Notes from the Underground: The Spiritual Journal of a Secular Priest

by Donald Cozzens

A celebrated priest uncovers the spiritual riches beneath a church covered in scandal and doubt. At a time when many Catholics are questioning their church, Donald Cozzens sheds light on the widespread "underground church that cherishes the vision of a renewed and reformed church preached by Pope John XXIII, a church open to the currents of grace flowing through cathedrals and marketplaces, chanceries and ghettos, through women and men, through people of good will."

Writing in a fresh way about faith, prayer, communion, and church, Cozzens calls this new underground church "a pilgrim people that believes that the Holy Spirit is loose in the world and whose rumors of wisdom might be found in any of God's people as well as in their ordained leaders. I'm hardly alone in the underground church. I take comfort in that."

Cozzens describes and inspires a church "that wants to be simply adult a church not of children or adolescents hesitant to think and reflect on the lessons of human experience and their effort to live the gospel. A church closer to the spirit of Yves Congar and Teilhard de Chardin, to Dorothy Day and Mother Teresa, a church in step with the spirit of the gospel."

Genres: Spirituality, Religion

210 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2012

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really resonated with me because it captured where I happen to find myself in my own spiritual/faith journey as an "exodus catholic" (that is, a catholic who clings to the faith but is walking in the wilderness of the faith given an alienation from some of the doctrinal positions of the institutional church and its leadership). Cozzens does a nice job of touching on some of the reasons why I find myself in this position, which is encouraging because there are so few catholic authors -- much less priests -- who are courageous enough to acknowledge this publicly and to challenge the church authority accordingly to consider why people like me are wandering in the wilderness. The writing, though, is a bit disjointed, which is why I didn't give it a 5-star ranking. Yes, it is a collection of journal entries -- i.e. "notes" from the underground; but I still wish it could have been a bit more woven together thematically as a holistic modern critique of the Catholic Church. And the last chapter on imagination is just poorly edited, with a lot of shocking grammar and spelling mistakes that are very, very distracting. It's almost as if the editors just didn't even look at this chapter and just rushed it to print. Nevertheless, it is a spiritually comforting and heartening read for an "exodus catholic" like me. Very timely given the arrival of Pope Francis on the scene, which has ignited a hopeful spark in me relative to my feelings about the Church in which I was raised and to which I barely cling by my fingertips. I recommend it for any other Catholic out there who needs a bit of reassurance. And his chapter on Prayer is wonderful.

[Harry Allagree · Rating 3 out of 5]

The important thing about this book, in my opinion, is that Fr. Donald Cozzens accomplishes what he set out to do: i.e., to pen "Notes From the Underground: The Spiritual Journal of a Secular Priest". The fact that he's done this, I think, is terribly important. What he says regarding the current state of the Roman Catholic Church needs to be repeated over & over again, until its hierarchy & members finally "hear" it. At the same time, I don't feel that he breaks any particular new ground on the subject.

I have all kind of ambivalent feelings about Cozzens' journal. Because he was ordained a year after I was, and had virtually the same kind of Catholic seminary training, etc., there is much that resonates. That's true also of his experiences as a priest, and of the conclusions he gradually came to, and of the significant people on the American scene during this time who influenced him -- writers, theologians, etc. of the caliber of Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, etc. But then, of course, because of my convictions, I left the Roman priesthood in 1968, and the Church itself, at least in a technical sense, in 1977; whereas Donald Cozzens has stayed on.

Cozzens is pretty adept at expressing what's gone wrong in the RCC. I believe he more or less clearly understands the general and long process needed to bring change about. Nevertheless, for me, his writing reflects someone who's stuck in an increasingly unbearable situation, but has too much invested in it either to 1) quit; or 2) become a truly, as he terms it, "prophetic" clergy figure and challenge the system openly. Of course, in the Church's present state, he'd lose entirely. In fact, I'll be surprised if he doesn't take some top-down flack just from this book! He also seems to liberally use the word "secular" in a negative, divisive way to depict the world outside the RCC world. It appears to be a stock term used frequently, mostly by Roman Catholics, Republican conservatives, & fundamentalists. He also, unknowingly I think, continues to use terms about things he actually descries in the Roman structure, e.g. the "deposit of faith", which conjures up a sort of "belief bank"! I get the idea that Cozzens is just hunkering down, quietly trying to share his good ideas with a few like-minded folks, Catholic & otherwise, hoping & pining for the day when the system will collapse. Well, I suspect that, if that ever happens, he and I will be long gone.

I found the writing rather good at the beginning, but then felt that it became somewhat "preachy", and in the last couple chapters kind of scattered. This is one of the most poorly edited books I've read in a long time. The last two chapters especially are full of misspellings & errors on which even a novice editor should've picked up. Also there seems to have been little checking of foreign word phrases which Cozzens uses: one example of which, for instance, comes in the context of a story re: some Salvadoran military men. "Then, the officers all stood, I was told, joined hands, and prayed the Padre Nostra, the Our Father." Hardly the correct Spanish!

The author refers repeatedly, of course, to the pedophile scandal plaguing the Church even to this day, even after all the press exposure. I almost fell off my chair, therefore, when I read about Cozzens' gratitude for his "trail guides that offered direction, inspiration, and hope to me along the way..." He cites a long list of names, among them many for whom I have profound respect, but certainly not for Cardinal Roger Mahony -- one of the most notorious stonewalling bishop-withholders of information re: pedophiles, & Archbishop Rembert Weakland, himself accused of sexual improprieties.

[Dr. Chela Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring and Hopeful

Fr. Donald Cozzens sheds light on the widespread "underground church that cherishes the vision of a renewed and reformed church preached by Pope John XXIII, a church open to the currents of grace flowing through cathedrals and marketplaces, chanceries and ghettos, through women and men, through people of good will.” The Institutional Church needs to bridge and include the Pastoral Church. We are called to LIVE the Gospel. Our faith has less to do with dogma and doctrine, and more to follow the Gospel.

[Sister Nancy North · Rating 4 out of 5]

Challenges the heart.

Thought provoking questions and reflections. Definitely open and honest. Manifests a side of priests rarely seen or heard. Definitely worth the time and challenges to my individual perception.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. As someone who was raised Catholic but who has felt disconnected from the church in adulthood, it often seems like the problem is me...like i've moved somehow too far to the left to be Catholic. But what this book details in very clear and convincing terms is that in almost all cases, it was the church moving too far right or becoming a relic of its own making that was the problem.

Sources are cited, faith is discussed openly and there aren't always answers. Frankly, I'm more liberal than this author by far. But the common points we had in thinking about faith and about religion as a communion of souls and how it feels when it is used in the way the church has used it...well, it leads to the decimation of the people's faith in the church.

I would love to see an update of this book after Pope Francis is in the papacy for a few more years. Should be interesting to see if he (like me) has a healthy skepticism for Francis' revolutionary zeal.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timely resonance with the ethos of Pope Francis. A candid critique of the institution that is the church.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, because it is so true of those of us who see the possibility of a renewed Church, especially through the prayers and example of Pope Francis. (I read the book before Pope Francis' election.)

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honest and insightful.