Pulitzer Prize-winning author to speak in Fullerton, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Seattle

Pulitzer Prize-winning author to speak in San Diego, Fullerton, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Seattle

New blockbuster called 'definitive history' of clergy sex abuse crisis

Panel will include local survivors and advocates profiled in book

What: PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR Michael D'Antonio, along with a panel of experts, will talk about his new book, MORTAL SINS: SEX, CRIME AND THE ERA OF CATHOLIC SCANDAL. 

San Diego

When: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 7pm

Where: Alliant University, Green Hall
10455 Pomerando Road, San Diego

The event is co-sponsored by IVAT, the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma at Alliant University (fvsai.org), and SNAP, The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org).

Cost: Free and open to the public

Fullerton

When: Thursday, June 27, 2013, at 7 pm

Where: Fullerton Public Library, Main Branch
353 W. Commonwealth Avenue, Fullerton

The event is a part of Gustavo’s Awesome Lecture Series

Cost: Free and open to the public

Santa Barbara

When: Friday, June 28, 2013, at 7:00 pm

Where: Falkner Gallery, Santa Barbara Public Library
40 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara

Cost: Free and open to the public

San Francisco

When: Saturday, June 29 at 2:30 pm

Where: Mission Cultural Center Theater

2868 Mission Street, San Francisco
Transit Accessibility: Mission Cultural Center located between 24th Street and 25th Street on Mission Street.
• Less than one block form 24th Street and Mission BART Station
• Buses #48, 14, 49
• Street parking
• Parking garage on 21st between Mission Street and Valencia Street

Cost: Free and open to the public

Seattle

When: Sunday, June 30 at 7:30 pm

Where: Town Hall Seattle
1119 Eighth Avenue, Seattle

Cost: Free and open to the public

About the Event

Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael D'Antonio and a panel of experts—including area survivors and advocates—will present a gripping discussion on the clergy sex abuse crisis in the United States and each region visited.

Publishers Weekly calls D'Antonio's MORTAL SINS “The definitive history of the Catholic Church’s most severe crisis since the Reformation," and Booklist hails the work as “gripping and affecting to the last word.”

Members of the panel will include D'Antonio; Patrick Wall, a former priest, now advocate for victims of clergy sex abuse; leading attorney Jeffrey Anderson; and area survivors. Wall and Anderson are profiled in the book.

The event is sponsored by SNAP, The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAPNetwork.org.

About MORTAL SINS

An explosive, sweeping account of the scandal that has sent the Catholic Church into a tailspin -- and the brave few who fought for justice.

In the mid-1980s a dynamic young monsignor assigned to the Vatican’s embassy in Washington set out to investigate the problem of sexually abusive priests. He found a scandal in the making, confirmed by secret files revealing complaints that had been hidden from police and covered up by the Church hierarchy. He also understood that the United States judicial system was eager to punish offenders and those who aided them. He presented all of this to the American bishops, warning that the Church could be devastated by negative publicity and bankrupted by its legal liability. They ignored him.

Meanwhile, a young lawyer listened to a new client describe an abusive sexual history with a priest that began when he was ten years old. His parents' complaints were downplayed by Church officials who offered them money to go away. The lawyer saw a claim that any defendant would want to settle. Then he began to suspect he was onto something bigger, involving thousands of priests who had abused countless children while the Church had done almost nothing about it. The lawsuit he filed would touch off a legal war of historic and global proportions.

Part history, part journalism, and part true-crime thriller, Michael D'Antonio's Mortal Sins brings to mind landmark books such as All the President’s Men, And the Band Played On, and The Informant, as it reveals a long and ferocious battle for the soul of the largest and oldest organization in the world.

About Michael D'Antonio

A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author and film writer, Michael D’Antonio has published more than twenty books with major houses. His wide ranging titles – business, sports, science, biography - include works done solely under his own name as well as projects co-authored with experts and ghosted for prominent clients. His works are widely reviewed and have been noted as “best books of the year” or “editors’ picks” by The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Businessweek, The Chicago Tribune and others. His books have been featured on broadcasts including Sixty Minutes, Today, Good Morning America, Fresh Air, Larry King Live, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Diane Rehm, Coast-to-Coast, and many others.