For centuries homosexuals have been vilified and persecuted by the Catholic Church, but the Church has always had a very inconvenient secret. Many of its clergy, even those in the highest echelons of the Church, were and are homosexual. Little was known of the lives these religious people lived until the publication, in 1981, of the groundbreaking, Gay Catholic Priests; A Study of Cognitive and Affective Dissonance. Richard Wagner is the author of that study and he is a gay priest. The media firestorm that erupted after its publication and the backlash within his religious community because of its publication eventually destroyed his public priesthood. This story of his 13-year battle with the Church to save his ministry exemplifies the spiritual isolation, emotional distress and ecclesiastical reprisals every gay priest most fears. Secrecy, Sophistry And Gay Sex In The Catholic Church provides an intimate and sometimes disturbing look into the unseemly inner-workings of the Catholic Church. It is a detailed account of the Church's take-no-prisoners attitude in stamping out whatever they perceive as a threat, especially if the threat comes from within.