Judas was a bishop : an old man in his reforming catholic church / William M. Shea ; Book design by Anna Faktorovich, Ph.D.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shea, William M., author.

Contributor:

Faktorovich, Anna, illustrator.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--21st century.

Catholic Church.

Church renewal--21st century.

Church renewal.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (332 p.)

Place of Publication:

Augusta, Georgia : Anaphora Literary Press, 2015.

Summary:

The author, a practicing Roman Catholic, was confronted in 2002 with a leadership crisis in the church. Decades of horrendous clergy sexual abuse of children was accompanied by an even more momentous hierarchical betrayal in the cover-up of the crimes. The explosion in 2002 ended his naïveté and caused him to rework his understanding of the history and methods of hierarchy, and to think about the evils of clerical monarchy. The basic determinants of the current church crisis are, first, the sacred hierarchism of church structure and, second, the culture of clericalism that flows from it. The author argues that the church needs a thoroughly desacralized and demythologized leadership if Catholic clericalism is to be eliminated. The book also reflects on the lived Catholic life, contrasting the life of the priesthood and the life of marriage and family. The approach is at once narrative, historical-critical, and ecclesiological. It also offers a personal look at the author's life as a Catholic for the past seventy years. The basic existential issue is "Why am I still a Catholic, and, indeed, why is anyone?"

Contents:

Shea - Front Cover - 9781681142111; Shea - Content - EBook; Shea - Back Cover - 9781681142111; Dedication; Introduction; Section 1.; 1. Apologia; 2. Memories of the Priesthood; 3. Dropping Out; 4. From the Sacred to the Profane; 5. Change; 6. Our Families and the Church; 7. The Upside; Section 2.; 8. Bishops, Archbishops and the Like; 9. On the Way to Dallas; 10. Constantine Does Dallas; 11. The Archbishop and the Mandatum; 12. Authority in the Church; 13. Why I Am Not a Catholic; Section 3.; 14. "The Church that Forgot Christ"; 15. Preliminary Considerations; 16. Objective of Reform

17. After Francis18. Interreligious Dialogue; 19. Why I Am Not a Theologian II; 20. Is Believing Knowing?; 21. Common Sense and God; Appendices; Bibliography

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed September 1, 2016).

ISBN:

1-68114-212-0