The Unhealed Wound: The Church, the Priesthood, and the Question of Sexuality

Kennedy discusses a problem in the Catholic Church which has been evident for centuries. How does a religion based on love involve itself with extreme violence toward women (witch hunts), control of men and women through terrorism (the Inquisition), and the mutilation of children (the castration of boys)? Yet according to official church policy there is no problem at all. If there is no problem then are serial murder, mutilation and torture are acceptable religious practices?

The Unhealed Wound is not just about human sexuality and the church. It gets deep into the sexism of the church. It is a much-needed book! Kennedy shows that the Catholic Church has historically practiced extreme sexism and continues to do so. This church desires to exercise total institutional control of women. It accomplishes this through a number of tactics. He quotes researcher A. W. Richard Sipe that this control is expressed "in the restriction or subjugation of the inferior group at the pleasure or for the use of the group in power..." He points out that this denomination prefers to ordain openly professed homosexuals as priests than to ordain a woman, primarily because the priest is supposed to be representative of Jesus and female differ so much physiologically from Jesus. The author begins the book by examining the way the public opinion of priests has changed over the past century. They were once regarded as clean and pure. They were highly respected. They exercised great power and control over people, even nonbelievers. But in the last century, they have fallen from this high standing within society. Today, they are most often disregarded. Often, they are met with disdain. The Catholic Church has lost the primary source of its power.Kennedy has utilized his investigative journalism skills to dig up lots of dirt on the church. Things such as the church changing death certificates of priests that have died with AIDS to cover their sexual problems. He exposes numerous cover-ups and immoral activity by the church. This is a must read! Every church official, regardless of denomination, should be required to study it. Every woman should own a copy and read it aloud to the men in her life: father, husband, boyfriend, boss, and so forth. It is high time for the world to hear this message and force the officials to deal with the issues presented. I recommend this book to everyone.Eugene Kennedy is a professor emeritus of psychology at Loyola University of America, a syndicated columnist, and an award-winning author.

I am a parish priest and I have taught in seminaries .This book is so needed. It's brave and solid as it addresses the RC theological poverty in the area of sexuality. Kennedy goes for the jugular - ie power and control motivation at the heart of the church's official position , dysfuction and immaturity in the clerical world. John

"The Unhealed Wound : The Church and Human Sexuality" by Eugene Kennedy is a very well written historical exposition and elegant human reflection on the Mystical Church vis-a-vis the Institutional Church. The Church of Mystery focuses on the celebration and sharing of one's special gifts to support the expansion of the "Good News" while the Institutional Church focuses on the control of its membership to preserve its organizational power structure. This book is on the recommended reading list for the "Sex, Gender, and Spirituality" course in the Institue for Pastoral Studies, at Loyola University Chicago. According to the Mustard Seed Bookstore manager, it was the best book on the supplementary reading list. He was correct!Beginning with the 1880's, Kennedy provides a brief but mesmerizing historical development of the American Church showing the tension between the intellectual and spiritual reflection on Jesus' mission and the dogmatic and curial sanctions placed on theologians. Did you know that "Fighting Father Duffy" was a Theology professor before he was a chaplain?The purpose of Kennedy's book is certainly not to wallow in his leaving the priesthood. He just doesn't leave us in the muck and mire to sympathize with those who have been victimized by insensitive members of the hierarchy. His purpose is to focus on our mystical and spiritual gifts with which we have been graced. His invitation is to all hierarchy, clergy, religious and laity to listen to one another, to offer each other the gifts of the Spirit as St. Paul encourages us to do, and to implement those promtings wherever they take us. Kennedy suggests what some might consider 'revolutionary' options for healing our wounds, such as sharing responsibility and recognizing the Word of the Lord where we least expect it, not in dogma, but in each other.

It is unfortunate that Eugene Kennedy is identified as "a former priest" on the book jacket, because this gives those who disagree with him a reason to reject the truthfulness of anything he has to say (as one reviewer has already done). Such a review says more about the reviewer than about the writer. Eugene Kennedy is no newcomer. He was commissioned by the National Council of Catholic Bishops, in the early 1970s, to coordinate a pyschological study of the American Catholic Priesthood. When his research lead to conclusions contrary to those that were hoped for, the study was not given official approval. Before that, he was best known for FASHION ME A PEOPLE and COMFORT MY PEOPLE, two books in which he tried to address some of the sexual issues in the lives of priests and nuns--issues, by the way, that are still relevant in the present work! For anyone who has lived the Catholic experience for the past forty years, the truth of much of what Kennedy writes is painfully obvious. He carefully distinguishes between the Church as Institution (Beauracracy) and the Church as Mystery (People of God). It doesn't take reading Eugene Kennedy to realize that there is a very real difference between these two forms of Church. He is insightful when he points out that the sexual issues that await healing by the Church as Institution are issues that have already been resolved by the Church as Mystery. Anyone who hears confessions today can tell you that. The people who ARE the Church have no problem with the idea of a married clergy, or with divorced and remarried Catholics being readmitted to the Sacraments. For most lay Catholics, birth control is a dead issue! Real healing of these wounds is needed. The current paralyzed leadership is not up to the task. They will not bite the hand that feeds them. It will take a Pope John XXIV. Let's pray he's waiting in the wings!