Rating: 
Summary: An Honest Look At Problems Too Long Avoided
Review: There are many problems facing the Catholic priesthood today - one could speak of a crisis. Silence and denial are the usual clerical responses to the issues. Donald Cozzens has taken the road of speaking out honestly. That will be resented by many and seen as betrayal by some. But Cozzens clearly loves the priesthood and the priests who at great cost to themselves have done and will continue to do enormous good. As a former diocesan and seminary administrator, a counselor, priest, and teacher of pastoral theology and psychology, one who has been reflecting for the last twenty years on the challenges facing the modern priest, he deserves to be heard. The real hope for the future rests on facing the challenges and issues squarely, and on taking an unblinking look at what threatens the integrity and mission of priests today. His topics include priestly identity, integrity, celibacy and intimacy, psychological complexes, maturity, preaching, homosexuality, pedophilia, and a hopeful look toward the future. The press has focused on the sexual issues, but the need for personal integrity is perhaps more basic. It was undoubtedly a painful book to write and can be painful book to read, but ultimately its honesty about the issues and its affirmation of the priesthood give hope. His adapting of Freud's Oedipal Complex to analyze priestly psychology may be his most original contribution but the one to which particular objection will probably be made. This is a well written and important book for anyone concerned with the future of the Catholic clergy.
Rating: 
Summary: An Honest, Loving, yet Critical Look at Priesthood
Review: When I heard Donald Cozzens speak about a year ago, he started off his talk by saying something to the effect of "Some of you may have heard I wrote a book and you know about chapter 7. There are other chapters as well." Chapter 7 deals with sexual orientation and the priesthood and at the time, it got quite a bit of press coverage. The heart of the book went largely ignored. Interestingly he even included a chapter on clergy sexual abuse, why it needs to be addressed and how it can be remedied, but the interest in this chapter was scant as compared with the chapter on sexual orientation. Many of the issues covered were hardly as sensational. Other reformers had called for optional celibacy. Others studies noted the discontent in priesthood or the identity crisis facing many in the priesthood. Still, many who read this work believed it could not be ignored. Fr. Cozzens was after all, a former seminary rector, charged with the responsibility of training priests. He should know, shouldn't he? Shouldn't his words be acknowledged as accurate? Interestingly, in January 2002, when the clergy sexual abuse crisis hit the front pages of newspapers, and rumors people believed to be malicious turned all too often turned out to be true, many realized that Fr. Cozzens book was not a critical look at ministerial priesthood, but rather prophetic. Cozzens book is important to the debate on how the priesthood needs to be reformed. His words are impassioned, but not biased. He clearly loves his priesthood, but knows that the ministry of a priest is far more important than clinging to models which may be impractical and ideals which may be impossible to attain. His book is not one that offers simple solutions, but rather challenges a person to examine the priesthood and the Church itself with the goal of saving, and not destroying and institution through which many find Christ.
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