Books
Cozzens breaks unholy silence
SACRED SILENCE:
DENIAL AND THE CRISIS IN THE CHURCH
by Donald Cozzens
Liturgical
Press, 160 pages, $19.95
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REVIEWED By CANICE
CONNERS
Donald Cozzens has a fine, friendly way of defining the context
and content for long-delayed conversations among Catholics. Sacred
Silence renews this advocacy as did his popular The Changing Face
of the Priesthood. This time around, he begins with a sturdy three-legged
stool for sitting down and settling in.
His introduction culls pertinent pieces from the writings of
Walter Bruegemann, tapping our prophetic imaginations in this place of
dislocation; soundings from René Girard analyzing the two faces of the
sacred; and Steven Cohen’s assessment of the slippery dynamics of denial.
“Whenever we employ denial and silence out of fear or anxiety, we sin
against faith. The very institutional postures we assume to guard our faith
expose our lack of faith.”
Safely seated and challenged by faith, Cozzens lays out the
discussion topics: sacred oaths used as assurance policies; voices of women,
barely audible in not-so-sacred-silence; the diminishing ranks of religious and
clergy, also known as the vocation crisis; the abuse scandal; clerical culture;
gay men in the priesthood; and ministry and leadership. As in his first work,
the final chapter is a well-crafted, comprehensive reprise of the seven topics,
all ready for reflective sacred silence and charitable discourse.
Five of the warm-up chapters effectively identify the what and the
why that has prompted denial by employing materials rounded up from the
expected sources, including NCR. All is at hand for pertinent, possibly
even calm exchange.
In sharp contrast, materials on the abuse scandal are so shrill
and strident that any function as conversation starters is stunted. With good
reason, Cozzens warns us that minimizing the devilish evil of abuse has been an
abhorrent habit of some church officials. Yet might it not also inhibit
compassionate conversation to indulge in maximizing?
Recent attempts to do the “head count” in each diocese
have not yielded a statistic more than 1.6 to 2 percent of the clerical
population. What end is served by upping the “estimate” to between 7
to 10 percent? Part of the difficulty here, as was true in Chapter Seven of his
first work, is a questionable reliance on A.W. Richard Sipes’
self-confessed use of “guerrilla statistics.”
While correctly pointing out that no research on the topic has
been done -- and for the nasty reasons he correctly identifies -- why use
inflated estimates and anecdotal surmises to ratchet up the drama of the
discourse and possibly intensify the frenzy? Where is the evidence that John
Geoghan’s abuse count is typical of priests who have been treated over the
past 25 years?
To take the extreme cases as typical of the population of abusers
fails the test of fairness. Would it not help our grasp of the situation to
include the powerful stories of the many who have made the journey of
conversion and who are inaccurately described as continuous abusers? It is
right, just and proper to indict the church leaders who have called down the
wrath of God on the media for “creating” the crisis but would it
discourage honest discourse to at least raise the question of what end was
served by the daily recycling of incidents that are 20 years old as if they
happened during the past week?
In Chapter Eight, Cozzens presents a more balanced discussion on
gay men in the priesthood than that previously offered. A new study by Dean
Hoge that is on the way to print (appearing in November) will offer data useful
to a discussion of “gay subcultures” in the seminaries and the extent
to which they destabilize the environment for heterosexual candidates.
James Alison’s sensitive Faith Beyond Resentment:
Fragments Catholic and Gay might also contribute to a broader approach to
this well documented arena of denial.
In his wind-up pages, Cozzens concocts six possible outcomes that
might eventuate from his proposed discussions. Such optimism is worth the price
of the book. “For we, in this age,” Cozzens writes, “as in ages
past, possess the abiding wisdom of the Spirit. It is time to draw on that
wisdom and break the present, unholy silence.”
Amen to that, Don. Somehow I wonder if a few sentences citing some
“best practices” might help this common hope. How about Fr. Philip
Murnion’s Common Ground gatherings or Bishop (now Archbishop) Harry
Flynn’s graced effort in restoring hope to the folks of Louisiana or (fill
in the blank)?
Conventual Franciscan Fr. Canice Connors is a psychologist and
president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men.
National Catholic Reporter, September 13,
2002
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