No topic has generated as much controversy and division within the Catholic Church as the issue of human sexuality. For centuries the faithful have wrestled with the seemingly inherent conflict between doctrinal edicts and human eroticism. Persuasively arguing that all aspects of our God-endowed human nature should be celebrated, Kennedy urges the institutional church to move beyond bureaucratic stasis to reestablish a healthy pastoral dialogue regarding all aspects of human sexuality. The subissues addressed in a thoughtful and provocative manner include the institutionalized subjugation of women, the enforcement of clerical celibacy, sex outside the confines of marriage, and birth control and abortion. Kennedy, a psychologist and former priest, insists that in order to remain viable in the twenty-first century, the Church must breach the artificially imposed gulf between sexuality and spirituality. Margaret Flanagan
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Review
"How often can one speak of a book on Catholicism as brave, bold, searching, passionate, compassionate, and, not least, well-written?" -Norman Mailer
"With a masterful blend of poetic and decisive articulation, Kennedy fearlessly and insightfully exposes the many symptoms of the sexual wound." -Chicago Tribune
"Persuasively arguing that all aspects of our God-endowed human nature should be celebrated, Kennedy urges the institutional church to move beyond bureaucratic stasis to reestablish a healthy pastoral dialogue regarding all aspects of human sexuality." -Booklist
"I know of no recent book on the Church that deserves a wider readership than Eugene Kennedy's The Unhealed Wound. It celebrates the reality of the Church as Mystery, but also exposes and examines the pain caused to so many by the Church as bureaucracy or institution." -Rev. Richard P. McBrien, author of Lives of the Popes
"The Unhealed Wound will be a source of healing and liberation." -National Catholic Reporter
"This valuable and needed book shows that doctrine has psychological roots and consequences, and that what is often considered as merely an ecclesiastical fear of sex can become, in fact, an attack on love, which is at the heart of the Christian religion." -Garry Wills, author of Papal Sin
About the Author
Eugene Kennedy is an award-winning author, syndicated columnist, and professor emeritus of psychology at Loyola University of America. He and his wife, Sara Charles, M.D., live in Chicago
