Sunshine for Women Book Summaries | Home

I didn't read all of this book - I just sort of browsed through it. So many books, so little time. -- Sunny

1.       "Sipe estimates that approximately 2% of those vowed to celibacy achieve it. Since 1960, twenty thousand priests have left the priesthood in the United States, the majority to marry. At any one time, 20% of priests in good standing are involved in sexual relationships with women; 8% are experimenting sexually, approximately evenly divided between heterosexual and homosexual activity; about 30% of priests have a homosexual orientation. About 50% of both homosexual and heterosexual priests practice celibacy.

         In the context of the Roman Church's prohibition on all forms of sexual activity for its ordained priesthood, a conspiracy of secrecy maintains the privilege and social esteem of the priesthood while permitting sexual activity. Moreover, since any and all sex is forbidden, there is no discussion of criteria for moral responsibility in sexual behavior. Given this situation, abuses are inevitable. A number of priests use their power and position to seduce women, children, and men who are led to expect from their priest the care of a loving father. Certainly, sexual abuse is not specific to Catholic priests, but its occurrence among a clergy pledged to celibacy and service to others strikes the North American public as a particular travesty when they read of such incidents in the daily newspaper." p. ix - x

2.       "Religious myth untempered by human reality begets irrational cult and anti-intellectual fundamentalism. Religious story not subjected to the crucible of reality becomes magic and superstition." p. xvii

3.       "Sex has always been problematic for the Roman Catholic church. In 2,000 years no Christian church has developed an adequate theology of sexuality -- that is, no one has worked out an overarching, comprehensive, and integrative understanding of the nature and place of sexuality within the scheme of salvation and theological system. Religious pronouncements on sex are ordinarily moralistic and marked by rhetorical, polemical, and highly charged emotional overtones designed to compensate for the essential lack of substantive foundation." p. 4

4.       "Cardinal Alfons Stickler, former director of the Vatican library, was quoted in the September 4, 1993, Tablet to the effect that the state of the church today is even worse than it was during the fourth century. That was a period when the sexual teaching of Christianity was solidified by such teachers as Saints Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine.

         Sex, pleasure, sin, and women were woven into a theological equation that solidified the celibate / sexual structure of the Roman Catholic Church and influenced every aspect of its development. Power was consolidated in sexual terms. That structure is crumbling under the weight of its own hypertrophy, if not corruption. Practical reality, scientific development, and spiritual awareness of the origins and meanings of sexuality, live, and love expose the inadequacy of the system to sustain its own stated goals." p. 6 [Sunny's comment - this guy lacks a clue. The church is sinking because it doesn't respond to the aspirations of its members (re contraception, role of women) and it lacks the secular power to enforce its will.]

5.       "The sexual behavior of priests must be understood against the clear and unbending sexual moral doctrine of Catholic Christianity, namely: Every sexual thought, word, desire, and action outside of marriage is mortally sinful. Every sexual act within marriage not open to conception is mortally sinful. Sexual misbehavior constitutes grave matter in every instance. No other area of moral life, including murder, is treated with this same moral rigidity. The majority of Catholics simply do not believe this teaching, nor do they think that natural law supports it." p. 7 [Sunny's note: I did the underlining. It was not until the middle of the 20th century that RC theology advanced to the point that sexual acts with marriage and that are open to conception were accepted as moral. Until that time, any sexual act not intended for procreation (a big difference) was considered sinful.]

6.       "Large numbers of Catholics simply do not trust the authoritative teachings of the Vatican in matters of sexuality. Contraception, abortion, remarriage after divorce, homosexuality, and masturbation -- all areas of strict prohibition according to Vatican teaching -- are tolerated as acceptable behavior by lay Catholics in roughly the same proportion as by members of other denominations that generally have much more liberal attitudes toward sexual behavior. Even acceptance of the ideas of married priests and female priests is widespread among both the laity and the clergy." pp. 7-8

7.       "In spite of all the good done by clergy for children there is an ancient awareness of the danger of and potential for the corruption of children. The Didaché, the oldest extant commentary on the gospels, dating from the early second century, clearly commands, "Thou shalt not seduce young boys" (Foucault, 1988, p. 232). The earliest church council for which we have any records, that of Elvira in 309, has 81 Canons, of with 38 deal with sex. The modern reader will find that some have a familiar and timely ring. among those who are threatened with irrevocable exclusion -- that is, they could not receive communion even at the time of death (nec in finem) -- are 'bishops, presbyters and deacons committing a sexual sin" (Canon 18),"those who sexually abuse boys" (Canon 71), and "people who bring charges against bishops and presbyters without proving their cases" (Canon 75) (Laeuchli, 1972, p. 47).

         John Cassian (365-435), who developed a coherent doctrine on chastity) published in the English language 1993), wrote, "Let no one, especially when among young folk, remain alone with another even for a short time, or withdraw with him or take him by the hand" (Foucault, 1988, p. 233)." p. 10

8.       "The most notorious example of an American priest sexual abuser is James Porter of Fall River, Massachusetts. His history reads like pages from the life of l'abbe de Sade and his nephew. At the same time the ecclesiastical system responded to Porter's sexual activity with clear echoes of Rousseau's experience -- denial, rationalization, coverup, and blaming victims. One priest who "saw" Porter rape a child defended him, when confronted by a parishioner, with the response, "Father is only human." " p. 11

9.       "Although a substantial number of priests have a healthy attitude toward women, the male celibate / sexual system functions with a deep ambivalence -- even hostility and fear -- toward them. The basis of this attitude is not scriptural, nor does it have a foundation in earliest Christian experience (see chapter 10). The subjugation of women did not evolve; the place of women was carved out and constructed by the assemblage of the celibate / sexual system (Duby, 1983; Fiorenze, 1992; Furlong, 1987; Miles, 1992; Noble, 1992). As the celibate / sexual system of power was forged during the third century, justified by Augustine's definition of original sin in the fourth and fifth centuries, consolidated in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and solidified in the sixteenth century, one can trace the progressive and massive idealization of the image of virgin / mother and the denigration of lover, wife, and sexual equal. The system could not endure or function in its current mode if the place of women within systemic functions were altered.

         Equality of women is the single most threatening factor to the homeostasis of the system as it now exists and operates. The crisis of priestly sexual abuse of children is only one link in a chain that exposes the sexual activity of priests and bishops who are bound by celibate law and who preach the celibate ideal. Hundreds of women are stepping forth to tell their stories of love affairs; of involvements in which they were used to help a priest quell his anxieties about his sexual orientation, comfort him while he ascended the lonely ecclesiastical ladder, and assist him in his struggle to grow beyond his emotional adolescence.

         These are by church definition sinful affairs, no matter how loving or how useful they eventually prove to be in the maturation of priests and their pastoral instincts. Women get used. By their sinfulness women can save priests. But priests can remain within the system and retain their power -- now purified -- while women retain their identity in the system as evil unless they are virgins, martyrs, or mothers. These are the only roles accounted worthy by nature and God's will.

         This idealization of virgin/mother and the denigration of women, however subtle (as the ultimate source of evil and death), are necessary to maintain the celibate / sexual system of power in the church, even if it is rejected by individual priests and churchmen. The place of women in the life of a priest is frequently conditioned by his relationship with his mother. The place of the priest's mother is often enhanced by devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary. This spiritual emulation tends to fixate the priest in the role of a son who is affiliated with a male-centered idolatry. Women are correct when the contend that this function in the church justifies men's right to dominate all women. The male child for whom mother is the center of the affective universe becomes very special in the real or imagined reciprocity of her love (Daly, 1985; Furlong, 1987)." p. 101 - 102

10.       "Yet only when the opinions of women are heard and heeded will the church develop a healthier mode of educating and evaluating its priests, and only complete equality will fulfill the Gospel message and reform the intellectual, theological, and practical abuses perpetuated by the celibate/ sexual system." p. 105

11.       "The current sexual abuse crisis in Catholicism has shattered the function of secrecy by which the church maintains its power. Accountability and secrecy cannot coexist. The church has never before been called to account for its sexual teaching and practice to the degree that it has at the present time." p. 108

12.       "Priests assume power within and because of a system that pretends that all of them are sexual virgins, that mandates a sexual morality that claims all activity outside marriage is cause for perpetual damnation, that teaches that masturbation is an intrinsically evil act, and that homosexual orientation is a tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil. Priests are different. The system makes them so in one of two ways. If they believe what the system teaches, they are men who can abandon their won judgment and minister without insight or compassion. If they do not believe what the system teachers, they use their own pastoral judgments that countermands official teaching -- a ministry marked by prudence and compassion. But even goodness must be a secret act -- one that unwittingly contributes to the preservation of secrecy.

          Jim Bowman, journalist and retired priest, writes eloquently of this latter group in his study of 34 Catholic priests to whom he posed 10 question. Five questions concerned sexuality: birth control, abortion, marriage after divorce, women, and gays; five questions concerned power and authority. He accurately titles the results of his conversations Bending the Rules: What American priests Tell American Catholics (1994).

          It is significant that most of Bowman's priests could speak freely only under the protection of anonymity for fear "of being penalized if their views and practices became known." An additional 18 priests refused an interview. The point is clear: even compassion, reason, and good judgment must be kept secret lest they disestablish and threaten the power and control of the system." p. 109

13.       "The question here is not the rightness of compassion but rather secrecy in the service of power and control." p. 110

14.       "A Catholic can be a member of the Ku Klux Klan and not be liable for excommunication, but anyone can be denied the sacraments for even driving a woman to get an abortion. What this says is that what moves the Catholic Church is an appetite for sexual repression that eclipses all its other priorities." p. 112

15.       "Women are dangerous. This myth is so deeply ingrained that it too has been canonized since the time of St. Augustine by the whole of Western theology. Priests are taught and teach that women constitute a danger. Women are held up as the greatest threat to priesthood and its celibate power." p. 120

16.       "The underlying structure of the celibate / sexual system has seven interlocking and mutually reinforcing elements that influence its function and form both the contour and the character of its power. These elements are blame, the superior group, power, subjugation, nature and God's will, sexual inconsistency, and necessary violence.

          BLAME: The first factor is the insistence on generic blame for perceived ills or evils. . . .

          SUPERIOR GROUP: The second element involves the proclamation of one superior group. . . .

          POWER: The third element reserves power for the designated pure group. . . .

          SUBJUGATION: The fourth element is the restriction or subjugation of the inferior group at the pleasure or for the use of the group in power. . . .

          The official church, the celibate / sexual structure in action, sits, like Pilot washing his hands. The claim is made that sexual abuse is the aberration of a deviant few. It is not. Sexual abuse of children, impregnation, abortion, seduction of minors, sexual involvement with adults by those who claim celibate status and privilege are manifestations of the deviation and distortion of spiritual service to a system of power that tolerates subjugation and restriction of the nonselect group at the pleasure of the select. . . .

          NATURE AND GOD'S WILL: The fifth element is the belief that the restriction of one group by the other is justified by an appeal to nature or God's will. . . .

          As the structure of the celibate / sexual system developed and ossified, celibate law and power were rationalized by doctrine, and the differences between men and women became hierarchic questions. The influence of the Malleus Maleficarum cannot be overestimated -- not merely because it was an officially sanctioned teaching, but because it compiled the judgment of the ages, from pagan authors through the early fathers of the church and the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. . . .

          Weininger's view of sex and character (the title of his 1903 treatise on gender), male and female psychology, and cultic purity was far more influential in the Catholic worlds of Italy, Austria, and Germany than were Freud's theories during the first half of the twentieth century. It was Weininger's answer to feminists, and it was embraced because it was part of a Catholic understanding of the sexes. 'However degraded a man may be, he is immeasurably above the most superior woman, so much so that comparison and classification of the two are impossible; but even so, no one has any right to denounce or defame woman, however inferior she must be considered' (p. 252). It is the 'ontological untruthfulness of woman' (. 264) that makes her so passive, so impressionable, so lacking in self-direction and needing man's guidance since women's standard of morality 'comes from without' (p. 269), a gift of man to her. Even woman's mysticism is dismissed as superstition; in religion as in other areas of life, 'she never has done anything of any importance' (p. 277)

          Weiniger poses the question of the meaning of male and female in the universe and comes to the conclusion, 'Women have no existence and no essence; they are not, they are nothing. . . . Woman has ho share in ontological reality, no relation to the thing-in-itself, which, in the deepest interpretation, is the absolute, is God' (p. 286). Man of course is capable of all things, genius is in his nature, he is capable of immorality. Woman is 'anxious' to be.

          Weininger also glorifies Jesus Christ who, by His celibacy, freed Himself from woman (and the feminine in himself) and, to Weininger, that other loathsome and despicable quality, Jewishness. he ennobles any man who eschews sex because it is dehumanizing:

    Coitus is immoral because there is no man who does not use woman at such times as a means to an end; for whom pleasure does not, in his own as well as her being, during that time represent the value of mankind. (p. 336)

          If man listens to woman he will be sexual and abusive.

    If he is going to treat her as she wishes, he must have intercourse with her, for she desires it; he must beat her, for she likes to be hurt; he must hypnotize her, since she wishes to be hypnotized; he must prove to her by his attentions how little he thinks of himself, for she likes compliments, and has no desire to be respected for herself. (p. 337)

          The only solution is celibacy: 'The rejection of sexuality is merely the death of the physical life, to put in its place the full development of the spiritual life' (p. 346)

          Although Weininger's verbalization would be consciously rejected, the essence of his message and logic is alive and well within the celibate / sexual system in Rome, in any diocese, or in official documents that deal with issues of gender or celibacy to validate the appeal to nature and God's will for the place of men and women in the order of things.

          SEXUAL INCONSISTENCY: The sixth element is that behavior condemned and found intolerable in the general population or among the subservient is tolerated or encouraged in a group of the select. . . .

          Some priests allege that there is a churchwide network of sexually active clergy who are bound together by their mutual knowledge of sexual activity either with others -- both male and female -- or with each other. . . .

          Over a period of 34 years I have had the privilege to review the stories of groups of priests from the same diocese or religious order -- priests who sometimes do not know each other and were never involved with each other. It is astounding how the same names repeatedly came up in their stories; the interlocking mesh that casts its net widely and into high places becomes undeniable. The situation could not exist without a tolerance for behavioral inconsistency aligned with power. . .

          NECESSARY VIOLENCE: The final element is that violence is accepted as necessary or inevitable in the establishment or the retention of they system. . .

          There is a direct connection with the consolidation of celibate law (1139) requiring its observance by all priests in the Latin rite and the tolerance of violence. In the Origins of the Crusading Ideal (1935, translated 1977), Carl Erdmann claims that Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) was also the greatest betrayer of the Christian ethic of peace:

    "The pope harmonized warlike practices with the ethical ideal of the church and gave his wars the spiritual character of crusade. He regretted bloodshed but found it justified at any time for his ecclesiastical aims and for the rights of the papacy. . . . More than anyone before him, he overcame the inhibitions that had once restrained the church from being warlike in preaching and warlike in action. . . . He was as much a warrior as a priest and politician." The result in Pope Urban II's First Crusade of 1095 was the most corrupting amalgam of all, a church-centered imperialism: "Urban II's idea of crusade did not arise from a concern for the Holy Sepulcher and pilgrimages. His original and primary basis was the idea of an ecclesiastical-knightly war upon heathens." (Cantor, 1991, pp. 403-404)

          With these eleventh- and twelfth-century developments, the celibate / sexual system had completely lost its gospel meaning of peace and poverty, which had been so energizing in the desert with St. Anthony and his followers. If had mutated far beyond any recognizable form from the vision and practice of Cassian and Benedict. it had distorted itself out of any shape envisioned by Augustine. Francis of Assisi and Dominic renewed the Gospel vision among small groups within a larger structure that was no longer free, no longer in the image of Christ, and burdened with a power and a mission even contrary to the Gospel. The celibate / sexual system became hardly distinguishable from secular power structures. . . The failure of the celibate / sexual structure to capture the spiritual force of celibate integrity in the service of power is apparent from history. its current operation is patently revealed in both its production of sexual victims and their treatment when they speak of their abuse. . . . .

          When I substitute Jew or homosexual for woman in the schema, I am struck with how everything fits with Nazi theory and practice.. . .

          I cannot forget that the people and forces that generated Nazism and the Holocaust were all products of one Christian culture and the celibate / sexual power system. " pp. 163-180

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