Nicolas Sarkozy's Father Releases Tell-all Book
THE TELEGRAPH: The father of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Pal Sarkozy, has said he will set the record of his life straight in a tell-all autobiography.

Pal Sarkozy unveils his book 'Tant De Vie'. Photo: The Telegraph
Mr Sarkozy, a self-confessed bon vivant and womanizer, wrote "Tant de Vie" - which translates as "So Much Life" - after his son advised him against filing lawsuits against his disparagers and instead to "answer later ... about all these unjust accusations."

Mr Sarkozy, 81, said the book is above all a family affair, adding: "This wasn't for the world, it was for my family."

"I wanted to talk to my children," and a book was "the simplest thing," he said in the interview, given on the sidelines of France's annual Book Fair.

A Hungarian immigrant who arrived in France in 1948 penniless, Pal Sarkozy concedes that he hid his past and failed to pass on his heritage to his five children - four sons and a daughter from two of his four wives - because "I wanted them to become French."

The book gives a rare look into the life of a president's father - the first modern-day French president with both parents still living.

But Mr Sarkozy questioned whether his son, Nicolas, should even want to make a second run for re-election in 2012. >>> | Sunday, March 28, 2010

Related / Lien en relation avec l’article:

PARIS MATCH: Pal Sarkozy, la mémoire du clan: Le père du président de la République publie ses souvenirs, l’itinéraire extraordinaire d’un jeune immigré arrivé en France à 20 ans. Sans papiers. >>> Interview Caroline Pigozzi, Paris Match | Samedi 27 Mars 2010

'The Catholic Church Failed Me. I Despised Myself and Lost All Confidence'
THE TELEGRAPH: An inquiry into child abuse by Catholic priests is published today. Its impact will be seismic, says victim and author of new book, Colm O'Gorman.

In his autobiography, Colm O'Gorman courageously describes being abused by a Catholic priest . Photo credit: The Telegraph
Few men have made such an extraordinary personal journey. Raped and abused in his early teens by Father Sean Fortune, one of Ireland's most notorious paedophiles, Colm O'Gorman ran away from home when he was 17 and lived rough on the streets of Dublin. It was the Seventies, when both church and state were in full-blown denial that any priest could be guilty of sexually abusing a child, and Colm felt only shame and fear. His future could not have been bleaker.

Yet, with effort and determination he fought back, spoke out about the abuse, and in 2002 even tried to sue the Pope arguing that, by moving paedophile priests like Fortune to different parishes and deliberately concealing their actions from the local authorities, the Vatican had failed to protect children like him. He was outraged when the Pope claimed diplomatic immunity but, undaunted, continued to campaign that the authority of the Irish church should not be above that of the State.

Today, nearly 30 years since he was abused, Colm's hour has finally come with the publication of a long-awaited inquiry into child abuse by Roman Catholic priests. The investigation has taken nine years, during which time it has heard the testimony of thousands of former residents of state schools and orphanages over more than 60 years in the Irish Republic.

A second report, due to be published in the summer, is expected to criticise the handling of sex-abuse complaints in cases involving up to 500 priests. Colm believes the result of the inquiry will be "seismic."

"It will show that the state has an obligation of care to those who live in the country and can no longer declare that religion and politics don't mix, or that the abuse of children by Catholic priests was not a matter for the state."

The report coincides to the day with the publication of his extraordinary autobiography, in which Colm courageously describes the lows and highs of his remarkable life – a life that has included founding a charity for victims of sexual abuse, becoming a Senator, making a documentary for the BBC called Suing the Pope, and being appointed Ireland's director of Amnesty International. >>> By Angela Levin | Wednesday, May 20, 2009