The question was put to me by a U.S. archbishop. It was, of course, rhetorical. He knew we Christians really have nothing to be afraid of if we place our faith and hope in the gospel in the promise of Jesus Christ to be with his disciples to the end of time. On another level the question is anything but rhetorical. There appears to be a great deal that many Christians, and especially church leaders, are quite literally afraid of. This book is an attempt to answer the question, "What are we afraid of?" and to address the deeper questions, "Why are we afraid?" "Why is the institutional church so defensive?" "Why is it so controlling?" How is it that a church that is the bearer of the Word and the champion of the oppressed can maintain unholy silences while denying that obvious pastoral and ecclesial problems, indeed crises, even exist ?

"We are, in church and in society, in big trouble," writes the renowned scripture scholar, Walter Brueggemann. Few, if any, would question his judgment. In the pages that follow we will examine some of the issues and concerns that are both symptoms and causes of the present crisis-and especially the denial itself a symptom and a cause-which exacerbates the church's "big trouble." ...

The focus of the church's troubles in spring 2002 was first and foremost on the ever-expanding clergy sexual abuse scandal. In a number of ways it is unlike previous sex scandals involving priests, religious, and bishops. For one thing, it is unmasking a systemic or structural crisis that threatens the current lines of power that have gone unchallenged for centuries. This in itself is enough to make some prelates and clergy afraid, very afraid. Another is the Catholic anger rising from conservatives, moderates, and progressives alike against the duplicitous arrogance of some prominent archbishops and other church authorities. While angry with priest pederasts, Catholics are especially angry with bishops who have placed the resources of the church and the reputation of the priesthood ahead of the safety of children and teenagers. Added to the repressed anger large numbers of Catholics have been nursing since the publication of Pope Paul VI's anti-birth control encyclical in 1968 and the unrealized promise of the Second Vatican Council, the current rage is galvanizing the laity into a force to be reckoned with.

The laity, moreover, sense what many church authorities are reluctant to acknowledge-that the present troubles go well beyond the priest abuse debacle. Underneath the mushrooming scandals and the painful polarization shaking the confidence of the faithful, a church stands at the brink of destabilization. How could it be otherwise? A still feudal church struggles to meet the modern world as the modern world merges with post-modern currents of thought that threaten religious belief as we know it. We may not have reason to be afraid, but we have abundant reason to be anxious. And as history makes clear, where anxiety dwells, imagination shrivels, denial thrives, and control becomes obsessive. An anxious church bureaucracy displays precisely these characteristics- denial, legalism, controlling power, secrecy.

The abuse scandals of the past twenty years or so have served as the "tipping point" for a new era of Catholic life. What that life will look like will be determined in the years ahead. The thesis of Sacrcd Silence is that our first challenge is to break through the wall of denial and silence guarding the present ecclesial order. I argue in the pages ahead that we are in need of a brave, "redemptive honesty" if we are to move in the direction of a healthier holier church.