"In 1968, an idealistic young Franciscan priest, burning with desire to make a difference, began a simple street ministry in New York City aimed at helping troubled youth." "Through years of struggle, Father Bruce Ritter fought to save young lives from the mean streets. By 1989, he had built a charitable empire - Covenant House - with a committed staff that believed in his mission and a loyal following of hundreds of thousands who funded a network of shelters in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Father Ritter was regarded as a living saint, America's answer to Mother Teresa." "But in the fall of 1989, a young journalist began investigating a much darker side of the priest's life. A former male prostitute had come forward with a disturbing allegation - that Father Ritter had lured him into a sexual relationship in exchange for money, a private apartment, and a college scholarship. A criminal investigation of Ritter was launched and the story soon exploded on the front page of the New York Post." "Now the prize-winning journalist who first broke that story tells the never-before-revealed details of Father Ritter's fall from grace. Through scores of exclusive interviews with the young street kids Father Ritter is accused of seducing, the disillusioned followers of his mission, and even his own fellow friars, Sennott provides a fascinating, multi-layered portrait of a complicated man of mixed motives and hidden desires. In Broken Covenant we learn how for two decades Church and childcare officials failed to act on complaints of sexual misconduct against Father Ritter that first surfaced at the very beginning of his street ministry; how, with Covenant House on the verge of financial collapse, Ritter made a Faustian bargain with corporate benefactors of the far right that was to compromise both his own vow of poverty and his mission; how Father Ritter's stirring and graphic newsletters of life in the seamy netherworld of America's combat zones - written in language some found "more like eroticism than fund raising" - revolutionized the world of direct-mail solicitation; and how the charity's board of directors and senior officials overlooked a secret one-million-dollar trust fund that Ritter had created for himself, and how they remained blindly loyal to him through the burgeoning scandal." "More than the shocking tale of a revered icon's precipitous fall, Broken Covenant is a searing portrait of power at work in Reagan/Bush-era America, in the Catholic Church, and in the sophisticated, ruthless world of big-time philanthropy. It rips away the veil of sanctity shrouding this religious charity to reveal an unholy truth of excess, corruption, and cover-up. Yet it is also a story of hope, for as Covenant House went through a painful process of soul-searching and reform, it emerged renewed, a continuing provider of services to disenfranchised youth, and proof that the mission of Covenant House is far bigger than the man who founded it."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved