A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church

by James Kavanaugh

Unknown Binding

About the author

James Kavanaugh was ordained and actively ministered for ten years as a Catholic Priest before attending Catholic University in Washington D.C. Working on his second doctoral degree, he wrote an article for the Saturday Evening Post, entitled, "I am a Priest, and I want to marry." The article questioned the practice of celibacy among priests. The year was 1967, the height of the sexual revolution. Although it was written under a pseudonym and even his closest friends and family were not aware of the author, it was received with such commotion and outrage, the secret would not be kept for long. Jim then exploded onto the American scene with A Modern Priest Looks At His Outdated Church. The New York Times called it "a personal cry of anguish that goes to the heart of the troubles plaguing the Catholic Church." Soon Simon and Schuster came calling with a book deal.

Though a gifted scholar, with degrees in psychology and religious philosophy, James took a leave of absence from the priesthood, packed his VW bug and headed for California to write books. Jim surrendered his priestly collar and doctoral robes to become a gentle revolutionary.

Forty years ago in a decrepit New York residence hotel, Kavanaugh rejected lucrative offers to write what publishers wanted. "Feasting", he laughs, "on bagels, peanut butter, and cheese whiz", he wrote his first poetry book, There Are Men Too Gentle To Live Among Wolves. The book was turned down by a dozen publishers, only to sell over a million copies.

Wayne Dyer captures his power:

"James Kavanaugh is America's poet laureate. His words and ideas touch my soul. I can think of no living person who can put into words what we have all felt so deeply in our inner selves."

A dozen poetry books followed, as well as powerful novels, prose allegory and his best-selling Search, a guide for personal joy and freedom. The rebel priest became the people's poet, singing songs of human struggle, of hope and laughter, of healing that comes from within. James Kavanaugh possesses a charisma that excites audiences with passion and humor. He loves wandering, tennis and trout fishing, the cities and wilderness, people and solitude.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE CONTROVERSIAL 1967 BESTSELLER CALLING FOR CHANGE IN THE CHURCH

James Kavanaugh (1928-2009) wrote in the Preface to this 1967 book, “When I wrote the article ‘I Am a Priest, I Want to Marry’ for The Saturday Evening Post, I had no intention of writing a book. I had not the time or the need. When the letters came in response to my article, however, I knew that I must start again. The letters came in bundles, hundreds of them… and I read each word with the hunger of a man who truly wanted to learn. There were as many from Protestants as from Catholics. Children wrote, nuns and priests wrote, the feeble and tired hands of the aged wrote. It was a procession of warm hearts that passed before my eyes and opened to me as I had opened to them. Most of all, the wounded wrote. The story of my soul had opened the scars in their own. The letters were more eloquent than anything I could describe, since they were written in innocent blood. They told me of pains that surpassed mine, and they begged me to speak for them so that all the world could hear.

“Some of the latter scolded me as a spoiled son who wanted the best of both worlds. Some called me insincere, a ‘Judas,’ a ‘crybaby’ who would not live with the promise he had made…. Most, however---ten to one, in fact---approved of what I said… Priests wrote and told me of the senseless struggle… Women wrote who loved priests and had lost them to the righteousness of the law. Priests who had left and married wrote and asked that I understand the loneliness of exile from memories and friends. Protestants offered me shelter in their parish, bishops offered me work in their Episcopal dioceses.. Most of all, the suffering … begged me to write for them.. Letters poured in from hands that had never responded to an article before. These were... the personal and touching stories of broken hearts. I had spoken to them and they had answered with the words that no one else had heard.”

He states in the Introduction, “Catholicism as a monolithic structure is disappearing.. From a timid rebellion has grown a courageous confrontation… Faith has passed from the passive and complete acceptance of a body of truths to the honest search for total commitment. The world has become man-centered… and the individual measures the traditional truths in terms of personal value… He will not be bullied by an authoritarian demand for the observance of parish boundaries, nor by moralizing which ignores the true and complex context of modern life. The layman has witnessed… a more open view of mixed marriages, a more understanding discussion of … the dilemma of Catholic education. He has recognized the human face of the Church which has been forced to change its expression or die. This has given him the courage to hope for greater changes still.” (Pg. xi-xii)

He continues, “This book is the account of a priest who has suffered in the leadership of a Church grown arrogant and inhumane… It is the story of a suffering Church which often reflects a dishonest theology far more than a divine imperative. This is a book born of the conviction that I can still be a Catholic… in a Church which must exchange its authoritarian and regal robe for that of a suffering servant… This is not the speculation of a professional theologian… It is the soul-searching plea of a Christian for an evaluation of what is Christian, and what is simply tired and imperious tradition… I will not give up my faith… Catholicism offers so much that is good and true that its faithful adherents cannot sit by passively and watch it settle into structured idealism… A religion which expects men to march in identical step and to change a univocal doctrine ceases to draw the atomic man to the holy God.” (Pg. xii-xiii)

In Chapter 1, he asserts, “No, we do not need a Pope to tell us that Catholics are permitted to use the pill. We need a God to tell us that we are free… For years, we ate our fish on Fridays and learned nothing of love in this primitive denial. What kind of man could take such a law seriously?... How could God possibly care if we eat meat or fish? How could he be bothered with such trivia? And if a man thinks that God is thus concerned, it gives you some idea of that man’s view of God.” (Pg. 8)

He states, “The Catholic man is an organized answering service whose first obligation is to protect his Church. He is not concerned with overpopulation, but only with guarding the Catholic position on the pill… The Catholic did not support the Negro until the cause was popular and safe… He cannot take another look… at homosexuality and wonder if the traditional moral position is realistic or sound. He will continue to condemn abortion even if the law approves it state by state. He will resist divorce until his extremism makes him the laughingstock of the world. He will close his eyes and stuff his ears and thank God he is shielded from the world.” (Pg. 37)

He observes, “A pastor, sent to America as a missionary from Ireland, can and frequently does impose his rural views of education on an American parish. No matter that his intelligent parishioners teach in public schools or lecture at state universities. They are forced to hear the praises of an educational system which is hard pressed to justify its existence… For years we have complained… that we have been taxed to support schools we didn’t use. No one seems to notice that every Catholic parish is guilty of a similar violation.” (Pg. 51-52)

He adds, “Nothing has really changed… We will still stand back and watch the humanist struggle with the problems of man… The authority that forbids us to be persons remains untouchable. The theology that protects this authority is afraid to face itself… Catholic theology is a barely stirring corpse, too weak and frightened to leave the universities, too superficial to strike at roots, too timid to move among simple and honest men.” (Pg. 67)

He asks, “Why are there only one or two Protestant theologians at Catholic universities? Mainly because theology has been a frightened and defensive discipline, afraid to meet in open discussion the questions which a man must face in the barbershop or cocktail lounge. What are we afraid of? Truth? or are we afraid that we will lose the man who wonders and doubts? If so, we have lost him already, because we do not have the confidence to admit that God can draw man in His own way. I can honestly say that I did not really believe in a mature manner until I read Barth and Tillich… Faith can grow in Freud and Nietzsche… It only ceases to grow in fear and narrowness and never in the energy of an honest search. Such a search is the very mark of our age, and we recognize it once we emerge from the ghetto of WASP and Catholic and discover that each man’s blood is only red.” (Pg. 155)

He wonders, “has man, perhaps, moved so far in twenty centuries that we can only join with those who do the work that once was exclusively ours? Once we ran the hospitals, the orphanages, the homes for lepers, and the schools for children. Now man has matured to recognize his responsibility as man. Can we not be grateful that it is difficult to recognize a Christian in our society since so many men and women do Christian work?... Once we were the Church of the poor and hungry. How came we to be the Church of the middle class?... Once man cried to us for schools and Catholic Youth Organizations and even boxing gloves. Now he cries for mental health and happy marriages and friendship in a world of computers and space.” (Pg. 157-158)

He concludes, “I shall be a Catholic, a vocal and honest one, even if my superiors forbid me to be a priest. I shall be a Catholic who follows his conscience, demands meaning and relevance from his Church, and will not permit his God to be reduced to empty ritual and all-absorbing law… [God] will judge me as He must, but I can say to Him as honestly as I way to you: ‘I have tried to be a man!’” (Pg. 188)

Kavanaugh left the priesthood soon after this bestselling book was published, and he wrote poetry (e.g., ‘There are Men Too Gentle to Live Among Wolves’), fiction (e.g., ‘The Celibates’), and more. [He also married after leaving the priesthood, and was twice-divorced.]

[Ian Pinto · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must begin by saying that the book is challenging. Not in terms of the language but in terms of the raw emotion it tries to put across. The author was a priest at the time of writing this but went on to leave the priesthood. However, at the time the book was a bestseller. Reading it, one can understand why. James had the guts to say what very few would dare to say and to do it as a clergyman is honestly remarkable. He must be commended for writing this book however, a critical reader would be able to perceive that James was bitter. He accuses the Church of being legalistic and impersonal; and fair to say, he is right. But I do not believe it was as bad as he makes it out to be. Of course, I am judging him over 50 years later, with the experience of a very different Church than the one he was a part of. Yet, I felt challenged by the book. I could sense his pain and the pain of those whose cases he presented in the book. I could hear his plea and feel sympathy for his condition. But I cannot reconcile my experience and even the worst of what I have heard with his narratives.

This book is not for the simple of heart and faith. It is bound to shake up the reader. A naive Catholic could wind up with more questions and doubts than anything else. However, I would recommend it to mature seminarians so that they can learn from James' experiences and devise ways of doing ministry that will address the issues he brings up without repeating the mistakes he pointed out.