VERITAS

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When I was much younger I became a reader for Veritas. What that meant was that you would get a manuscript/draft from them and comment on whether you thought it worth publishing or not, or whether there was any scope to adapt it for publication.

This was around the time of Vatican II when the traditional and immutable character of the Roman Catholic Church was being seriously challenged from within. They were exciting times. Big things were happening.

But Veritas was publishing little religious tracts and holy biographical pamphlets. I have alluded to one such publication in an earlier post. Another little pamphlet told of a young boy who entertained impure thoughts at a dance and got run over and killed by a passing car as he left the dance hall. No time to repent or get a grip on a firm purpose of amendment. The pamphlet left you in no doubt where he ended up.

Mini biographies included one of Maria Goretti who we all learned died defending her virginity.

My observations at the time, which I expressed very strongly to Veritas, was that they should have been encouraging intelligent debate on the vital issues of the day rather than purveying all this overly pious stuff.

I don't remember whether I chucked it in or they just didn't send me any more stuff.

Anyway, the Maria Goretti pamphlet turned out to be authored by the most prolific serial child sex abuser in the country, with a record that would have put Brendan Smyth to shame.

And Veritas had the cheek to refuse to even stock Tony Flannery's book, which dealt, in a constructive, evidence-based way with one of those significant issues that they were ducking back then.

Veritas means truth, but clearly not necessarily the whole truth.

Funny old world.