Can’t ask. Can’t tell.

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 5:11 pm By tmatt

If a Catholic child steals a candy bar, church doctrine calls this a small sin.

But if a priest embezzles a large amount of money, this act is much more serious — a sin that severely corrupts and threatens the soul.

Both of these acts involve theft, but Catholicism does not believe they have equal weight. They do not have the same “parvity of matter,” noted Father Donald Cozzens of John Carroll University, who once led a seminary in Ohio.

“It doesn’t help to look that up in a dictionary,” said Cozzens, whose recent books on the modern priesthood have generated both heat and light. “That’s a theological term that describes the relative gravity of immoral thoughts, acts or behaviors. There are different levels of honesty and dishonesty. There are levels of language and cursing.”

But when it comes to sex, there are no misdemeanors. Every “deliberate, willful sexual sin is, from the church’s perspective, a felony — a mortal sin,” he said.

This may sound trivial, but it isn’t for Catholics who worry about their church in an age of turmoil, tragedy and scandal. Cozzens is convinced that this basic question about the relative nature and consequences of sins must be discussed soon, before Vatican officials begin a long-awaited “apostolic visitation” of American seminaries.

Cozzens is known for asking questions that fray nerves on left and right. In the past five years he has described what he calls a thriving “gay subculture” in some seminaries. He noted that most cases of clergy sex abuse have involved “ephebophilia” with under-aged boys, not “pedophilia” with prepubescent children. He has detailed the impact of plunging Catholic birth rates — below two children per family — on parental attitudes about their children taking holy vows.

Now he is convinced that teachings about the “parvity of matter” are making it harder to tell the healthy seminarians from the dangerous ones. It is almost impossible to have candid conversations about sexuality, he said.

“This state of affairs is further complicated by the fact that, according to church teaching, no individual is to be compelled or asked to reveal the ‘state of his or her soul,’ ” he wrote, in a recent Commonweal essay. “As a consequence, the candid dialogue needed to form mature celibates is hampered and the specter of sin hangs heavy in the air. In such a climate, behavioral signs that might indicate future difficulties are often masked or simply missed.”

The logic is simple. If seminarians are struggling with sexual temptations, they know that these thoughts and emotions are just as sinful as the sexual acts, he said, in a follow-up interview. It doesn’t matter if the temptations involve children, teens or adults. If seminarians raise these issues in confession, they know that their superiors cannot mention these struggles in a setting that would threaten their ordination.

The result is a cloak of secrecy that covers discussions of sex. Professors cannot ask and the seminarians do not have to tell — in public.

Cozzens said he knows of cases in which “seminary faculty simple did not feel they could ask a seminarian, ‘Have you even thought about sex with a child?’ If they did that they would, in effect, be asking that man to betray his conscience in a setting that would kill any chance he had of being ordained.”

It is crucial to emphasize, he said, that raising questions about this “parvity of matter” issue is not the same thing as suggesting changes in the church’s core teachings about sex and marriage.

It is also possible to draw a line between this issue of sexual secrecy and related debates about mandatory celibacy and the ordination of homosexuals. Based on his work as a clergy vicar, Cozzens remains convinced that gay priests are no more likely to violate their celibacy vows than those who are straight.

But it is time for candid questions, he said.

“There are men who, quite frankly, are grateful for the current sexual climate in our seminaries,” said Cozzens. “It makes their efforts to hide a piece of cake. … If our teachings changed on sex and the ‘parvity of matter,’ there would be all kinds of questions asked that some seminarians do not want to answer — at least not in front of others.”

Layers of Catholic denial

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 3:56 pm By tmatt

Every day the headlines and cartoons seem to get worse.

Every night stand-up comics crank out more nasty one-liners.

So it’s sad, but not shocking, that a Catholic priest told the Boston Globe about a partygoer who dressed up as a pedophile priest at Halloween.

It’s open season. Even though priests know they shouldn’t take it personally, it’s hard not to, said Father Donald Cozzens, a veteran Catholic educator who led a graduate seminary in Ohio.

“It’s hard to imagine how this can end any time soon,” he said. “It’s incomprehensible to me that some people continue to believe that we have to be careful about talking about this crisis. There are people who are still afraid that honesty will do more damage than silence.”

Back in 2000, Cozzens published a book called “The Changing Face of the Priesthood” that openly discussed trends — such as the thriving gay subculture in some seminaries — that reached mainstream news reports during 2002. Now he has written a sequel entitled “Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church.”

Once again, it is tempting to focus on the sexual details in this ongoing scandal, which actually began in mid-1980s. But Cozzens said recent headlines must be read in a larger context.

News reports are “unmasking a systemic or structural crisis that threatens the lines of power that have gone unchallenged for centuries,” he said. “This in itself is enough to make some prelates and clergy afraid, very afraid. Another is the Catholic anger rising from conservatives, moderates and progressives alike against the duplicitous arrogance of some prominent archbishops and other church authorities.”

Underneath the fear and anger are deep concerns about changing times and statistics.

For example, one or two generations ago middle-class or poor Catholic parents were proud when one of their sons and daughters decided to become a priest or a nun. Today’s suburban Catholic reality is radically different. The numbers just don’t add up.

“We have known for some time now that the birth rate for Catholic families in the U.S. is less than two children (1.85), the same rate for families in general,” he noted. “It is likely, then, that many Catholic parents will have but one daughter. Parental support, let alone encouragement, for a daughter considering the religious life is likely to be weak.”

And the same is true for Catholic sons. As the former vicar for clergy in Cleveland, Cozzens knows all of the statistics about the falling number of American priests and the rising number of Catholics in their pews. He also knows that some dioceses are faring better than others and that, at the global level, vocations may actually be up.

Nevertheless, 6 percent of U.S. priests are 35 years old or younger. The age of the average priest is creeping closer to 60 and Cozzens believes the number of priests 90 years of age and older may soon be larger than the number under 35.

Anyone who studies modern Catholics must face other stark realities, said Cozzens. The number of single-parent Catholic homes is rising, with the rest of the culture, and approximately “half of the young men and women making vocational … decisions are doing so in an environment that has been marked by separation, divorce or death.”

Meanwhile, worship patterns are changing. A generation ago, 70 percent of U.S. Catholics attended mass each week. Today, about a third do so.

Is there a link between the size and shape of suburban Catholic families and the drop in the number of candidates for holy orders? Can these trends be reversed?

This leads Cozzens to other tough questions: Will the clergy sexual abuse crisis start a “domino effect” that combines with other trends to cause sweeping changes in the church? If so, what should those changes be? Perhaps married priests?

Two years ago, a Vatican archbishop told Cozzens that his work was raising eyebrows. Vatican insiders were convinced he was attacking mandatory celibacy.

“We cannot avoid that issue,” said Cozzens. “Truth is, we already have a married priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church, just not in the west. We may need to draw on the traditions of the Eastern Rite Catholics and the Orthodox, as well.

“But most of all, we can’t be afraid to talk about what is actually going on.”

For God’s sake, let’s tell the truth

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 3:56 pm By tmatt

Archbishop John Foley was speaking to an audience of Catholic communications officers and editors, so he made sure that he didn’t bury his most important statement.

The first principle of dealing with the news media, he told a Vatican conference in 2001, was simple: “Never, never, never tell a lie.” Then the president of the Pontifical Office for Social Communications offered more advice that would prove to be prophetic.

“Truth will always come out,” he said. “Failure to tell the truth is a scandal, a betrayal of trust and a destroyer of credibility. … So sacred is the responsibility to tell the truth that one must be ready to accept dismissal for refusal to tell a lie.”

Principles of openness and honesty were tested as never before during 2002 as another wave of scandal hit the Catholic Church. In the end, members of the Religion Newswriters Association selected the clergy sexual abuse scandal as the year’s most important news event. Four of the poll’s top five stories were linked to the scandal and Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston was named newsmaker of the year.

The RNA occasionally offers a dubious prize — its “Into the Darkness Award” — to the group that has done the most to hide information from the media and the public. This year, it was awarded to the American Catholic hierarchy.

“The institutional church is slowly learning that evasion and stonewalling and spin are not in its best interests,” said Father Donald Cozzens, author of “Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church.”

“After all that has happened during this year, isn’t it obvious that telling the truth is the best way to serve our people? It’s the best way to protect our children. It’s the best way to restore trust and regain our role as moral leaders. At some point we simply have to say, ‘For God’s sake, let’s tell the truth.’ “

Here are the top 10 stories in the RNA poll:

(1) For the third time in two decades, clergy sexual abuse shakes Catholicism. At the heart of this scandal are new revelations that many bishops have moved priests alleged to have abused minors from parish to parish without warning legal authorities and the faithful. Some bishops apparently have approved secret settlements to avoid disclosure.

(2) Cardinal Law resigns after rising protests by clergy and laity over his handling of abusive priests. Reports increase that the Boston archdiocese is considering bankruptcy, as the number of lawsuits climbs over 400. Sexual scandals claim several other bishops, including the liberal Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland.

(3) Controversy erupts as some evangelical s openly criticize Islamic doctrine, often quoting the testimonies of Muslims who have converted to Christianity. The Bush White House tries to keep its distance, as Franklin Graham says Islam is an “evil and wicked religion” and Southern Baptist leader Jerry Vines calls Muhammad a “demon-possessed pedophile.”

(4) U.S. Catholic bishops listen to the stories of abuse victims and then pass a “one strike and you’re out policy” against any priest who has abused a child. Five months later, the policy approved in Dallas is changed — on orders from the Vatican — to include church tribunals to hear the cases of priests who proclaim their innocence.

(5) The growing clergy sexual abuse scandal fuels the creation of new networks of Catholic laity, including the Voice of the Faithful, which draws 5,000 to a convention in Boston. The Vatican faces waves of protests from outraged Catholic conservatives as well as liberals. Support groups for victims surge with each new round of media coverage.

(6) In yet another church-state cliffhanger, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of programs that use government-funded vouchers to allow children to attend religious schools.

(7) A Circuit Court of Appeals judge in San Francisco causes a firestorm by ruling unconstitutional the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. The judge soon stays his own ruling to allow for an appeal.

(8) The National Council of Churches and other bodies on the religious left express their opposition to a U.S. invasion of Iraq. American Catholic bishops and a coalition of progressive evangelicals express similar concerns, asking if “just war theory” allows a preemptive strike.

(9) Palestinian gunmen take refuge in the Catholic and Orthodox sanctuaries of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, leading to a 39-day siege by Israeli forces. Suicide bombers and military actions continue throughout Israel and the West Bank.

(10) Scholars announce the discovery of a stone burial box bearing the words “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” Is this a 2,000-year-old archaeological breakthrough or a hoax?

Fathers, mothers & Catholic sons, Part II

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 3:49 pm By tmatt

Few Catholic boys grow up to be men of the cloth without drawing inspiration from their parish priests and receiving the blessing of their mothers.

Both halves of that equation have to work or the church suffers.

“When you talk about how young men enter the priesthood, you are talking about the future of the church,” said Father Donald B. Cozzens, former vicar for clergy in the Diocese of Cleveland and then rector of a graduate seminary in Ohio. “At some point, it becomes terribly important what Catholic parents — especially mothers — think of their priests.”

Find a young priest and you will almost always find a find a mother who wanted him to be a priest, like the priests she has known and trusted.

That’s how it’s supposed to work. Several decades worth of sex scandals involving clergy and children — usually teen-aged boys — have not helped. But there are other tensions, as well. In his influential 2000 book, “The Changing Face of the Priesthood,” Cozzens pleads for frank talk about other painful issues, as well as the sexual abuse of young males.

Priests face skyrocketing demands on their time as church membership rises and the number of priests declines. Priests live and work under the microscope, yet they also report feeling isolated from their flocks and from each other. Lately, Cozzens has been hearing about priests who — lashed by scandal and suspicion — have stopped wearing clerical clothing while not “at work.” The stares and whispers are too painful.

And there is another sexual secret that is making these issues harder to discuss, he said. In his book’s most quoted chapter, Cozzens cites reports claiming 50 percent of U.S. Catholic priests are gay, with the numbers higher among those under 40 years of age. This “gay subculture” grew in the past three decades, as 20,000 or more priests left their altars to get married.

Cozzens is not opposed to celibate gays being ordained and he thinks most priests — gay and straight — are serving the church faithfully and keeping their vows. Nevertheless, he is convinced this gay subculture is affecting who is becoming a priest and who is not. Why is this?

In previous generations it was homosexuals who often felt alone and out of place in Catholic seminaries, living in a shadow culture. Today, discreet networks of gay priests thrive in seminaries and dioceses from coast to coast, said Cozzens. It’s common for heterosexuals to feel confused, misunderstood and left out. Many question their calling and flee.

Meanwhile, he said, it’s “likely that gay priests will be encouraging, consciously or unconsciously, more homosexually oriented men than straight men to consider a vocation to the priesthood. Conversely, homosexually oriented men considering a priestly vocation will be especially drawn to a parish priest who happens to be gay.”

Cozzens said the “likelihood exists that like will be drawn to like.” Once again, he said he does not believe gay priests are more likely to break celibacy vows than are straight priests.

It’s also past time, he said, for Catholic leaders to start talking about how the changing face of the priesthood is affecting relationships between priests and parents. It would help to stop and consider a mother’s point of view.

“Perceptive mothers may sense that something is different about the pastor … who happens to be gay,” Cozzens noted. “They may indeed like and respect the priest, but find they are not comfortable in encouraging their son to consider the priesthood.”

This attitude shift is especially significant when combined with a major statistical change in Catholic life. In the past, when large families were the norm, it was a matter of pride to have a son enter religious life. But what if most Catholic families contain only one son?

“When it has become normal to have two children or less, you are not going to find many parents who are encouraging a son — especially an only son — to become a priest,” said Cozzens. “They want him to get married, to have grandchildren and carry on the family name. …

“So there are fewer sons and there are more mothers who are asking hard questions.”

Fathers, mothers & Catholic sons, Part I

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 3:49 pm By tmatt

The Chicago news was full of sex, children and Roman collars.

This wasn’t part of the first national “Sins of the Fathers” furor in the mid-1980s. This was the early 1990s and the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago eventually opened its files on all 2,252 priests who had served in the previous four decades. The powers that be hunted for pedophiles and they found one.

The key word is “one.” One priest had been accused of assaulting a prepubescent child. The other allegations involved priests and sexually mature, but under-age, adolescents — mostly boys.

“Those Chicago numbers are not unusual. This is, in fact, part of a pattern we see in diocese after diocese,” said Father Donald B. Cozzens, former vicar for clergy in Cleveland and then rector of a graduate seminary in Ohio.

“Of course, any abuse of children is horrifying and it is just as wrong — morally and legally — when sexual abuse occurs with teen-agers. But it isn’t helping matters, right now, for people to keep blurring the lines between these two conditions. This isn’t just about pedophilia.”

Debates about sexuality and the priesthood will only heat up, if that is possible, now that a crucial Vatican voice has spoken. A close aide to Pope John Paul II told the New York Times that it’s time to slow or even stop the flow of gays into the priesthood. “People with these inclinations just cannot be ordained,” said psychiatrist Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

Cozzens stressed that he agrees with researchers who believe sexual orientation is irrelevant in discussions of pedophilia. But what if pedophilia is not the issue?

By definition, pedophiles are sexually attracted to boys and girls who have not reached puberty. But Cozzens said reports he has studied, and his own experience as a counselor, indicate the more common problem among Catholic clergy is “ephebophilia.” This is recurrent, intense sexual interest in post-pubescent young people — teen-agers.

The term “ephebophilia” is rarely used in church debates and the press. Yet, Cozzens said that whenever clergy vicars held conferences 90 percent of the sex-abuse cases they discussed fell into this category. Church authorities are reluctant to investigate this reality.

Why this conspicuous silence?

“Perhaps it is feared that it will call attention to the disproportionate number of gay priests,” wrote Cozzens, in his influential “The Changing Face of the Priesthood,” published in 2000. “While homosexually oriented people are no more likely to be drawn to misconduct with minors than straight people, our own experiences was clear and, I believe, significant. Most priest offenders, we vicars agreed, acted out against teenage boys.”

In his most controversial chapter, Cozzens quotes reports claiming about 50 percent of U.S. Catholic priests are gay, with the numbers higher among priests younger than 40. Talk of a “gay subculture” grew in recent decades as 20,000 men left the priesthood to get married.

The seminary climate changed – radically. Cozzens cited a survey in which 60 percent of one seminary’s students identified themselves as gay, 20 percent were “confused about their sexual identity” and 20 percent said they were heterosexual.

Cozzens concluded: “Should our seminaries become significantly gay, and many seasoned observers find them to be precisely that, the priesthood of the 21st century will likely be perceived as a predominantly gay profession.”

This is the proverbial elephant in the sanctuary that few bishops want to discuss.

Cozzens said that, along with many other researchers, he does not see a direct link between homosexual orientation and sexual abuse. Yet the cloud of secrecy and denial that swirls around the gay subculture makes it hard to discuss urgent issues — such as ephebophilia.

“Pedophilia is a totally different kind of sickness and it can’t really be treated,” he said. “You simply have to do what you can to help the abuser and then make sure all future contact with children is cut off. There is no other way. …

“But there are many bishops out there who, for a variety of reasons, have been convinced that priests can be successfully treated and reassigned to other parishes if the sexual contact was with teen-agers. Now, that belief is being shaken.”