Celibacy in Crisis: A Secret World Revisited

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Overview

In the midst of the worst crisis the Catholic Church has seen in almost 500 years, this book challenges Catholic authorities to renew, rethink, or reform the long-standing institution of celibacy.

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Overview

In the midst of the worst crisis the Catholic Church has seen in almost 500 years, this book challenges Catholic authorities to renew, rethink, or reform the long-standing institution of celibacy.

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Editorial Reviews

Library Journal
A former Benedictine priest who is now a psychotherapist, Sipe spent 25 years studying the sexual conduct of Roman Catholic priests, particularly as it is framed by mandatory celibacy. The present book is a result of his study and updates his earlier A Secret World (1990). Sipe claims that the discipline of celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church is in crisis and that there are three components to this critical state of affairs. First, at any given time, Sipe estimates, 50 percent of the clergy is not observing the requirements of celibacy; second, church officialdom continues to impose a culture of secrecy, stonewalling a discussion of celibacy's disarray; and third, Catholic moral teaching on sexuality is based on patently false anthropology, depriving clergy of a moral doctrine in which they can believe and moral guidance that they can follow. Although Sipe's anecdotal style sometimes appears like keyhole peeking and his estimated levels of sexual misconduct will be challenged, this book will have a place in the current discussion of the form and future of the Catholic Church in the United States. Suitable for academic and larger public libraries.-David I. Fulton, Coll. of Saint Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780415944731
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis
  • Publication date: 10/28/2003
  • Edition description: New Edition
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 336
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Table of Contents

Foreword by Reverend Richard P. McBrien
PART I. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
1. WHY STUDY CELIBACY?
Sex/Celibacy: Breaking the taboo · The broader context · The study: what it is and what it is not · Reasons for this study
2. WHAT IS IT?
Factors of the Crisis · The meanings of celibacy · Abstinence · Law and ideal · Christ the ideal · Love · Definition of Celibacy
3. HOW DO THOSE WHO PROFESS CELIBACY PRACTICE IT?
Levels of Observation · Numerical Summary · Estimates of Sexual Behavior · Narratives

PART II. PRACTICE VERSUS PROFESSION
4. THE MASTURBATIONS
Nature · Pathology · Maturity and immaturity · Nocturnal emissions · Fasting · Spontaneous emissions · Vice and virtue · Guilt
5. PRIESTS AND WOMEN
The heterosexual presumption · Splitting and secrecy · Heterosexual relationships · Heterosexual behaviors · Patterns of association
6. WHEN PRIESTS BECOME FATHERS
Births · Abortion
7. THE HOMOSEXUALITIES
Homosexualities and the clergy · Denial of the homosocial structure · The male matrix · The system of secrecy · Developmental questions and variations · Alcoholism · Acquired immune deficiency syndrome · Homosexuality and mental health
8. SEXUAL COMPROMISES
What is normal? · The place of women · Fear of women · What is pornography? · Exhibitionistic behavior · Transvestism · Priests and animals · Suffering and sexual violence

PART III. THE HEART OF THE CRISIS
9. PRIESTS AND MINORS
What is pedophilia? · Frequency of Occurrence · Social ramifications of abuse · Causes · Avenues of access · Behaviors · Victims-the aftermath · Treatment · Awareness of the problem · The future
10. WHO ABUSES?
Psychological profile · Categories of vulnerability · Four case studies
11. CAN CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE BE PREVENTED?
Screening · Denial · Ecclesiogenic factors · Systemic elements · Mandatory celibacy · Ethical code · Impediments to ethical definitions · Elements of a code of sexual ethics

PART IV. PROCESS AND ATTAINMENT
12. LIVING WITH CELIBACY
What is the process of celibacy? · Developmental relationships · Internalization · Temporal stages
13. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF CELIBACY
Essential elements of celibate achievement · Who will follow? · The crisis of abuse
EPILOGUE: DIMENSIONS OF THE CRISIS The seven pillars of the crisis

References
 Index
Acknowledgments
About the Author

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