In Commemoration of Death of Richard Sipe in August 2018, a Revised Copy of "Clerical Spirituality and the Culture of Narcissism"

A resource I'd like to bring to your attention: in commemoration of the anniversary of Richard Sipe's death on 8 August 2018, those who continue maintaining his website Celibacy, Sex & Catholic Church have uploaded a revised copy of the very important study entitled "Clerical Spirituality and the Culture of Narcissism" that Richard Sipe, his wife Marianne Benkert, and Thomas Doyle wrote in 2013.

The revised copy of this important document is here. The screenshot at the head of the posting is from Richard Sipe's website.

Ruth Krall, Historical Meandering: Ideologies of Abuse and Exclusion (1)

Vasily Polenov, Le droit du Seigneur (1874) (i)

The essay by Ruth Krall that follows below is the fifth in a series of essays entitled "Recapitulation: Affinity Sexual Violence in a Religious Voice." The first essay in this series appeared in two installments, here and here. The second appeared in another two installments, here and here. The third essay is here, and the fourth essay, in two installments, is here and here. In this multi-part series of essays, in which Ruth generously offers us the fruits of her years of research about these matters, Ruth hypothesizes the endemic nature of religious and spiritual leader sexual abuse of followers. The current essay continues this theme by arguing that clergy sexual abuse is a global public health issue whose noxious presence can be found inside multiple language groups and national identities. In this essay, which is rich and lengthy and which I'll offer to you in several installments, Ruth continues her investigation of these claims with an historical sounding. Ruth's essay follows (first installment):

Father Tom Reese's Prediction for 2019: Catholic Church Will Loosen Celibacy Requirement for Priests — My Response

The series that Religion News Service is now running with predictions of what will happen in the world of religion in 2019 from various religion gurus in the U.S. has a statement by Father Tom Reese entitled "Catholics will loosen up on clerical celibacy — but for real thi …" Father Reese notes the growing shortage of priests in Catholic communities around the world (a problem that has been with the Catholic church for quite some time now), and predicts that there will be a loosening of the requirement that priests vow themselves to celibacy as a way of addressing this crisis.

Daughter of Argentinian Priest Speaks Out: "When Carlos Gamboa and the Church He Represents Talk About 'Yes to Life,'" What Do They Mean by That?

The following is the testimony of Agustina Maria Gamboa Arias, a young woman who was fathered by — but never supported or acknowledged publicly by — an Argentinian priest, Carolos Gamboa, who recently went on Argentinian television to speak out against a bill to legalize abortion, stating, "Every life is worthy," and that all children who are alive deserve support:

James Alison on Homosexuality Among the Clergy, the Anatrella and McCarrick Stories, and the Trap of Clerical Dishonesty

Someone else who understands and has recently commented on the significance of the Anatrella (and McCarrick) story for those trying to revive the gay-bashing "lavender Mafia" theme about gay clergy and gay bishops in the Catholic church: the gay priest-theologian James Alison. Here's his recent commentary in The Tablet, entitled "Homosexuality among the clergy: caught in a trap of dishonesty":

Questions from a Ewe Responds to Archbishop Chaput About Excluding the "Irregular" from the Sacraments: "Here's What I Suggest. Walk Up to Your Local Priest and Ask about His Sex Life"

In recently published commentary on Archbishop Chaput's newly released guidelines to deal with "irregularities" in dispensation of the sacraments in his archdiocese, the blogger writing at Questions from a Ewe notes with her usual panache and verve that it's exceedingly odd that Chaput is concerned with "irregularity" of a sexual sort — well, with some folks' "irregularity — when it's well known that 50% of U.S. Catholic priests and an even higher percentage than this in other parts of the world are sexually active. All those priests are, in other words, leading the kind of "irregular" lives for which Archbishop Chaput wants to bar only openly LGBTQ Catholics and divorced and remarried Catholics not living together as brother and sister from the sacraments.

Leah Mickens: "Reason Why Feminists and LGBT People Get So Much Crap from the Hierarchy and Their Conservotrad Enablers Is Because They Demand Honesty in Sexual Issues"

Brilliant commentary from Leah Mickens of the blog Extra Ecclesiam Est Libertas: Leah's writing in response to my previous posting today, which ends by pointing readers to a surrealistic conversation the blogger who maintains Questions from a Ewe had recently with several African priests about matters of priestly celibacy (they don't necessarily heart it) and the synod and holding the line on the gays and divorced folks (they do heart holding that line).

People Talking: Rush Does Not Heart Francis, Women and Catholic Church, Catholic Hospitals, Dolan and Gays, Vatican Questionnaire

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I've been busy of late counting Samuels and chasing Nathaniels (more on that later, perhaps), and have fallen behind in blog-reading. I've fallen behind in reading blogs that comment on the news more than report it. As I catch up today, I thought I might share with you some of what I've been reading. Many of these pieces provide interesting perspectives on stories we've already discussed here:

Jamie Manson on the "Dark Side" of Proposals to End Mandatory Celibacy: Whither Gay Priests?

To my mind, the operative paragraph in Jamie Manson's recent wise warning to Catholics in favor of the option of married clergy to consider a possible "dark side" of revising the mandatory celibacy requirement is this one: