Goodbye Father: The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church [Hardcover]

Richard A. Schoenherr (Author), David Yamane (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0195082591 | ISBN-13: 978-0195082593

In the last half-century, the number of Catholic priests has plummeted by 40% while the number of Catholics has skyrocketed, up 65%. The specter of a faith defined by full pews and empty altars hangs heavy over the church.
The root cause of this priest shortage is the church's insistence on mandatory celibacy. Given the potential recruitment advantages of abandoning the celibacy requirement, why, Richard A. Schoenherr asks, is the conservative Catholic coalition--headed by the pope--so adamantly opposed to a married clergy? The answer, he argues, is that accepting married priests would be but the first step toward ordaining women and thus forever altering the demographics of a resolutely male religious order.
Yet Schoenherr believes that such change is not only necessary but unavoidable if the church is to thrive. The church's current stop-gap approach of enlisting laypeople to perform all but the central element of the mass only further serves to undermine the power of the celibate priesthood. Perhaps most importantly, doctrinal changes, a growing pluralism in the church, and the feminist movement among nuns and laywomen are exerting a growing influence on Catholicism.
Concluding that the collapse of celibate exclusivity is all but inevitable, Goodbye Father presents an urgent and compelling portrait of the future of organized Catholicism.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In Full Pews and Empty Altars (1993), Schoenherr and Lawrence Young produced the definitive demographic study of the American Catholic priesthood of the late 20th century. Schoenherr planned the present work, written in 1995, as a follow-up study. After his death in 1996, the manuscript was given to his former student Yamane (sociology, Notre Dame Univ.), who made editorial revisions and arranged for its publication. The book's premise is that the decline in the number of priests is the engine driving the social forces creating pressure for structural change in the Catholic Church. Schoenherr argues that the Church needs to lift its ban on ordaining married men-a move he sees as the inevitable result of irreversible historic trends. Such a transformation would serve to strengthen "authentic religion" within Catholicism and would dismantle one of the strongest supports for patriarchy in human society. Though the ideas here will be controversial among Catholics, this is an important study and one of the stronger books to take on this subject in the past year. Recommended for all seminary and academic libraries and for most public libraries.
David I. Fulton, Coll. of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"As convincing in its analysis as [Full Pews, Empty Altars] was in its statistics."--Garry Wills, The New York Times Book Review

"This book will bring rich rewards to all who delve into its pages and ensures that Richard Schoenherr will be remembered as one of the truly prophetic social scientists of the study of the priesthood."--National Catholic Reporter

"[Goodbye Father] concerns much more than an argument about who should be ordained; his significant scholarly reflection on the interplay between religion and modern society deserve serious study....Exceptional is Schoenherr's analysis of the social conditions that are changing the face of Roman Catholicism and virtually every dimension of ministry."--America

"Richard Schoenherr was a first-rate social scientist with a first-rate grasp of the inner workings of the Catholic Church and especially its priesthood. In Goodbye Father, Schoenherr has left us a rich and lasting gift which illuminates many of the issues that continue to challenge and vex the Church. Its wisdom and insights mark a clear path toward their eventual resolution."--Richard P. McBrien, Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame; author of Catholicism and Lives of the Saints

"Goodbye Father is Richard Schoenherr's masterpiece, and a remarkable last will and testament that bears light into the contemporary discussion of celibacy for priests, scattering the darkness so that we may pause, lower our defenses, and begin to grasp the complexity of this issue and its relationship to institutional Catholicism. This book is as calm, steady, and courageous as Richard Schoenherr himself was as it strikes off the chains of our preconceptions, freeing us to learn from a master teacher. This book is indispensable, a great gift to this very moment in which this searching light scans every dimension of the subject without raising the heat."--Eugene Kennedy, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Loyola University of Chicago; author of The Unhealed Wound: The Church and Human Sexuality

Richard Schoenherr tackles one of the most important questions facing today's Catholic Church: How much longer will the Church be able to maintain a priesthood that is exclusively celibate and male? Part heartfelt theology, part hard-nosed sociology, part hopeful manifesto, this book's answer will please some and dismay others, but no one interested in the future of the Church should ignore it."--Mark Chaves, author of Ordaining Women

"Goodbye Father is a timely book. It builds on Richard Schoenherr's 1993 study of the declining numbers of the Roman Catholic priesthood, Full Pews and Empty Altars. It takes that book the second step with an analysis of the sociological and structural patterns that either promote or impede a transformation in the Catholic Church toward a new model of priesthood that can include women and married men. For Schoenherr only such a transformation can really respond to the present crisis of the priesthood." - Rosemary Radford Ruether, author of Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195082591
• ISBN-13: 978-0195082593
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,721,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Looks at Big Picture, January 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Goodbye Father: The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church (Hardcover)

Goodbye Father: the Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church" by the late sociologist Richard Schoenherr deserves a lot of praise for its brilliant analysis of the priest shortage, present and future. But the real value of the book, in my opinion, is its insistence that the shortage cannot be viewed as some interesting but isolated phenomenon. As David Yamane, who took over the editing of the book after Schoenherrs untimely death, notes in the Introduction, the shortage is only one manifestation of a whole network of interacting trends pressing for change in many directions. Here are the others:
* A decline in dogmatism and a rise in pluralism of world views.
* A demise of the cultural control that developed out of the churchs European and Western origins.
* Doctrinal changes coming out of Vatican II, particularly those that have weakened belief in the absolute superiority of celibacy as a way to holiness.
* The erosion of male control over church ministry, largely due to the feminist movement, especially among nuns and laywomen.
* Increased lay participation in ministerial and sacramental roles.
* A growing recognition of the "saving power" of the Scriptures.

In other words, the book analyzes how all these trends are working together and argues that isolating one or the other and working on it alone is not going to get the church out of the mess it's in. It's a heavy read but I don't see how any thoughtful person can dismiss its overwhelming logic.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful to More Than Catholics, March 4, 2003

By 

Dean Ryerson (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goodbye Father: The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church (Hardcover)

Not coming from a Roman Catholic tradition, I've been intrigued by the debate surrounding the celebacy of the priesthood and the male exclusivity of the clergy. After all, other denominations have moved ahead, not without struggle to be sure, but moved nonetheless, to model what it means for all of God's people to have a place at table, and to officiate in the offerings that the table provides.

Richard Schoenherr's "Goodbye Father" provides powerful insights to those of us laypeople who struggle with one's appropriate role in the church, and who are looking for a deeper analysis of this religious tradition.

In his discussion of why dropping celebacy will happen prior to changing the patriarchy of the ministry, Schoenherr defines how the embeddedness of patriarchy, the decline of that partriarchy in other denominations, and the depth of the debate about marital-status exclusivity contributes to his thesis. That discussion provides clues into the struggle the church faces, but also gives hope that the stance on celebacy can change.

That today's issues are now indicative of Schoenherr's predictions demonstrate the wisdom with which the author presents a significant contribution to the role of men and women in the church. This book deserves a read by anyone concerned about those roles, regardless of the denominational background of the reader.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Schism alert, June 27, 2008

By 

John Tuturice "John Tuturice" (Central Falls, RI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Goodbye Father: The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church (Hardcover)

A strong and well honed intellect draws good conclusions only when there is a solid foundation. In the case of this work, and really any other work that advocates ordaining woman and, to a lesser extent lay participation in the governance of the Church and married clergy in the Roman rite, the ground work of possible future schisms is laid. And over what? Interestingly enough, it is often over temporal power, the same thing that the advocates of women ordination and lay governance often claim they are trying to overcome.

In considering "change" in the Catholic Church, a few core immutable truths must be acknowledged in order to come to an appropriate decision.

1) The Catholic Church is a Theocracy, with Jesus Christ as the head and the pope as His representative on earth. She is not a democracy, a republic, a dictatorship, a communist nor a socialist organization.

2) As a Theocracy, with the Jesus Christ, who is perfect truth, as its head, it is to be noted that all truths communicated to humanity either by word or action are perfect in all respects and are, therefore, not subject to error.

Using some of this foundational information, once can conclude that the ordination of women to the ministerial priesthood is a theological impossibility. Meaning, even if a valid bishop lays hands on a woman and says the proper words and has the intent to ordain her a priest, it will not happen. Why? It is simple. All sacraments require form, intent and matter to be administered. For example, in baptism, there is the form (I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), the intent (to baptise someone) and the matter (the water and the person being baptised). In a priestly ordination, the form is the words of ordination, then there is the intent on the bishops part to ordain that person a priest and then there is the proper matter in the validly ordained bishop and a male participant.

Why must a priest be male? This goes back to foundational point number 2. Everything Jesus communicates to humanity via word and example is perfect simply because He is God. Therefore, if Jesus only ordains men into the ministerial priesthood, then it is communicated through Jesus's words and example that only men can be ordained as priests. A reading of Ephesians 5:21-33, in conjunction with the foundational understanding that an ordained priest is an "altar Christus", reveals a far deaper meaning to the all male priesthood in light of salvation history.

As to the celibate priesthood, I suspect many here and in the US in general are ignorant of the fact that there are already married priests in the Catholic Church. Most of the eastern rite churches in union with Rome, such as the Melkites, permit a married clergy, specifically marriage before ordination. There are about 22-23 Churches in union with Rome. The largest church in union with Rome is the Latin Rite Church. It is in the Latin Church that there is a longstanding tradition that the ministerial priest be celibate all the better to more perfectly immitate Christ in form and function per the instruction of St. Paul (i.e., it is better to be an enuch for the kingdom of God). That said, as it is a dicipline, the Chuch has granted exceptions in the Latin Church for married Anglican clergy who convert to Catholicism and are ordained priests. Currently there are a little over 100 married priests in the Latin Church.

As to lay governance, one must refer to point number 1. The Church is a Theocracy and should not be confused with other political bodies. Keep that in mind and one can more readily see the limitations on lay governance in the Catholic Church.

God bless