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

Eugene Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312266375 | ISBN-13: 978-0312266370 | Publication Date: May 4, 2001 | Edition: 1st

Kennedy, a psychologist, former priest, and a leading Catholic author and scholar, addresses one of the most compelling yet undiscussed issues in the Church: human sexuality. The Unhealed Wound is a penetrating and insightful study of the unresolved conflicts Catholics face regarding both their sexuality and spirituality, deep conflicts which grow more and more serious as they remain unaddressed within the Church.

He astutely yet respectfully takes to task a faith that—despite the reality of erotic love as a natural and human aspect of life itself—condemns birth control, marriage for priests, and sex outside of marriage. The Unhealed Wound also examines the Church's formidable hierarchy, challenging those clerics who uphold papal edicts unthinkingly. Articulately postulating our need not only to understand but celebrate our own sexuality, this book will engender both controversy and heated dialogue among today's scholars, students, and believers of Catholicism.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Catholic Church has not yet learned to speak gracefully and truthfully about sexuality, according to Eugene Kennedy's The Unhealed Wound. Kennedy's book blends history, psychology, theology, and journalistic storytelling in a sophisticated and humane analysis of where and how Catholic teaching about human sexuality has gone wrong. Teaching that flesh and spirit are locked in a battle with each other, the Catholic Church has treated human sexuality as a bane of human existence, not a gift from God. The Unhealed Wound argues that Catholicism will have a hard time righting its teachings because so much of its power as an institution depends on keeping its members in "a frightened and dependent state" regarding their own sexual impulses: "This emphasis on power diminishes [Catholicism's] true authority to help ordinary men and women put away childish things and grow up even by small steps.... the way, imperfect but tolerant of failings, we become human." --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The Catholic Church has been pilloried aplenty in modern times for its teachings on birth control, priestly celibacy and a male-only priesthood. Kennedy, a psychologist and former Catholic priest, adds his voice to the jeering in this indictment of the Church of Rome. Kennedy argues that Catholicism suffers from a gaping wound because of its alleged failure to deal with sexual intimacy in its midst. Besides opposing artificial contraception and requiring priests to be unmarried males, Kennedy says the Church has failed its people by labeling as sinful all sexual activity outside marriage and deeming homosexuality an "objective disorder." He claims the Church is willing to look at intimate human experience only through its own "distorting lenses," but he fails to point out that other churches with a traditional view share many of Catholicism's positions on sexual behavior. Kennedy also criticizes the Vatican for what he says is its unwillingness to publicly discuss the celibate, all-male priesthood and for mishandling pedophilia scandals. Kennedy maintains that celibacy is a means "to master... men" through controlling their sexuality, and he traces the pedophilia problem to the immature sexual development of priest perpetrators. Readers who are unhappy with the Church's stances on human sexuality will find a sympathetic ear in Kennedy, but little in the way of realistic, constructive solutions.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (May 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312266375
• ISBN-13: 978-0312266370
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,269,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Prophet is Accepted in His Own Land, May 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Unhealed Wound: The Church, the Priesthood, and the Question of Sexuality (Hardcover)

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!

45 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars for Kennedy's "The Unhealed Wound!", August 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Unhealed Wound: The Church, the Priesthood, and the Question of Sexuality (Hardcover)

"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.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Author says much that needs to be said but needs an editor, October 29, 2002

By 

Bob Masullo (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unhealed Wound: The Church and Human Sexuality (Paperback)

Kennedy, of course, is faulted by fundamentalists (both Catholic and non-Catholic), for saying up is up and down is down. But their criticism is foolish, and when examined, really unchristian. In this book Kennedy says what is so obvious it should be written in neon: the institutional church (not the real church, the people) has a hang up on sex. It cannot heal this sexual wound because it will not admit it exists. Amen. He is right, absolutely. My only objection is with his writing style. Run-on sentences are the norm. Parenthetical thoughts abound. But read through them. The message is worth the effort.