Goodbye Father : The Celibate Male Priesthood And The Future Of The Catholi

Table Of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Part I Celibacy, Patriarchy, And The Priest Shortage
1 Celibate Exclusivity Is The Issue
2 Compulsory Celibacy And The Priest Shortage
Part II Social Change In Organized Religion
3 Toward A Theory Of Social Change In Organized Religion
4 The Transpersonal Paradigm
5 The Special Character Of Organized Religion
6 Forces For Change In Catholic Ministry
Part III Conflict And Paradox
7 Unity And Diversity
8 Immanence And Transcendence
9 Hierarchy And Hierophany
Part IV Coalitions In The Catholic Church
10 Bureaucratic Counterinsurgency In Catholic History
11 Priestly Coalition
12 Prophetic Coalition
Part V Continuity And Change
13 The Collapse Of Celibate Exclusivity
14 Goodbye Father

Additional Info
Description
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.