Silent Soul [Hardcover]

This book, along with the pathetic treatise written by Thomas Petrisky(Little Audrey), is a grim sign of the deterioration of Catholic spirituality in the Diocese of Worcester, and a sad commentary on the desperate, tacky world of Catholic "kitsch" devotion. The bishop of Worcester should be reprimanded and harshly castigated by his superiors for being so foolish as to give this transparently fraudulent gaggle of "miracles" the dignity of an "official investigation!" The parents of this child should be publicly horsewhipped, at the very least, for the utterly grotesque violation of their daughter's human dignity and manipulation of the ignorant Catholic populace, all in the name of third-rate "religion." Audrey Santo is a child who fell into a pool and "virtually" drowned as a toddler, and who suffered irreversible brain-damage as a result. Her mother is a certified religious neurotic/psychopath, who claims that her vegetative, paralyzed daughter is a miracle child who "must now take all the sufferings" of the world into her body and spirit, as a "victim soul." It's not enough that Audrey's drowning was a tragedy, and the loss of a functional human life as God intended life to be. Oh no. NOW she becomes, due to the mother's hysteria, a "victim,"--the victim of a God who wishes to heap as much suffering upon an already broken child as He can, all in order to "strengthen" people's faith and convert them. Audrey lies persistently comatose in a bed that has been dolled up like a plush coffin. Hundreds of gaping, gawking people file by her bed to witness how marvelously powerless she has been rendered in order to fulfill her mission as a "sponge" for the sins of the world. They gasp at the various miraculous "poses" that paralyzed Audrey takes from one day to the next. Today her little arms are spread outward on the bed in the manner of Christ on the cross. Tomorrow they are laid across her breast, with hands folded in prayer. Naturally, "angels" have manipulated her position during the night for the edification of the faithful. Even more disturbing, bruises appear on Audrey's body, due to fierce bouts with Satan, who allegedly likes to batter paralyzed children in order to prove his mischievousness. On her hands appear "stigmata" wounds. On the walls, cheap, ugly plaster statues of saints "weep" what investigators have already analyzed in labs as "a simple mixture of olive oil and chicken fat." The Santo home is full of every garish, outmoded, gaudy statue and assortment of religious hexereii in existence. And no one has reported these dastardly, exploitative parents to the proper authorities. Even the bishop of the Diocese allows these mockeries of the true Gospel to trash the name of Christ, what's left of the credibility of the Catholic Church, and the name of a Loving God whose true power is grounded in the miracle of Existence itself---not fourth-rate parlor tricks. This child is a victim, alright--the victim of a dim-witted, religiously psychotic family and their handlers.It's bad enough to exploit and abuse a healthy child: to torture a child who is utterly defenseless is the pinnacle of hell on earth. This hoax pierces to the heaven of heavens in its banal audacity. It cries murderously for a swift and thundering justice. What if this little child, in her semi-comatose state, is truly conscious of what's going on, of all the bizarre happenings and abuses around her? What if she is literally trapped inside the shell of her own body and her own head, unable even to scream for help or beg for release from the warped affectations of her handlers as they beat bruises onto her forehead, or pound hemotomas onto her limbs in order to give the jabbering flocks the impression of a "miracle?" Everyone who partakes of this atrocity brings a condemnation upon themselves---no matter how ignorant. This local bishop's refusal to stand up for the Gospel and loudly condemn this mockery is a stinging disgrace that cries to Heaven for justice. The bishop of Worcester is either a coward or an opportunist, and I pray he's more the former than the latter, for the good of his own soul.This book is chilling in its portrayal of one of the most pathetic displays of religious mania and travesty in America today. God help the Catholic Church, because if this is the epitome of its miracle-awareness, then it is an institution that has fallen farther than anyone might dare to dream. If this whole Audrey bit isn't a case of religiously-manifested Munchaussen's-by-proxy syndrome, I don't know WHAT is.