To Forgive the Foxes

To Forgive the Foxes
333 Pages
ISBN 9780692785959

Clergy sexual abuse. How is it allowed to happen? Why is it so pervasive, yet so long undetected? Are the victims always young boys? Or, has the crime ensnared innocent girls, too?

To Forgive the Foxes reveals the tragedy of a long-hidden crime in America, and explores how it proliferated for decades with impunity. Joan's story, set in the rural, 1960s Midwest, transitions through her early religious indoctrination, loss of innocence, and cruel rejection, to arrive at a jolting epiphany in her early twenties.

Joanie Moller, a Catholic parochial student, experiences emotional and physical abuse from her teachers that escalates to sexual abuse by her parish priest. She grows into a suspicious and repressed young woman who manages to follow her dream of becoming a nurse. While working in the operating room of University of Wisconsin Hospital, Madison, and living in denial of her past, Joan attracts the attention of an older and very complex general surgeon, Dr. Bret Fabrey.

Bret is the local cut-up, notorious for his operating room hijinks, but he reveals a wise maturity on their dates. This zany joker has his own dark history and the heart of a spiritual philosopher. Once he has fallen in love with Joan, he makes it his goal to convince her that forgiveness is for the forgiver.

To Forgive the Foxes is a Baby Boomer's delight, replete with 1960s icons, intense operating room drama, bold humor, and true spiritual awakening.

Sandra Charles

About Sandra Charles (Albuquerque, New Mexico Author)

Sandra Charles

Sandra (Sandy) Charles was born in Michigan in 1952 and grew up in a Catholic family in a small Midwestern town. She has worked as an operating room nurse in four hospitals, in four different states. Now she indexes medical textbooks and tutors ESL students. Her greatest passion, other than all things medical, is to bliss-out on Nature while growing flowers, vegetables, and trees. She’d miss her grandma’s funeral for a good thunderstorm. Sandy lives in New Mexico with her husband John and two children. She is still trying to learn Spanish, but she grows some excellent green chile.

In To Forgive the Foxes, Sandy shows an incredulous public how clergy abuse happens, and how it ensnares young girls, as well as altar boys. She discovered, during its research, that this is a subject no one wants to discuss---not even publishers, librarians, and bookstores. But, without understanding, there will be no enlightenment, nor progressive change.

Sandy wishes to fully expose the crime of sexual, physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse by Catholic clergy. Only by bringing the light of truth to this centuries-long, dark, and hidden secret, can there be timely justice, accountable prevention, and sorely needed healing for victims.