Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church

Sacred Silence is a book about failed leadership in the Catholic Church. Donald Cozzens looks at various challenges and the scandal gripping the Church and offers an historical overview of our church leadership. He explains how the misplaced loyalties of those in leadership positions created the current crisis.
Cozzens clarifies why bishops and church authorities think the way they do and why the ecclesiastical system might be the real villain in the abuse scandal. With compassion and understanding Cozzens answers the why of the present and past leadership failures and proposes a new direction.
Chapters in Part One: Masks of Denial are "Sacred Silence," and “Forms of Denial.” Chapters in Part Two: Faces of Denial are “Sacred Oaths, Sacred Promises,” “Voices of Women,” “Religious Life and the Priesthood,” “Abuse of Our Children,” “Clerical Culture,” “Gay Men in the Priesthood,” and “Ministry and Leadership.” The chapter in Part Three: Beyond Denial is “Sacred Silence, Sacred Speech.”

History

Donald Cozzens

World

Liturgical Press

"Would removing the celibacy requirement really eliminate priest pedophilia?" “Won't tough corrective measures such as a ‘zero tolerance policy’ only exacerbate the priest shortage?” These questions reflect the kind of concerns many of us are thinking and talking about lately. Despite the ongoing media coverage of sexual impropriety in the Church, there is relatively little known about sexuality issues involving priests. Sex, Priestly Ministry, and the Church provides an objective and authoritative account of psychosexual development in priests and key background information on the many sexual issues facing the Church today. It is a concise, comprehensive, one-of-a-kind resource of the most current information needed to understand these sexual issues and controversies and make reasoned, responsible decisions.
Chapters under Part I: Essential Facts: Psychosexual Development are “Sex and Sexuality: Everything You Need to Know,” “The Process of Psychosexual Development,” and “Sexuality, Intimacy and Celibacy.” Chapters under Part II: Essential Facts: Sexual Misconduct are “Determinants of Ministry Health and Sexual Misconduct,” “Abusiveness and Sexual Misconduct,” “Narcissism, Sexuality and Sexual Misconduct,” and “Priest Sexual Misconduct with Children, Adolescents and Adults.” Chapters under Part III: Pressing Sexual Issues are “Selecting Suitable Candidates for the Priesthood,” “Homosexuality and the Priesthood,” “Decisions About Removing Priests,” and “Preventing Sexual Misconduct in Ministry.”

Sex, Priestly Ministry, and the Church

Religion & Spirituality

Sperry, Len

Christian Books & Bibles

2007 Catholic Press Association Award Winner! 
Mandatory celibacy for Latin rite Catholic priests has been the norm for almost 900 years. Now the clergy sexual abuse scandal and the rapidly declining number of priests have pushed many of the faithful to the point of questioning this tradition of the church. To this sometimes tense discussion of sex and power Donald Cozzens brings his signature calmness, his own gifted experience of celibate life, and his talent for distilling the spiritual truth of the human condition.
Cozzens explores priestly celibacy as source of power and burden of obligation, as spiritual calling and gift of the Spirit. Putting mandatory celibacy in historic perspective, he examines the ancient and contemporary experience of married clergy in the Eastern churches and the Roman rite church. It is time, he concludes, to set celibacy free from canonical mandate to become what it is meant to be: a graced way of life for some but not all of the church's ordained ministers.

Freeing Celibacy

The Cardinal's Assassin

"The third suspense novel following Bishop Bryn Martins encounters with a cabal of conservative Catholic clergy and prelates and their hired assassin Giorgio Grotti"--

In Extenso Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Donald Cozzens. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Donald Cozzens

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Donald Cozzens. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church

Sex, Priestly Ministry, and the Church

Freeing Celibacy

The Cardinal's Assassin