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Goodbye Father

The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church

by Richard A. Schoenherr

  • Paperback
  • 320 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • 14.4 x 22.6 x 1.8 cm

£24.61

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For Catholics seeking insight on church reform

Addresses the shortage of priests due to celibacy

You will understand the future of the Catholic Church

Goodbye Father explores the urgent need for reform in the Catholic priesthood.

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In the last half-century, the number of Catholic priests has plummeted by 40 per cent while the number of Catholics has skyrocketed, up 65 per cent. 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.
Goodbye Father and Fully Alive
Fully AliveGoodbye Father

  • Title

    Goodbye Father

  • Author

    Richard A. Schoenherr

  • Book Format

    Paperback

  • Publisher

    Oxford University Press

  • Published

    August 2004

  • Weight

    409g

  • Page Count

    320

  • Dimensions

    14.4 x 22.6 x 1.8 cm

  • ISBN

    9780195175752

  • ISBN-10

    0195175751

  • Eden Code

    1190493

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