rigidity there is always something hidden, in many cases a double life." These are the words of Pope Francis himself and with them, the Pope has unlocked the Closet.No one can claim to really understand the Catholic Church today until they have read this book. It reveals a truth that is extraordinary and disturbing.
About the Author
Frederic Martel is a French writer and journalist. Born on October 28th, 1967, in Chateaurenard (near Avignon) , his most famous pieces of work are "The Pink and the Black, Homosexuals in France since 1968" (trans. into english at Stanford University Press) and "De la culture en Amerique", a book about cultural policies and industries in the United States which was featured on the cover of the New York Times art section in 2006. NYT's journalist Alan Riding wrote : "In Culture in America, a 622-page tome weighty with information, Martel challenges the conventional view in France that (French) culture financed and organized by the government is entirely good and that (American) culture shaped by market forces is necessarily bad".
Frederic Martel holds a PhD in sociology and several graduate degrees in philosophy, political science and law. After being project manager for the French Embassy in Romania (1990-1992) and the French ministry of culture (1992) ; and being the cultural policy advisor to the former Prime Minister Michel Rocard (1993-1994) , he served the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, deputy-Prime minister Martine Aubry, as one of her senior advisors (1997-2000) . From 2001 to 2005 he was cultural attache for the French embassy in the US. He has been visiting scholar at Harvard University and New York University (2004-2006) . He wrote, or currently writes, for numerous publications (including Magazine Litteraire, L'Express, Dissent, The Nation, and Haaretz) and produces its own radio show, Masse Critique, a talk show on the entertainment and the medias for the French public radio station France Culture. He is also editor in chief of the Internet based cultural magazine nonfiction.fr. In addition to that, he maintains high-level academic activities by giving conferences in major American universities (such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Berkeley and the MIT) and by teaching at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (also known as Sciences Po Paris) and at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris (also known as HEC Paris) .
Since 2008 he is a researcher for the French Foreign Affairs' Analysis and Forecasting Centre and project manager for the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel on a research project concerning creative industries and medias around the world.
Books and TV documentaries
Frederic Martel is the author of five books:
* Philosophie du droit et philosophie politique d'Adolphe Thiers, LGDJ, 1995 (His thesis in public law published as a book at LGDJ Press)
* The Pink and the Black, Homosexuals in France since 1968, Le Seuil, 1996 ; trans. into english in the US by Jane Marie Todd at Stanford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0804732744
* La longue marche des gays, Gallimard, 2002.
* Theater, Sur le declin du theatre en Amerique et comment il peut resister en France
