Rating: 
Summary: Great investigation, Optimistically bizarre solution.
Review: The principal thesis of the author is that many Catholic priests who are high in the seminary hierarchy are homosexual and misuse their authority by turning away or otherwise making life at the seminary quite unpleasant for any heterosexual. The 'Lavender Mafia' as the author refers to them. The incidents recounted range from the scandalously ludicrous--as when the entire assembly is admonished to please keep away from the gay bars they've been frequenting---to the downright criminal. And in many cases both; as when an ex-seminarian sues for "Consumer Fraud". (i.e; he alleges that the seminary falsely represented itself as "Catholic." ) and wins an out of court settlement. Other points are that 'heterodoxy' is being taught openly at these institutions. Once again, examples range from the sad to the unintentionally comical, e.g; a 'Native American Liturgy' in which mass is celebrated beginning with the following prayer: "We greet you, Great Spirit of the Earth. . .And the Grandfather Sun . . .The Grandmother Moon". Needless to say this was NOT attended by any native Americans, it was made up by the faculty of the seminary, who must have been smoking something a wee bit too organic while watching some 'chief' on TV at the World Wrestling Federation. And you thought Protestants were flaky. The author concludes that these actions serve to discourage the orthodox "Good Men" and is the true cause of both the current shortage of priests as well the sexual scandals and cover-ups which have exploded on to the front pages. While he admits that Rome has investigated the matter over the years, he maintains that the seminaries put up "Potemkin Villages" for the papal visitors. His solution? Follow the example of the successful dioceses and their leaders who emphasize "Zeal for Catholic orthodoxy...prayer...active involvement in pro-life efforts... evangelization, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Unfortunately, this is a bit naive. Catholic orthodoxy has changed as far as the majority of American Catholics. Please note that the average family does not consist of 9 plus children, unlike say, Guatemala. If a couple wishes to get married, the priest will conduct an interview. Among the euphemistic questions asked will be something to the effect 'And if God blesses you with children do you promise to raise them Catholic?' ( There's a right and a wrong answer to this and if you can't guess which, please do not pass on your genes ) Not ONE priest in a thousand will ask: 'Now see here you're not going to use any artificial contraception, are you? Because if you do, the wedding's off.' The author thinks he is is a conservative, which is true but he's actually to the right of the center. Many Catholics and virtually all non-Catholics have no idea just how nutzoid the true right and left wings of the church are; with people who would cheerfully exhume Pope John the 23rd' s corpse and burn it at the stake for the sin of Vatican 2, to the other side, who embrace 'Liberation Theology'( Ad Majorem Gloria Lenin) with a violence that would have put Che Guevara to shame. There's no way to bring back what he thinks are the good old days by any sort of admonition. We are a hierarchical Church, so unless the word comes from above, who is going to reform the seminaries? the " Lavender Mafia" as it sees the error of its ways? Mr. Rose, who predictably dismisses the case for ordaining women or removing the requirement for celibacy in the Latin rite as unworthy of discussion (those liberals, you know) should note that the party line to the question "Can a gay man become a priest?" is an unequivocal "Yes, if he remains celibate." Why? Is this less preposterous than women priests or artificial contraception? Neither the Boy Scouts of America (who as the author notes, ban gay men from being Scoutmasters) nor St. Paul who (well, we all know his views ) would agree. Can a homeless pauper become a priest? Huh? It's a non-issue these days but back in the 10th century it was very germane, since priesthood provided a lucrative living.
Perhaps we should re-examine some basic assumptions, that are NOT dogma. As for the rest, if your parish priest is over 50, ignore Vatican 2 and greet him with a "Dominus Vobiscum", it'll make his day.
Rating: 
Summary: Unfortunately not the whole truth
Review: Someone described this book as lurid - it is. In fact it is quite disgusting in parts to read about so many strange relationships that priests get involved in. However, Rose is not addressing the whole issue here. There are as many heterosexual priests who engage in relationships with women, and some even have children with them. Is this a better situation? I don't think so, but Rose does not mention this. These heterosexual relationships are also 'secret' and frequently abusive. The problem for the Catholic Church is celibacy, not liberals. Rose wants to put across his own agenda, and he does, but he does not want to address the whole truth. No mention is made of the damage to the priesthood by the abuse of women by many priests who cut and run when the going gets tough. Rose and others like him who still want to contain the entire truth will ultimately do more damage than good.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Treatment of a Nasty Subject
Review: Rose does an excellent job of conveying the depths of the problems in the American seminary system, with a few well placed barbs thrown at the Europeans for good measure. Despite a mild tone of defensiveness (well warranted), he manages to convey a sense of gravity that is almost balanced by optimism. The book is an engaging read; you can polish it off in not much more than an afternoon. Certainly it is not prohibitively lengthy. I have since passed the book along to a friend, and hope that he has since done the same. Enough time has passed since reading it that I no longer have the urge to follow Call-to-Action types around and pin green-scapulars to their backs when they're not looking. But I remain troubled by the portrait Rose paints of the extent to which reform becomes permissiveness, licentiousness, and finally depravity. As counter-reformers, we should take note of the perils encountered by the Left in their zeal to remake the Church into a secular-humanist social club. I'm holding out hope that Rose will next set his crosshairs on Catholic education for the laity, and send a few well placed salvos into Notre Dame & University of Dayton.
Rating: 
Summary: Goodbye, Good Men
Review: An excellent book and long overdue. Some may complain it is lurid. It is lurid. The facts are lurid and disgusting, in terms not only of sexual behavior but also in terms of the heretical inclinations of too many seminaries. Michael Rose has told the truth. He deserves our thanks. I llok forward to his next book and intend to catch up on his previous works.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent & accurate
Review: I was in a Roman Catholic seminary and I recognized every negative thing this book says from first hand experience. I'm glad somebody finally wrote this book.
Rating:
Summary: Disconcerting to say the least.
Review: This book is a bearer of bad news, and I found it nearly depressing. It may come across as a Catholic version of conspiracy theory, but it will at least provide food for thought. What it does not do is provide any concrete solution to the problem. If this issue matters to you, you are then left to observe the world around you and move on your own. And, it must be said, there is a lot of controversy around how thorough/correct/selective/honest Rose was in assembling this book. My reply to this is that if the events and practices he describes are true, but are in fact the only instances of the problem, then there is still cause for alarm. If you think he's speculating, fine, ignore the speculation, but there's still a massive problem.
Rating:
Summary: Old news to some of us
Review: Nothing in this book shocked me, and I'm not a seminary insider. I just attended Catholic churches and elementary and secondary schools in the '80s and '90s and came to expect heterodoxy from clergy and lay administrators in Catholic institutions. This book might be enlightening to people who are loath to believe that not everything stamped Catholic can be trusted to lead anywhere near Christ, but to me it read more like mere elaboration on all the seedy things many people long knew or suspected had been happening. If you don't need any more righteous indignation at the moment, you might skip it.
Rating:
Summary: Relevant Conclusion, But Presented To The Point of Overkill
Review: As Michael Rose points out in the forward to Goodbye, Good Men, there is clearly a problem with the American Catholic priesthood. Rose spends the rest of the book laying out the case that this problem is caused by liberal priests and laity who have made a concerted effort to ordain only those individuals who do not display "orthodox" tendencies. With the information and anecdotes that he provides, it's hard to dispute Rose's thesis. However, Rose goes overboard in presenting his information. He too often veers toward the sensational, displaying the need to present yet another story about either homosexual seminarians or heretical teachers. As an ironic result, this information ends up desensitizing the reader instead of startling them. I thought the book could've ended around page 130 and the thesis would have been adequately substantiated. However, Rose went on for another 150 pages. As a result of this decision, Rose undercuts the power of his argument by drowning the reader in the lurid. In taking the sensationalist path, Goodbye Good Men suffers from that most tragic of book maladies: a great idea that is ineffectually presented.
Rating:
Summary: Sloppily written truth
Review: First, let me say what in my opinion is wrong with the book. I found the style awkward and in a couple of cases outright ungrammatical. Also, I found it to be National Enquirer-esque in tone.
Yet I give it four stars! How could I have given such a not-very-well-written book such a high rating? This was a well-organized, well-researched, painstakingly honest effort. It paints a picture of the sad state of the seminary scene, starting from the "selection process", continuing with the tricks used to drive out men who have the capacity to be good priests. Indeed, "Goodby, Good Men" is the name of the game as it was (is?) played. Everything I read in this book was confirmed by first-hand accounts I have heard by men victimized by the corrupt system.
This book is not fun to read. As a work of art, it doesn't cut it. But it blurts out the truth. This is a book worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Gets to the core of the Priest Shortage
Review: At the dawn of the 21st century the Catholic Church in America faces many challenges. Most notable among these are the shortage of priests and the revelations of horrendous sex scandals and attempts to cover them up. The Church, it can be said, is in crisis. This crisis calls for a solution. The popularly held belief is that priestly celibacy and the male-only priesthood form the root of this problem. It makes sense, after all. How better to answer the shortage of priests and the sex scandals but to open the priesthood to a wider range of candidates? Isn't it obvious that an all-male, celibate priesthood no longer works? No so, argues Michael S. Rose in Goodbye Good Men. To the contrary, he forcefully argues that there exists an abundant supply of "good" men who are both psychologically and emotionally balanced and also willing to accept the rigors of traditional priesthood. The problem, as this book forcefully argues, is that these good men are being rejected by a system that wishes to do away with the traditional priesthood. Goodbye Good Men relies heavily on interviews with numerous seminarians and priests who relate their experiences during the formation process. Rose weaves their stories into a tale which outlines how a system has been established to discourage and weed out all orthodox thinking. In a nutshell, the book argues that those in the Church who are charged with fostering vocations are those who are most opposed to them. And whether by design or not, the result of their work has been to decimate the priesthood to the point of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. The gatekeepers to the rectory work to weed out those who accept the traditional priesthood and then turn around and claim that the traditional approach is not working. Rose also goes on to examine places where a more orthodox approach has been taken to the formation process. Here, vocations are not only alive and well, they are thriving. Undoubtedly, Goodbye Good Men will begin a long (and, I would hazard to guess vocal) discussion about how the Church has been handling priestly vocations over the past 30 years. Whether you agree with the traditional priesthood or not, this book is required reading for any who wish to understand and address this issue. For Catholics, if you care about the future of your Church, this book is a must read.
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