Novel Examines Sexual Issues Within Catholic Church : Ex-Priest Renews Challenge to Celibacy

James Kavanaugh, who had just written the controversial, best-selling “A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church,” was at Notre Dame University in 1967 giving a sedate lecture on the Roman Catholic Church’s history when “midway through, I got carried away.”

“The church had done a lot of damage to people’s personal lives, and I felt compelled to say so,” explained the 56-year-old former priest during a recent interview in Laguna Beach, where he is a licensed clinical psychologist and the author of 20 books.

After vehemently criticizing the church’s opposition to such practices as birth control and divorce, Kavanaugh ripped off his clerical collar and stomped on it. He never again considered himself a priest.

Nearly two decades later, the seething frustration that fueled that fateful outburst has surfaced again in “The Celibates,” Kavanaugh’s new, best-selling novel about two priests’ struggles to keep their vow of celibacy in the face of modern temptations.

“The Celibates” attempts to show that what Kavanaugh calls the Catholic Church’s tendency to reduce morality to little more than a channeling of the sex drive has visited suffering on priests, nuns, homosexuals and married couples.

Since hitting the bookstores last May, “The Celibates” has sold nearly 50,000 copies, according to its publisher, Harper & Row. “This is very good sales indeed,” said Larry Ashmead, Harper & Row executive editor during a telephone interview from the publisher’s New York headquarters.

Paperback Rights Sold

“This is Kavanaugh’s first hard-cover novel, and usually the sales of a first hard-cover novel are less than 10,000,” Ashmead said. Another publisher has already agreed to pay a minimum of $100,000 for the book’s paperback rights.

(Kavanaugh’s previous novel, “A Coward for Them All,” came out only in paperback. He sheepishly describes the work as “sprawling and semi-autobiographical.”)

“Celibates” promises to be the most commercially successful of Kavanaugh’s 20 books of philosophy, psychology, theology, fiction and poetry; altogether they have sold more than 2 million copies.

Among his better-known works are “There Are Men Too Gentle to Walk Among Wolves,” “Laughing Down Lonely Canyons” and “A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church.”

In “Modern Priest,” which first placed him in the national spotlight, Kavanaugh called for church reforms on such issues as birth control, divorce, premarital sex, the concept of hell and the requirement of celibacy for priests.

Kavanaugh was inspired to write “Celibates” because of the suicide about five years ago of a priest who, Kavanaugh said, “had been very kind” to him following his 1954 ordination.

“I was shocked and grief-stricken. I thought of his life and how he had been treated so badly by the church.

“And about the same time (five years ago) I was hit with the death of my own brother (Bob) to cancer. He had left the priesthood about the same time I did in the late ‘60s. He was one of my closest friends.”

“ ‘Celibates’ is a legacy to my brother, the priest who killed himself and other priests who (committed suicide) or were tormented inside. I wanted to capture the pain of these people and their desire to serve mankind--and the anomaly of imposing a monastic celibacy on people who were never meant to be celibate in the first place.”

Discussing the stands the church leadership has taken on sexual issues and what he sees as the negative and demoralizing effects these positions have had on most priests, Kavanaugh said: “There were a lot of stories about the priesthood that were not being told--but which deserved to be. It struck me that there was no other issue more symbolic of the dilemma being faced by today’s priests than the church’s stand on celibacy.”

But why is celibacy, to use Kavanaugh’s phrase, the church’s “basic issue?” Responded Kavanaugh: “Ultimately, the large number of priests and nuns who have left the church has a lot to do with the church’s refusal to face reality.

“The church’s clergy is not celibate today, and it never has been. Often the issue of celibacy is presented simply as a desire by priests to marry, but the issue goes deeper than this. Priests, because they are unable to marry and share their lives with women, fill this void in their lives with something else, whether it’s dependency on drink, drugs, obsession with work or a quest for power. It’s been said that ‘ambition is the lust of the clergy.’ ”

However, the Catholic Church sees things differently. Although representatives for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, which speaks for the Catholic Church in the United States, declined to comment specifically on “Celibates” because they have not read the novel, a leading expert on the personal lives of priests, Msgr. Colin MacDonald, took sharp exception to Kavanaugh’s views.

Lack of Studies

MacDonald, executive director of the Office of Priestly Life and Ministry of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a telephone interview from his Washington office, said there are no known studies on the number of practicing priests who fail to keep their vows of celibacy.

In the absence of such data, MacDonald observed: “It’s a hard thing to figure out. I don’t know of any studies of men who have stayed in the priesthood who are not celibate--or who are celibate. Those who know for sure keep it to themselves. However, I believe that the number who fail to keep their vows of celibacy is a definite minority.

“The studies that have been done have been on men who have left the priesthood, and a lot of them have said they did so because of celibacy,” continued MacDonald, whose office concentrates on issues of particular concern to priests such as spiritual renewal, sexuality, retirement and alcoholism. “But I don’t believe that the number who left the priesthood because of celibacy is as high as these studies indicate.

“Celibacy may have played a part in their decision to leave (the priesthood), but I think a lot of them actually left because they were tired, burned out or because they had other problems.”

MacDonald said that Kavanaugh was far off the mark on the incidence of alcoholism and other forms of chemical dependency among priests. “About 10% of the male population is alcoholic, so it used to be said that 10% of priests were alcoholic. Well, Father Joseph Frichter at Loyola University in New Orleans in 1980, and again this year, did a study of 4,660 priests in 133 dioceses and 109 religious communities, and he found that only 5.5% of priests were alcoholic; that’s less than the incidence for doctors or lawyers.”

On ‘Human Trip’

In “Celibates” the two priest-protagonists in varying degrees fail to live up to their vows of celibacy, but, Kavanaugh said, they, like many priests, are not on a “ ‘power trip.’ They’re on a ‘human trip’ trying to be good priests but are left emotional cripples by the church’s demand that they remain celibate.”

“Priests (who fail to abide by the church’s celibacy requirement) are simply doing what their parishioners are doing,” Kavanaugh explained. “While the church’s official position is opposed to birth control, surveys show that 90% of Catholics ignore this teaching of the church and in fact practice birth control. And despite the church’s prohibition against divorce, Catholics get divorced as much as any other religious group.”

(Supporting Kavanaugh’s claims, a recent study shows the divorce rate among American Catholics now approximates the national average. According to a recent National Opinion Research Center poll, 8 out of 10 Catholics disregard the church’s official ban on artificial birth control.)

Kavanaugh noted that while it is relatively easy for a 15-year-old boy entering the seminary in preparation for the priesthood to keep his vow of celibacy, it becomes an increasingly difficult task for an adult priest who has to lead a celibate life year in and year out.

“I was reading (an article about another former priest), and he confessed: ‘Entering the priesthood was a gift to my parents. When they died, I left the priesthood because my reasons for being a priest had died.’

“My story’s much the same. I became a priest because I was a person who did what my mother wanted me to do; she wanted me to be a priest. Most priests are mothers’ boys.”

Kavanaugh continued: “When the church loses vast numbers of priests over the issue of celibacy--which has not always been a historical requirement--you’d think the church would give the celibacy requirement some serious reconsideration.

“If you were a father with five kids and they all left home the moment they reached 16, then I think you and your wife would sit down and say: ‘What the hell is going on?’

“When the first one left home, you could dismiss it by saying he was a bust, wasn’t grateful and was self-centered. When the second one left home, you might rationalize that his older brother set a bad example. But by the time the fifth and final one left, you and your wife--if you were honest--would have to sit down and ask yourselves: ‘What’s wrong with this family?’ ”

Hopes Extinquished

To Kavanaugh, Pope John Paul II’s reign has extinguished the hopes for reform and flexibility in sexual matters that stemmed from the Second Vatican Council, which stretched from 1962 to 1965.

The movement for reform in the area of sexuality, however, had already lost most of its impetus among the church hierarchy before John Paul II’s papacy, contend such Catholic scholars as theologian Mary Durkin, sociologist-priest Andrew Greeley and Marquette University theology professor Daniel C. Maguire. Pivotal was Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical that reaffirmed the church’s opposition to artificial birth control methods.

“This encyclical created a mass exodus of priests from the church,” Kavanaugh said. His views are supported by a new Notre Dame University study of American Catholic parishes entitled “The U.S. Parish 20 Years After Vatican II” and a report released last December by the U.S. Catholic Conference which examined causes for the sharp decline in memberships of religious orders since the late ‘60s.

“These priests gave up on the church because they knew that the Pope had rejected the recommendations of his own commission to relax the prohibitions against birth control. The promise of Vatican II would remain just that: a promise without a program of change for the church.”

Kavanaugh, who was a priest from 1954 to 1967, noted that the number of priests in the United States has shrunk by a third in less than 20 years and that the median age of the clergy has jumped from 35 to 55.

(More precisely, the Notre Dame University study shows that the average age of Catholic sisters is 60, and 40% of the priests are over 55. The Official Catholic Directory for 1984 lists 57,891 ordained priests in the United States. But by the year 2000, the projected number available will be 17,000--about the same number as in 1925.)

One paradox resulting from the church’s policy on celibacy, Kavanaugh says, is that an increasing number of men entering the priesthood are gay despite the church’s opposition to the practice of homosexuality.

“In my day, if you were effeminate, were suspected of having homosexual tendencies or had a particularly close relationship with a fellow seminarian, you were booted out,” Kavanaugh said. “There were all kinds of jocks and very masculine people wanting to become priests. Lately, the church has been pretty much obliged to accept anyone.

“I have a bishop in ‘Celibates’ saying: ‘The church condemns homosexuality, and I’m ordaining them.’ The church has a nice way of not talking about certain things. You don’t see much printed about homosexual clergy.”

However, MacDonald of the Office of Priestly Life said he did not believe there had been an increase in recent years in the number of gays entering the priesthood. “In the old days men kept their sexual orientation in the closet.

“Homosexual men today are more likely to announce their sexual orientation because it’s more acceptable to do so. But I don’t believe there’re more homosexual priests today; it’s just that people are more willing to talk about the issue.

“Besides, whether someone’s orientation is homosexual or heterosexual is not the issue; celibacy is--whether men act on their orientation, whether it be heterosexual or homosexual. Priests are trying diligently to maintain their celibacy in the face of the temptations posed by our modern, affluent culture.

“The vast majority are succeeding. We’ve always had problems with disorder among priests acting out (their sexual urges); priests are only human.”

Historical Development

With the rise of modern theology, Kavanaugh said, priests now recognize that celibacy was merely a historical development in the church.

“The church had married Popes until the 9th Century and married priests until the 13th Century,” explained Kavanaugh, who has a doctorate in religious philosophy from the Catholic University of America in Washington. “Celibacy started in monasteries as a way to keep priests from handing down property to their sons (rather than to the church).

“All celibacy did was to put priests out of touch with the people in the parishes, who ignore the church’s teachings on birth control and divorce.”

To Kavanaugh, the future vitality of the Catholic Church will depend on whether it can make the transformation from an immigrant church to an American church.

“The Catholic Church worked for immigrants like my grandparents who came over from Ireland and my parents, who were largely uneducated, though they were very bright and highly motivated,” Kavanaugh said.

“When my grandparents came here, it was a hostile country where the Irish were not held in great esteem. They were underdogs who had to fight their way up. Sure, they were white and could speak English, but even as a kid I remember it was tough being Irish.

“Ours was the only Catholic family in the neighborhood, and Catholics were a small minority in Kalamazoo (Michigan, where Kavanaugh was born and raised). My parents had moved there from Chicago--a heavily Catholic city--so it was very difficult for them to be in the midst of such an alien culture.

“Parents wouldn’t let their kids play with us because we were Catholic. But there were seven of us (Kavanaugh boys) and we were physically strong--and fighters. As we got older, the other kids realized that if they attacked one of the Kavanaugh boys, they’d have to take on all seven of us.

“Our family clung to the church and its culture because it was a haven. The pastor was the most important man in our lives. All that’s changed.”

One of seven sons of an insurance salesman and his homemaker wife, Kavanaugh recalled, “We were all raised to serve other people; that’s one of the good values the Catholic Church instills in you.”

Four of the Kavanaugh brothers became physicians, two became priests and one followed their father into the insurance business.

Kavanaugh, the middle son, remembers even when very young having “the Irish flair for words. I was the family’s storyteller and humorist.”

Discussing how this led to his entering the seminary at age 15, Kavanaugh said, “I was destined to go to the seminary. I was the kid in the family who showed the special sensitivity and spirituality priests were supposed to have.

“I knew by the time I was 7 or 8 that I’d be a priest,” Kavanaugh said. “Rather, I should say that by that age the nuns, priests and my parents told me I would be a priest. Deep down, I wanted to be a veterinarian or archeologist.”

But to be a priest was to be a “biggie,” recalled Kavanaugh, and his mother, now 87 and still living in the old neighborhood in Kalamazoo, was deeply disappointed when he left the priesthood.

Today, Kavanaugh said: “She understands why I did it and how I live my life; she’s a very bright, perceptive person. She’s a devout Catholic, but she recognizes what I now do is important and honorable. We have a very nice relationship.”

Recalling his fateful talk at Notre Dame in October, 1967, which brought his priesthood to an end, Kavanaugh said: “I’d decided by then I didn’t want to be a ‘modern priest looking at his outdated church’; I wanted to be a human being living in the world. So, I got my doctorate in psychology and became a clinical psychologist.”

He married Patricia Walden, a nurse, in December, 1967, but the childless marriage lasted less than five years. “I married prematurely,” Kavanaugh said.

Though Kavanaugh has failed at four subsequent relationships--one of them “long term”--he still maintains: “I’d like to marry again--but this time for keeps.”

Kavanaugh now conducts workshops throughout the United States and Canada and lectures on the college circuit through his Kavanaugh Institute, a nonprofit organization that offers weekend workshops for individuals and couples who need counseling while undergoing “periods of transition” due to disintegrating marriages, career changes or other life-cycle changes.

The institute staff in Laguna Beach consists of Kavanaugh, his psychiatrist brother Philip (with whom he shares a house in Laguna) and administrative assistant, Lori Corner. The institute also has a Chicago branch office headed by psychologist Cheryl Pecaut.

Notwithstanding his present life style and the publication of “Celibates,” Kavanaugh insists he has always been an unwilling critic of the church, arguing that: “ ‘Celibates’ is not an attack on the church. I have always believed in reforming the church; I love it. I gave 20 years of my life to the church.

“It’s like when you criticize your parents: It’s OK if you do it because deep down you love them. But if others do it, you’ll probably turn around and deck ‘em.”