Catholic Priests and the Matter of Sex

Philip McCosker is Director of the Religion and Theology research program at the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry of Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. He is also a Fellow of St Edmund's College in Cambridge. He was previously Director of the Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry, and Vice-Master of St Edmund's College. He is the co-editor, with Denys Turner,  of The Cambridge Companion to the Summa Theologiae (2016) and author of Christ as Paradox: Expanding Ressourcement Christology. Luigi Gioia, is a Research Associate at the Von Hügel Institute, University of  Cambridge (UK) and Theologian in Residence at Saint Thomas Church, New York City. He is the author of award-winning books including The Theological Epistemology of Augustine's De Trinitate (2008), Say it to God (2017), the Archbishop of Canterbury Lent Book in 2018, and The Wisdom of St Benedict (2020), winner of the Catholic Media Association Book Award  in 2021. Travis LaCouter is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Catholic University, Louvain and the author of Balthasar and Prayer (2021).

• Introduction; Part I. Identifying Catholic Clericalism: 1. Clericalism in a holy and sinful church Brian P. Flanagan; 2. Clericalism and sexual abuse: an historical and historiographical perspective Miles Pattenden; 3. The priest as 'another Christ' (alter Christus): the spiritual and theological roots of clericalism Luigi Gioia; 4. Pope Francis and his struggle against clericalism Austen Ivereigh; 5. Catholics don't like the truth: genesis, style, sources, and reception of in the closet of the Vatican Frédéric Martel; 6. A protestant perspective on clericalism and clergy sexual abuse Darryl W. Stephens; Part II. Mapping Clericalism Today: 7. When the mask comes off: sex, love, and secrecy among Brazilian catholic priests Maya Mayblin; 8. Clerical power and sex abuse in the church in India Shaji George Kochuthara CMI; 9. Behind the veil: clericalism in Africa – perspectives from religious life Gemma Simmonds CJ; 10. Sexuality and spaces of power: towards a spatial analysis of clericalism and sexuality Catherine R. Osborne; Part III. Conceiving Clericalism: 11. No father: Lee Edelman and the realised child Gerard Loughlin; 12. Vulnerability, hierarchicalism, and recognition James Keenan SJ; 13. 'An even more wary continence': thinking with Baldwin and Augustine on clericalism, desire, and detachment Sean Larsen; 14. Truth telling and damaged speech: towards an account of institutional parrhesia Travis LaCouter; 15. Clericalism as structural sin: the missing voices and bodies of women Julie Hanlon Rubio; 16. Conceptions of the human underlying the practice of celibacy Dana Demirer; 17. Clericalism and the violent sacred: dipping a Girardian toe in troubled waters James Alison; Part IV. Addressing Clericalism: 18. Addressing clericalism and sexuality in human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral areas Katarina Schuth OFM; 19. Ecclesial professional ethics as a tool for improving the church's moral condition Anna Abram; 20. How clericalism contributes to sexual problems among catholic priests Thomas G. Plante; 21. Towards a just and holy esteem for the sacrament of marriage: clericalism as a symptom and as an opportunity Bertrand Dumas; 22. Power, sex and violence: resisting catholic clergy sex abuse Lisa Sowle Cahill; Bibliography; Index.