St. Anthony Messenger Book Reviews
(“Freeing Celibacy” by Fr. Donald Coszzens)

IN HIS LATEST book, Freeing Celibacy, Father Donald Cozzens offers a cogent examination of the Catholic Church’s perennially perplexing question—the required celibacy of its priests. And the solution he provides is brilliant in its simplicity: Since celibacy is a gift freely given by God, it should be optional, not mandated.

Father Cozzens, who is presently director of religious studies and writer in residence at John Carroll University in Cleveland, is well suited for this task. A priest for 40 years, he was formerly rector of St. Mary’s Seminary in Wickcliffe, Ohio, a vicar of diocesan priests, a professor, psychologist and theologian. He is also the author of three excellent books: The Changing Face of the Priesthood, Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church and Faith That Dares to Speak.

Writing with courage and compassion, Father Cozzens never sounds shrill or confrontational. Instead, in a quiet, thoughtful voice, he offers a reasonable solution to a many-faceted problem for today’s Church.

With disarming candor, he declares, “There is something sexy about celibacy.” Then he proceeds to discuss the contemporary fascination with celibacy among the public, who see the priest as being “off limits, yet with a spiritual aura making him safe to approach, safe to reveal.”

More significantly, Father Cozzens suggests that mature, healthy celibates—both those in the priesthood and those in the laity—possess the compelling attraction “that comes from the contemplative center of the soul—the only place where people come to be at home with themselves....”

For those gifted with the charism, it is a blessing, it is their truth, and the key to their spiritual freedom. But for those normal healthy men who lack the charism, it is a burden, which can become a silent martyrdom.” As one priest sadly remarked, mandated celibacy costs “not less than everything.”
In his thoroughgoing but highly readable account, Father Cozzens discusses priestly celibacy in all its aspects: its history, obligations, exceptions, shadow, power, oppression and the issue of homosexuality.
Early in the Church’s history, priests, bishops and even popes were allowed to marry and have children. In fact, not until the 12th century did the rule change, but only for priests of the Latin rite or Western Church. To this day, Byzantine, Coptic and Maronite clergy can be married, as can priests of the Anglican/Episcopalian Church who have converted with their families to the Roman Catholic Church.

Christianity, Father Cozzens declares, has long been suspicious of sexuality (see the writings of St. Augustine), recognizing that, although its expression in marriage is sacramental, sexuality can also be demonic. Hence, Church authority concluded that celibacy was appropriate for those who spoke for God and for the Church, and who held the power to forgive sins and excommunicate rebels.

Celibacy provides the institution with power. “Control another person’s sexuality, and you control his center of vitality, the core of his identity and integrity. And many priests take on the resentment and immaturity of adolescents, obsessed with what is forbidden, waiting for opportunities to break out and experiment. Ecclesial power exercised as command, and control no longer works for thoughtful, reflective, adult believers. It may have worked in earlier eras during the feudal structure of the Church, but it doesn’t work today.”
In suggesting the benefits to the Church of having a married clergy, Father Cozzens touches on the power of women. “What it desperately needs is the voice and influence of the feminine, embodied in the lives of today’s women of the Church. A married clergy would bring us closer to that reality.”

He concludes with an audacious suggestion: “It is reasonable to wonder if Church authorities reacting to the clergy abuse scandals would have responded more pastorally and less corporately had they been parents and grandparents themselves....”
Noting that the “shadow side of celibacy is loneliness,” the author concludes, “If we concede that celibacy is a charism, a free gift from God, then mandated celibacy is an oxymoron.”
Father Cozzens has produced another book in which his fresh viewpoints, his clear affection for his Church and his compassion for those he serves demand serious consideration by bishops, priests and lay readers.

Reviewed by ARLINE B. TEHAN, the author of Prince of Democracy: The Life of James Cardinal Gibbons (Doubleday) and a longtime book reviewer for the Hartford Courant in Connecticut.
FREEING CELIBACY, by Donald Cozzens. Liturgical Press. 115 pp. $15.95.