Hidden Mercy
eBook - ePub

Hidden Mercy

AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear

  1. 320 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Hidden Mercy

AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear

About this book

The 1980s and 1990s, the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States, was decades ago now, and many of the stories from this time remain hidden: A Catholic nun from a small Midwestern town packs up her life to move to New York City, where she throws herself into a community under assault from HIV and AIDS. A young priest sees himself in the many gay men dying from AIDS and grapples with how best to respond, eventually coming out as gay and putting his own career on the line. A gay Catholic with HIV loses his partner to AIDS and then flees the church, focusing his energy on his own health rather than fight an institution seemingly rejecting him.

Set against the backdrop of the HIV and AIDS epidemic of the late twentieth century and the Catholic Church's crackdown on gay and lesbian activists, journalist Michael O'Loughlin searches out the untold stories of those who didn't look away, who at great personal cost chose compassion--even as he seeks insight for LGBTQ people of faith struggling to find a home in religious communities today.

This is one journalist's--gay and Catholic himself--compelling picture of those quiet heroes who responded to human suffering when so much of society--and so much of the church--told them to look away. These pure acts of compassion and mercy offer us hope and inspiration as we continue to confront existential questions about what it means to be Americans, Christians, and human beings responding to those most in need.

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Yes, you can access Hidden Mercy by Michael J. O'Loughlin in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Author’s Note
  7. 1. Time Was of the Essence
  8. 2. “Through Their Own Fault”
  9. 3. Hospital Sisters
  10. 4. “It Has to Be a Gay Person”
  11. 5. Catholic to the Bones
  12. 6. “An Intrinsic Moral Evil”
  13. 7. Saint Vincent’s
  14. 8. Letter of the Law
  15. 9. “Stop the Church”
  16. 10. “You Couldn’t Say It Was Wrong”
  17. 11. Born This Way
  18. 12. Priests with AIDS
  19. 13. Friends of Dorothy
  20. 14. A Tangible Love
  21. 15. Redeemed in San Francisco
  22. 16. A Church Filled with Gospel Love
  23. 17. “Just Who the Hell Are These Two Nuns?”
  24. 18. AIDS Crucifixion
  25. Epilogue: New York
  26. Acknowledgments
  27. Notes
  28. Index