The Purple Culture
by: Stephen Boehrer
Published by: Oceanview Publishing (May 1 release)
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Reviewed by Diane Keyes
Even though The Purple Culture by Stephen Boehrer is classified as a novel and legitimately fits that definition, I don’t think it quite belongs in that category. To me, it feels more like a docu-drama; maybe it belongs in a new category called docu-fiction; it carries too much weight for a work of fiction.
The Purple Culture is the unfolding—I can’t quite call it a story—of the indictment, charges, pleas, and trial of two bishops and a cardinal who are accused of transferring pedophile priests from one parish to another rather than put a stop to the litany of abuse and ruin that follows them.
I’m not giving anything away by asserting their guilt—it is clearly stated from the start. What is not quite so clear is their motivation. Are they just plain evil? Are they stupid? Or is there something else entirely going on here?
Being Catholic myself, I’ve often been engaged in conversations debating those same questions. It’s hard to understand, painful to witness, and impossible to deny the obvious wrong-doing of supposedly godly men, whom we rightfully hold to a higher standard.
Stephen Boehrer makes a compelling case for another explanation entirely–one that has the power of a paradigm shift if allowed to take hold. And therein lay the docu and the drama and the fiction. The book is the examination of what the author calls the purple culture—a study of the hierarchy of the institution. Boehrer contends it is the hierarchy that is inherently flawed, not the church. And he does it in a most convincing way. As a member of the faithful, this is good news.
My hope is that the light this “novel” casts will shine into the religious, military, and political corridors of command, wherever dark shadows keep those within, isolated from the experiences of spirit that make us human.
NOTE: After four years in the Navy, Boehrer earned his B.A. in Philosophy from Holy Cross Seminary in LaCrosse, Wisconsin and then studied and ordained in Rome, Italy. His doctorate in theology is from The Catholic University in Washington, D.C. In 1968, Boehrer was appointed Chancellor of the LaCrosse Diocese. Boehrer lives with his wife in Wisconsin.
Armchair Interviews says: ӬThe Purple Culture is his fourth novel
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