This compelling story sparked my interest after hearing the author being interviewed by Richard Fidler on ABC Conversations.
Brendon Watkins was 8 years old when his parents told him he was adopted. It wasn’t until he was in his late 20s, when Brendon and his partner wanted to start a family, that he started searching for his birth parents.
He first discovered that his birth mother was a Catholic nun. Then decades later, with the help of DNA testing, Brendan discovered he was the son of a priest – a celebrated outback missionary who had travelled the world, had an audience with the Pope and who, less than a year later, impregnated Brendan’s birth mother. She was a devout 27-year-old woman with limited education and non-existent financial resources who could not consent to a sexual relationship with her worldly 57-year-old priest, Father Vincent Shiel.
This book describes the incredible journey that Brendan undertook in an effort to uncover the truth behind his biological heritage. Decades of searching and obstruction from the Catholic church finally revealed the whole truth.
This was a very well written and fascinating book, which I found difficult to put down. It made me angry at the secrecy of the church, sad for Brendan’s grief and the interruption to his life as he searched for answers and alarmed at the fact that there are thousands of priests’ children around the world.
To quote from the book, “the children of priests are the sleeping giant that the Catholic church prays will never fully awaken”.
-Tracey Luhrs, RRL Administration Centre
