Although there is a great deal of attention given – quite rightly so – to pedophile priests, my experience with clergy sexual abuse was also a nightmare. It started out by my being raped as a teenager by a priest who I thought I could trust and then being coerced into having an affair with him for fear of losing my children. A skilled manipulator, especially of vulnerable teenagers and young women who had challenges in their lives, we all thought a priest could help us overcome our particular situations. Once he gained my trust and pretended to be a friend, he set about a path to manipulate me toward a path to a living hell that put my spiritual health and soul in danger. I saw him as a man of the cloth, a man of God who would help me and my children without expecting anything in return. Little did I know I was not his fi rst victim, nor would I be his last, lured by his promises to leave the church for me, and by his word that God himself had sent him to save us.

A comprehensive series of lively introductions and commentaries examines the history of confession in Judaism, its roots in the Bible, its evolution in rabbinic and modern thought, and the very nature of confession today.

Bestselling author Darynda Jones revisits the sexy, suspenseful world of supernatural shenanigans she created in her Grave series with "For I Have Sinned." In this Charley Davidson story, Charley helps a woman find out how she died and gives her the closure she needs to pass through to the other side.

In a series of recollections, writer Wilfred Arvizu, an original member of the young mariachi group, tears back the curtain and provides an inside look on how he and others dealt with a pedophile priest who was at once a self-confessed agnostic and not-so-self-confessed alcoholic and possible bi-sexual.

Bless Me Father For They Have Sinned is a must read for anyone who wants to catch a more intimate look at the infrastructure of the Catholic Church. Father Paul Roberts offers us a historically relevant, yet compassionate and humorous, account of the inner workings of the oldest corporation in the world. This memoir introduces us to a man's life journey, from childhood, through the preparations for the seminary, the pitfalls on the spiritual path, to his maturation and commitment to entering the ancient order of priests. Bless Me Father For They Have Sinned does not shy away from the day-to-day encounters with sensual temptations, boundary violations, and alcohol abuse. The reader has a ringside seat as these men and women grapple with mental health issues, struggle with questioning power structures, instigate changes to training and rehabilitation protocols, and try to bring their venerable church into alignment with a contemporary modus operandi.

The history of US Catholicism is the history of confession. For I Have Sinned charts the rise of confession as the defining ritual of American Catholic piety and identity--and its fall, as clergy sex-abuse scandals and the cultural shifts of the 1970s decimated interest in a practice that, today, is alien even to most faithful believers.

"For I Have Sinned" tells the real life stories of clergy men and women who have turned evil and coldbloodedly committed murder. Coming from all denominations, these professed men and women of God have killed for many selfish motives--greed, jealousy, and love. Photo insert.

God wants you to succeed in every area of your life! And with His presence in your life, you can. His grace or unmerited favor can swing open doors of opportunities and place you at the right place at the right time for His blessings. Even if you lack the necessary qualifications, His unmerited favor can propel you forward. Discover in Unmerit...

They went from praying to preying... Priests, pasters, ministers, and nuns: they are the men and women of God. We trust them unconditionally, tell them our darkest deeds, turn to them in our most desperate hour. We would never, in our wildest dreams, expect them to be...cold-blooded murderers. Now, peek into the confessionals of eleven clergymen and -women who did the unthinkable-- who broke the most sacred commandment: Thou shalt not kill. Pastor Edmund Lopes could bring a congregation to its knees. Little did they know that years before, after murdering his wife and stabbing his girlfriend, he had found religion in prison and jumped parole to become a Baptist minister-- until police caught up with him, ten years after his escape. Sister Sheila Ryan De Luca, having left her Franciscan convent after allegations of a lesbian affair with another nun, stands accused of brutally murdering a man who she claims raped her. Ultimately she served ten years in prison until her conviction was overturned. Reverend Freddie Armstrong heard the voice of God telling him to "kill the Antichrist," so the schizophrenic ordained priest took a sharp butcher's knife and proceeded to stab and decapitate 81-year-old Fred Neal, a beloved local minister who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A boy is murdered inexplicably by someone he should have been able to trust, his parish priest. In a small town with a police force run by a veteran from the hard streets of a big city, this should have been an open-and-shut case. Everything pointed to the priest as the killer. The investigation revealed something very disturbing about the priest and his relationship to the boy, something unholy. But the power of the church intervened to thwart the investigation. Would justice prevail? How far would the church go to save its image? What happens when a person holds the ultimate power over another in their hands? Do they use it for good or to further their own needs? How can a group that purports to be the representative of the ultimate good harbor such evil? Frank Slater, the Chief of Police in a small western Massachusetts town, is pitted against the Archdiocese of Boston, whose tentacles of control reach all over New England and beyond. He is a savvy cop who, in his twenty years as a detective in Boston, thought he had seen everything. He was wrong. The evil that he uncovers shakes him to the very core, but it also furthers his resolve to bring this murderer to justice. The priest is transferred from parish to parish by the diocese in order to hide him. This provides him access to more soon-to-be victims. With the protection of the church, the priest felt invincible. Sprinkled with local color and stories, Bless Me, Father, for I Have Sinned provides the reader with a critical examination of the church's role in child abuse in the form of a story that will keep the pages turning only to pause to laugh, cry, to be enraged, or to reflect.