Goodbye Father The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church

by Schoenherr, Richard A.; Yamane, David; Hoge, Dean R.

• ISBN13: 9780195175752
• ISBN10: 0195175751
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-02
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In the last half-century, the number of Catholic priests has plummeted by 40% while the number of Catholics has skyrocketed, up 65%. The specter of a faith defined by full pews and empty altars hangs heavy over the church. The root cause of this priest shortage is the church's insistence on mandatory celibacy. Given the potential recruitment advantages of abandoning the celibacy requirement, why, Richard A. Schoenherr asks, is the conservative Catholic coalition--headed by the pope--so adamantly opposed to a married clergy? The answer, he argues, is that accepting married priests would be but the first step toward ordaining women and thus forever altering the demographics of a resolutely male religious order. Yet Schoenherr believes that such change is not only necessary but unavoidable if the church is to thrive. The church's current stop-gap approach of enlisting laypeople to perform all but the central element of the mass only further serves to undermine the power of the celibate priesthood. Perhaps most importantly, doctrinal changes, a growing pluralism in the church, and the feminist movement among nuns and laywomen are exerting a growing influence on Catholicism. Concluding that the collapse of celibate exclusivity is all but inevitable, Goodbye Father presents an urgent and compelling portrait of the future of organized Catholicism.

Author Biography

The late Richard A. Schoenherr was a member of the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. David Yamane is Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame.

Table of Contents

Preface	1	(4)
Prologue: Four Funerals	5	(6)
PART I Bill Thompson: America's Worst Mayor
From Home on the Range to Hat in the Ring	11	(7)
The Playboy as Politician	18	(9)
To Hell with the People	27	(16)
America First	43	(26)
PART II Frank Hague: America's Second Worst Mayor
Bad Boy or Momma's Boy	69	(11)
Mayor of an American City	80	(16)
To Make His Daddy Happy	96	(13)
PART III Jimmy Walker: America's Third Worst Mayor
Politician and Legislator	109	(14)
Mayor of a City That Never Sleeps	123	(14)
The Mayor and the Inquisitor	137	(24)
Scandal: The Decline and Fall	161	(14)
PART IV James Michael Curley: America's Fourth Worst Mayor
The Making of a Political Boss	175	(13)
The Mayor of the Poor	188	(25)
Winning Isn't Everything --- It's the Only Thing	213	(28)
Epilogue: The Paradox of Political Corruption	241	(12)
Notes	253	(10)
Further Reading	263	(2)
Index	265