A Church Divided

By Terrance Sweeney

Book Overview

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879757353
• ISBN13: 9780879757359
• Release Date: March 1992
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 229 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The Church by the Numbers

There are several very real problems in the American Catholic Church today. Many Catholics resent the way that the Church in Rome feels it has a right to intrude in the private lives of parishoners. Americans question the authority of the Pope and have been voting with their feet. Attendance at mass and participation in confession has dropped over the last 30 years and there is an increase in the the inability to attract and retain priests. Apparently since 1965, more than 19,000 priests in the United States and 100,000 priests worldwide have married, including the priest that baptized our daughter. Catholics in increasing numbers are supporting the idea of female clergy and rejecting celibacy as a requirement to be a priest. A typical Jesuit, Sweeney is a scholar and as such has taken a scholar's approach to this subject. He sent out a survey to the American Bishops and more than half responded. Because the responses would upset the beliefs of the hierarchy of the Church he was ordered to destroy them. The fact that someone did not like what the survey said does not make it false, and destroying the survey does not eliminate the problems in the Catholic Church. This is a well-designed, thoroughly researched, and nicely laid out sociological study that highlights the fact that there is a divide in the Church, one that potentially could tear it apart. The summary of the data of the surveys Sweeney sent out and additional surveys by others indicate that between 60 and 70 percent of bishops surveyed in the United States and Canada would approve of celibacy being optional for male priests. Additionally, 50 to 60 percent of these bishops would approve of allowing women to become deacons. Hiding these opinions as the Church wished Sweeney to do would neither change them nor solve the problems revealed by such surveys. Sweeney's personal life since he was discharged from the Society of Jesus has no bearing on these results. Like any human, he must seek a useful and fulfilling life. His work as a priest was taken from him, and so he has had to move on. The compilation of data still stands as valid, and should thoroughly concern those who are interested in the future of the Catholic Church. It would appear that the Church has learned little since the days in which it punished Galileo for reporting what he observed about the structure of the solar system.