It's the doctrine, stupid

Rome would not issue a bishop a red hat and send him to New York City unless he had demonstrated at least some ability to stay cool in a media firestorm.

So reporters in Rome must have been baffled last week when Cardinal Edward Egan uttered this twisted response when asked about his views on gays in the priesthood.

"I would like to say this," the cardinal told the New York Times. "The most important thing is to clean up the truth. And the truth is that I have never said anything."

Yes, most U.S. bishops are saying as little as possible right now, especially about the issue that dares not speak its name. One reason the cardinal of New York was so flustered was that the dean of his own cathedral, the Rev. Msgr. Eugene Clark, had just preached a sermon that echoed in newsrooms as well as in pews. Clark said the Catholic hierarchy has been sinfully silent on homosexuality, in part because it feared being accused of fanning the flames of prejudice.

"When it was said that homosexuality was fixed at birth (which is not true), and therein required civil rights protection, many bishops and others hesitated to criticize homosexual demands for moral acceptance," said his printed text. "Some priests drifted into homosexual circles, then into homosexual license and then into man-boy relationships. ...

"The failure of church authorities to approach the subject as a problem gave these delinquent priests a freedom they should not have had."

A few parishioners stormed out of St. Patrick's Cathedral, while others applauded.

What was lost in the furor was that this sermon was not primarily about homosexuality. Clark didn't just attack homosexuality. He attacked the whole sexual revolution, with a special emphasis on its impact in Catholic higher education -- especially in seminaries.

But this crisis is not just about sex. It's about doctrine. Specifically, Clark said the current scandals are rooted in a fad in moral theology called "Proportionalism." The Vatican condemned this theory in the 1980s, yet it remains popular, he said.

"Simply, it said that while abortion, fornication, adultery, divorce, remarriage and contraception all remained sins, they could be permitted" if someone had a serious enough reason -- a "proportionate reason" for committing the acts, he said. "It severely damaged moral sexual life among vast numbers of college students and young married Catholics. While most priests and seminarians saw the obvious flaws in Proportionalism, it is now clear that some did not."

Some priests, said Clark, decided that their emotional and psychological needs were so great that they had just cause to break their vows and seek sexual release. After all, weren't the experts -- Catholic and secular -- saying that celibacy was an out-of-date concept, one that might even be unhealthy?

"A priest who believed this," said Clark, "could see it as a proportionate reason to put aside sexual abstinence."

This would lead many priests - gay or straight - to remain silent about church teachings on sex and marriage. This would lead some priests to argue that "celibacy" may not always be the same thing as "chastity."

This would surround the church's clerical structures in a fog of secrecy and stall reform.

Thus, Pope John Paul II told the U.S. cardinals that the current crisis is not just about priests with sex problems. It's about children, parents, marriages, homes and a warped culture. It's about doctrine. The church must deal with its own problems, so it can get back to healing souls

To do that, it will need bishops and priests who will answer tough questions.

"People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood ... for those who would harm the young," said the pope. "They must know that bishops and priests are totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality, a truth as essential to the renewal of the priesthood and the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and family life.

"We must be confident that this time of trial will bring a purification of the entire Catholic community, a purification that is urgently needed. ... So much pain, so much sorrow must lead to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate and a holier church."

Romeo and Juliet, born again

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- It's hard to imagine "Romeo and Juliet" with a happy ending.

But what if William Shakespeare had been preparing his manuscript for sale in stores linked to what used to be called the Christian Booksellers Association? What changes would he have been pressured to make?

"The lovers would meet, just as before, and the parents would still disapprove. Probably one set would not be Christians at all, providing a convenient subplot of salvation," said novelist Reed Arvin, in a rollicking lecture at the 2002 Calvin College Festival of Faith & Writing.

As newlyweds, Romeo and Juliet would strive to evangelize those lost parents. Shakespeare would manfully struggle to build tension, but "the fix would be in," with a happy ending assured, said Arvin. In the final scene, Romeo's parents would be converted and, as Juliet's father leads them in prayer, the sun would break through the clouds over Verona. Amen.

"I thank my God that William Shakespeare did not write for a CBA publisher, because that version of 'Romeo and Juliet' would have been forgotten 15 minutes after the marketing plan ran out of money," said Arvin.

But Shakespeare, rather than "making his story end like an episode of the 'Love Boat,' taught us about power and young love. ... Above all -- in messages profoundly Christian -- be taught us the importance of forgiveness and showed us how the sins of the fathers are visited on the next generation. The people were real, the situation was real and the stakes were real."

Arvin's lecture on "Why I Left the CBA" was a curve ball at a conference that drew a wide array of Christian publishers, editors, writers and entrepreneurs. People listened, because he was a force in the CBA before he chose to exit. In addition to his books, Arvin is a skilled pianist and producer -- known for years of work with singers Amy Grant and the late Rich Mullins.

But a not-so-funny thing happened when Arvin sought a Christian publisher for a legal thriller called "The Will." He said his friends liked the book, but were sure that it would offend a key CBA audience. Everyone warned him not to anger the "little old ladies."

What Arvin learned is that writers can address issues of sin and salvation, but that certain sins are more offensive than others. In Christian bestsellers -- such as the omnipresent "Left Behind" series by writer Jerry Jenkins and preacher Tim LaHaye -- characters commit a variety of unspeakable acts of evil. No one claims that the authors have endorsed these actions. But authors go to "literary purgatory" if they violate CBA standards on sex and bad language.

"The Will" was a perfect test case, said Arvin.

The key, he explained, is that he is writing about characters that are quite normal, from a secular point of view, which means that they are messed up, from a Christian point of view. Thus, when writing about a high-strung, morally confused lawyer from a Chicago mega-firm, Arvin faced the question of what this character would do -- in real life -- if he fell in love with yet another hot female. The logical question: "Would he have sex with her?"

"Because I am writing a work of fiction and not propaganda, I don't ask questions such as, 'What should I have this character say next in order to lead people to Christ?' Or, 'What should I have this character do in order not to offend someone?' ... Only this: 'What would he say next? What would he do next?' "

There is a happy ending to this story. Arvin took his manuscript to Scribner and the powers that be at Simon & Schuster. They were not worried about its strong Christian sub-plot or that it mentioned Jesus by name -- in the context of salvation, as opposed to cursing. Then Paramount bought the film rights.

"What I am finding out is that there are major, major companies in places like Hollywood that are actively searching for stuff that will speak honestly about spiritual issues and even appeal to Christian audiences," said Arvin. "But it has to be real. It can't be fake. We have to write real stories that speak to real people."

Phillip E. Johnson, rabbi

Call them the Evangelical Alpha Males.

There's Chuck Colson and James Dobson, James Kennedy and Robert Schuller, and Paul Crouch and Pat Robertson. There are many more. They are 60 years old or much older, but they still command the spotlight.

"During this decade the American Church will experience a massive turnover in ... leadership," note researchers George Barna and Mark Hatch, in their book, "Boiling Point." If history is a guide, "the impact of many of the personality-driven ministries will fade as the primary personality departs the scene."

Celebrities are hard to replace. That's why a provocative thinker named Phillip E. Johnson -- patriarch of the "Intelligent Design" movement -- has taken a different path.

It's not that he is terribly modest. But Johnson wants to win and he is convinced that aiming the spotlight at others is good strategy. He wants his cause to thrive after he is gone.

"One of the things that the Christian world is notorious for is a celebrity style of dealing with issues," Johnson said, speaking at a conference at Palm Beach Atlantic College (which is also where I teach). "That puts a big burden on one person. ... I never wanted a movement like that."

So Johnson writes his own books, while promoting those written by his colleagues. And he keeps yielding the stage to biochemist Michael Behe, philosopher Stephen Meyer, mathematician William Dembski, worldview specialist Nancy Pearcey and a host others.

Johnson would rather be a rabbi than an Alpha Male. This is not normal.

Then again, Johnson has not lived a normal, garden-variety Christian life. He is a graduate of both Harvard University and the University of Chicago School of Law and served as clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren. Then he joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley -- a great home base for a left-of-center agnostic.

However, a personal crisis rocked Johnson's life and he became a Christian believer, of a bookish Presbyterian stripe. Years later, he read Michael Denton's "Evolution: A Theory in Crisis" and was hooked. Johnson became convinced that the legal rhetoric being used to silence critics of Darwinian philosophy was, in fact, a secular fundamentalism.

Acting as fierce, but jolly, academic samurai, Johnson set out to slice up the scientific establishment. The result was "Darwin on Trial" in 1991, followed by numerous other books that have inspired and infuriated readers. Last summer, Johnson suffered a major stroke. He responded by writing yet another book, the upcoming "The Right Questions."

Johnson thrives in secular settings. When he does agree to talk theology, rather than science, he refuses to march straight through the landmines in the first chapters of Genesis. Instead, he starts with the prelude to the Gospel of John, which states: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made."

After reading this, Johnson asks: "Is that true or false?"

Then he turns this scripture inside out and creates a credo for use in sanctuaries aligned with the National Center for Science Education. It sounds like this: "In the beginning were the particles and the particles somehow became complex, living stuff. And the stuff imagined god."

After reading this, Johnson again asks: "Is that true or false?"

The movement Johnson calls "the Wedge" argues that today's debates over science, creation and morality are, literally, clashes between people who believe there is scientific evidence that God created man and those who believe there is scientific evidence that man created God.

This debate will not be settled overnight, which is why Johnson is convinced he must not fight alone. He believes the stakes are high and getting higher.

"If there is no Creator who has a purpose for your life, then there is no such thing as sin," he said. "Sin would mean that you are in a wrong relationship to your Creator. Well, you can't be in the wrong relationship with the particles. They don't care. So you don't need a Savior, to save you from the consequences of your wrong relationship with the particles. ...

"When you give away creation, you have given away everything."

Bluebonnets, bullets, bombs & balloons -- Year 14

In their visions, key supporters of the U.S. Prayer Center kept seeing fields of bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas.

But that was not all they reporting seeing.

"In the past three weeks, six intercessors, who do not know each other, have reported to us written descriptions of dreams that they have had in which President George W. Bush appeared to have been assassinated," said an email from the Houston-based ministry (www.usprayercenter.org) about this time last year.

There were more visions in the weeks that followed, said Carol Pauwels, the center's prayer coordinator. These "prayer warriors" kept seeing planes in the air and images of warfare and terror. The calls and emails came from around the world and the ministry went on "red alert" prayer status.

"We pulled all of these dreams and visions apart and looked at the common themes," she said. "We finally decided that the threat was real and filed a report with the Secret Service."

That sound you hear is many readers -- secular and devout -- laughing out loud. But if you listen carefully, you will also hear sincere murmurs of concern and affirmation. That's the way things have been going for the past 12 months or so.

It has been a time of tears. Yet, as always, the religion beat has a way of making people shake their heads for a wide variety of reasons. I bring this up, because this is the time of year when I mark this column's anniversary -- this is No. 14 -- by weaving together a few of the mysterious, bizarre, amusing and even poignant items that show up in my mail. Proceed with caution.

* I am pleased to report that www.clonejesus.com appears to have gone out of business.

* A former student passed along an item from Chapel Hill, N.C., about the opening of a nightclub called "NV." A manager said the name stands for "envy," one of the "seven deadly sins" in the hit movie "Seven." Actually, Hollywood didn't create that list.

* A nondenominational radio station in London has set up an online confession site -- www.theconfessor.co.uk. Believe it or not, someone beat the Church of England to this innovation.

* This could be a bad setback for user-friendly, Baby Boomer Buddhism. The Dalai Lama has decreed that masturbation, oral and gay sex are wrong and against the Buddhist way of life. Has anyone told Richard Gere?

* Hold the mascara! Tammy Faye Bakker Messner of PTL infamy is reported to have cut a duet with shock-rocker Marilyn Manson. The song? "Silent Night."

* All kinds of religious folk visit the pluralistic domain called Beliefnet.com -- from angels to Zoroastrians. A friend noticed this striking lament by one writer: "I am a werewolf ... and also Catholic. ... But too progressive for some Catholics." Wait! Did he say "some" Catholics?

* I was not surprised when psychic John Edward announced that he would try to communicate with Sept. 11 victims during several episodes of his show "Crossing Over." But I was surprised when producers scrapped these plans, rather than offend viewers. Does this retreat imply that there is some concept of right and wrong in cable television?

* This confession appeared in the ombudsman's column in the Washington Post: "Religion doesn't seem to play much of a role in a large newsroom, although it plays a big part in the lives of many readers. This is one of the larger disconnects between journalists and their audience." What does this say about efforts to promote diversity in the news business?

* How nervous is Palm Beach County, Fla., these days? Waves of citizens called police when skywriter Jerry Stevens celebrated the arrival of 2002 by writing "God is Great" in the sky. They feared it was an act of terrorism.

* Can news reports from the Middle East get any worse? However, I did receive this touching report from loved ones who live in Nablus. They were eating breakfast a few days ago as the sound of gunfire and cannons echoed off the surrounding hills. The parents realized that their 3-year-old son, Malachi, was gazing off into space. The father asked what he was doing.

"I'm listening to all the balloons," he said.

'Joshua' keeps on preaching

The doctor's verdict was blunt and he didn't want to quibble about details.

The patient's heart and blood were in terrible shape. He was working too hard and the stress was about to kill him. The doctor said he should quit his job -- immediately.

But the 50-year-old patient was a Roman Catholic priest.

"I thought I had, maybe, a year," said Father Joseph Girzone. "I remember thinking: What do I want to do before I die? What is it I need to say? I decided I wanted to write a book about Jesus. I wanted to write a simple little book about the Jesus that ordinary people met and loved, the Jesus that Jewish people saw walking down the street."

That was 20 years ago. The book was called "Joshua" and it became a surprise bestseller, with many sequels. Now "Joshua" is poised to visit movie theaters.

Girzone is alive and well. Still, his once-fragile health plays a role in this story. Because the priest felt he had nothing to lose, he poured his feelings about the modern church into a "parable" based on a simple, but risky, concept: What if Jesus quietly returned and set up a wood-working shop in a small American town?

Then the questions kept coming. What if Joshua visited Northern Ireland? What if he set up shop in the inner city? What if he returned to the bloody Holy Land?

Most of all, Girzone kept asking a question that infuriated many: What if Christreturned and started prying into the affairs of the Catholic Church and otherflocks, as well?

"I want Joshua to have a strong, prophetic voice," said Girzone, who works through offices and retreat centers near Albany, N.Y., and Annapolis, Md. "I want Joshua to point out where his church has gone wrong and to help put his people back on course. ...

"If Jesus came back today, I think he would be very critical of those who abuse their teaching authority. I think Jesus would fight against secrecy and corruption."

Those are loaded words, especially right now.

Joshua doesn't just touch souls -- he critiques Vatican dogmas. He doesn't just heal the blind -- he captivates Jews with his teachings on the Trinity. He doesn't just raise the dead -- he counsels angry Catholic clergy.

"If my father has not given you the gift of celibacy, that is his business," Joshua tells a tired, dispirited priest in the first novel. "The Church must respect the way the Holy Spirit works, especially in the souls of priests, otherwise she will destroy her own priesthood. What Jesus has made optional, the church should not make mandatory."

This scene does not appear in the Christian-television-friendly film that opens April 19 in selected theaters, mostly in smaller Heartland and Bible Belt markets far from the long knives of major-media critics. "Joshua," the movie, omits many scenes in which Joshua judges the actions of specific brands of clergy and churches.

Girzone said the movie had to be careful not to offend too many viewers. It is also strange to see a movie that focuses primarily on Catholic characters, yet clearly -- with its cheerful style and pop-gospel music -- is targeting evangelical Protestants.

"It is hard to capture -- on film -- someone who is gentle and loving, yet powerful and prophetic," he said. "Being un-offensive is not the same thing as being holy."

Yet the film hints at Girzone's main theme, which he believes is at the heart of many struggles in Catholicism and other churches. Love, he insists, must never be confused with law. Here is how Girzone puts it, speaking through Joshua in a confrontation with his Vatican inquisitors at the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrines of the Faith.

"Religion is beautiful only when it is free and flows from the heart. That is why you should guide and inspire but not legislate behavior. And to threaten God's displeasure when people do not follow your rules is being a moral bully and does no service to God. You are shepherds and guides, but not the ultimate judges of human behavior. That belongs only to God."

To which millions of American Catholics and Protestants will now say, "Amen."

Smells, bells & tension at Easter

In the Anglo-Catholic tradition, the last rites of Holy Week offer a procession of images both glorious and sobering -- a drama painted in sacrament, scripture, incense, chants and candlelight, fading into the darkness of a tomb.

It is a time for soul searching. That will certainly be the case this year for Father David L. Moyer of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, a sanctuary for Anglican traditionalists on the Philadelphia mainline. He chose to go on retreat at a convent, rather than enduring the pain of watching these services from a pew.

"I am a liturgical nut and I am not the kind of person who can just watch," he said. "I just couldn't take that emotionally, right now. I'd be thinking, 'Now we need to do this' and 'Now it's time to do that.' It would be agonizing, not being at the altar."

Moyer cannot serve at the altar for a simple reason -- Pennsylvania Bishop Charles E. Bennison, Jr., has forbidden him to do so. The bishop has "inhibited" Moyer from his sacred duties, and is proceeding toward deposing him as a priest, because the rector of Good Shepherd has repeatedly denied Bennison the right to preach and celebrate the Eucharist in the parish.

Why would a priest risk his career by locking out his bishop?

"Charles Bennison has removed himself from the church," said Moyer. "He has stepped outside the borders of the ancient Christian faith and of the Anglican tradition. ... I would say that he is in fact a heretic, a false teacher."

Both sides agree there is more to this standoff than power, $2 million in endowment money and the keys to a beautiful Gothic edifice. The bishop and his acolytes believe Moyer wants to split the diocese and the U.S. Episcopal Church. They note that Moyer leads the North American branch of Forward in Faith, a global network of Anglican conservatives.

Also, Moyer is a candidate to become an at-large bishop for traditionalists nationwide, following an upcoming election and consecration that would be held without the blessing of the American hierarchy. Moyer has strong ties to Third World archbishops and is scheduled to meet with several only days before a tense April 10-18 gathering of the Anglican primates in Canterbury.

Doctrine is at stake, too. Moyer responded to Bennison's March 1 "inhibition of ministry" letter with a letter urging the bishop to defuse the crisis by publicly affirming four ancient Christian doctrines. These were the uniqueness of Jesus as "the only way to obtaining eternal salvation," his "bodily Resurrection," the "supremacy of the Holy Scriptures as the inspired Word of God" and that "sexual intimacy and genital relations are only properly expressed in a monogamous, heterosexual marital union."

Bennison has not responded even though he is an outspoken, articulate advocate of changing church teachings on sex and salvation. During a 1997 forum, which was taped, the bishop was asked why he could embrace such sweeping doctrinal revisions. The church wrote the Bible, he responded. "Because we wrote the Bible, we can rewrite it."

Meanwhile, the diocesan standing committee has stated the obvious: no bishop wants to have the rector of a powerful parish publicly calling him a heretic.

"A diocese cannot function without mutual love and respect for duly instituted authority," stated the committee, in its report calling for disciplinary action against Moyer. "Since a Bishop's authority is sacramental, a parish must receive its Bishop to preside at the Holy Eucharist for it to be in communion with the Bishop. The parish must be in communion with the Bishop to be in communion with the diocese. The parish must be in communion with its diocese in order to be in communion with the Episcopal Church and, through it, the Anglican Communion at large."

But for Moyer, modern laws and ecclesiastical structures are not as important as the Bible and centuries of church tradition. Without a common core of doctrine, there can be no communion, he said. That is why he will fight on, even if that means sitting in a pew this Easter.

"I believe that souls are at risk. I really do believe that," he said. "We cannot stand by and watch people being led into hell."

Next year in Jerusalem?

Germany has the world's fastest-growing Jewish population.

One of Judaism's hottest schools of spiritual renewal has its roots in Argentina.

Jews in Atlanta set out to raise $25 million and ended up with $50 million, including nearly $5 million poured into the project by Coca-Cola -- a corporate pillar of the old Protestant South.

These are snapshots of modern Judaism. Get used to it.

"Obviously, when people think of Judaism they think of Israel and that's as it should be," said journalist Larry Tye, author of a provocative travelogue entitled "Home Lands: Portraits of the New Jewish Diaspora."

"But right now, anyone who wants to see what is happening in Judaism needs to look outside of Israel. If you just focus on Israel, you can't see the big picture."

When Tye talks about the diaspora, he is referring to Jewish communities that exist and often thrive outside of Israel. While Israel remains the unique homeland, the Boston Globe veteran is convinced most Jews increasingly feel at home in a wide variety of lands. In fact, the diaspora Jewish communities have "more in common with each other than with the Jewish state as they search for spiritual and religious meaning in a largely non-Jewish world."

Nevertheless, the Passover Seders that start next week -- the season begins Wednesday at sundown -- will end with Jewish believers reciting this vow: "Next year in Jerusalem!"

"The words will stay the same, but the meaning is changing," said Tye. "Most Jews don't want to move to Jerusalem. They are doing just fine where they are."

If Tye sounds upbeat about modern Judaism, that's because he is. While researching his book, he traveled from Germany to Ukraine, from Argentina to Ireland, and from France to the United States -- the Bible-Belt South as well as the urban Northeast.

But he knows many do not share his optimism. Debates about the health of Judaism have been driven by two statistics -- soaring intermarriage rates and the falling numbers of Jews in pews. There are 20 percent fewer Jews today than when the Holocaust began. Then again, notes Tye, there are three times as many Jews right now than there were a century before the Holocaust.

"Everything I heard said that these numbers were going way down and that they would keep going down," he said, during a South Florida pilgrimage. "Yet I kept visiting Jewish communities around the world and what I was seeing with my own eyes was not jibing with what I was hearing. ... I know that the bad news stories are real. But there is good news out there, too."

Yes, an infamous 1990 survey of American Jews found that the rate of Jews marrying non-Jews had topped 50 percent. Then again, researchers found that the intermarriage rate had actually fallen 10 percent among those who openly claimed and practiced their Jewish faith.

Here's another Tye snapshot. Half of Atlanta's Jews have no ties that bind them to any Jewish institution. That's bad. But the other half of the Jewish community is so active in worship and educational activities that it seems everyone is building a new synagogue. That's good.

"Where does that leave us? The overall number of Jews probably will continue to decline, while many of those at the periphery will continue drifting away to atheism, Buddhism or nothing at all," according to Tye. Yet wherever he traveled, Jewish leaders rejoiced at the growth of their cultural and, yes, even their religious programs. When asked about the future, Jewish leaders around the world recited variations on this mantra: "Fewer Jews, but better Jews."

Tye is convinced this surge in diaspora energy and innovation will eventually lead to changes in Israel. After all, there are four times as many Israelis living in America as there are American Jews living in Israel. New ideas flow both ways, now.

"Again we see the role of the diaspora in Judaism today," he said. "Israel is increasingly looking to the diaspora to learn how to have a healthy, pluralistic Jewish community. ... For many modern Jews, Israel has come to represent hierarchy and law. Meanwhile, life in the diaspora has come to represent the freedom of the individual and a kind of creative chaos."

Fathers, mothers & Catholic sons, Part II

Few Catholic boys grow up to be men of the cloth without drawing inspiration from their parish priests and receiving the blessing of their mothers.

Both halves of that equation have to work or the church suffers.

"When you talk about how young men enter the priesthood, you are talking about the future of the church," said Father Donald B. Cozzens, former vicar for clergy in the Diocese of Cleveland and then rector of a graduate seminary in Ohio. "At some point, it becomes terribly important what Catholic parents -- especially mothers -- think of their priests."

Find a young priest and you will almost always find a find a mother who wanted him to be a priest, like the priests she has known and trusted.

That's how it's supposed to work. Several decades worth of sex scandals involving clergy and children -- usually teen-aged boys -- have not helped. But there are other tensions, as well. In his influential 2000 book, "The Changing Face of the Priesthood," Cozzens pleads for frank talk about other painful issues, as well as the sexual abuse of young males.

Priests face skyrocketing demands on their time as church membership rises and the number of priests declines. Priests live and work under the microscope, yet they also report feeling isolated from their flocks and from each other. Lately, Cozzens has been hearing about priests who -- lashed by scandal and suspicion -- have stopped wearing clerical clothing while not "at work." The stares and whispers are too painful.

And there is another sexual secret that is making these issues harder to discuss, he said. In his book's most quoted chapter, Cozzens cites reports claiming 50 percent of U.S. Catholic priests are gay, with the numbers higher among those under 40 years of age. This "gay subculture" grew in the past three decades, as 20,000 or more priests left their altars to get married.

Cozzens is not opposed to celibate gays being ordained and he thinks most priests -- gay and straight -- are serving the church faithfully and keeping their vows. Nevertheless, he is convinced this gay subculture is affecting who is becoming a priest and who is not. Why is this?

In previous generations it was homosexuals who often felt alone and out of place in Catholic seminaries, living in a shadow culture. Today, discreet networks of gay priests thrive in seminaries and dioceses from coast to coast, said Cozzens. It's common for heterosexuals to feel confused, misunderstood and left out. Many question their calling and flee.

Meanwhile, he said, it's "likely that gay priests will be encouraging, consciously or unconsciously, more homosexually oriented men than straight men to consider a vocation to the priesthood. Conversely, homosexually oriented men considering a priestly vocation will be especially drawn to a parish priest who happens to be gay."

Cozzens said the "likelihood exists that like will be drawn to like." Once again, he said he does not believe gay priests are more likely to break celibacy vows than are straight priests.

It's also past time, he said, for Catholic leaders to start talking about how the changing face of the priesthood is affecting relationships between priests and parents. It would help to stop and consider a mother's point of view.

"Perceptive mothers may sense that something is different about the pastor ... who happens to be gay," Cozzens noted. "They may indeed like and respect the priest, but find they are not comfortable in encouraging their son to consider the priesthood."

This attitude shift is especially significant when combined with a major statistical change in Catholic life. In the past, when large families were the norm, it was a matter of pride to have a son enter religious life. But what if most Catholic families contain only one son?

"When it has become normal to have two children or less, you are not going to find many parents who are encouraging a son -- especially an only son -- to become a priest," said Cozzens. "They want him to get married, to have grandchildren and carry on the family name. ...

"So there are fewer sons and there are more mothers who are asking hard questions."

Fathers, mothers & Catholic sons, Part I

The Chicago news was full of sex, children and Roman collars.

This wasn't part of the first national "Sins of the Fathers" furor in the mid-1980s. This was the early 1990s and the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago eventually opened its files on all 2,252 priests who had served in the previous four decades. The powers that be hunted for pedophiles and they found one.

The key word is "one." One priest had been accused of assaulting a prepubescent child. The other allegations involved priests and sexually mature, but under-age, adolescents -- mostly boys.

"Those Chicago numbers are not unusual. This is, in fact, part of a pattern we see in diocese after diocese," said Father Donald B. Cozzens, former vicar for clergy in Cleveland and then rector of a graduate seminary in Ohio.

"Of course, any abuse of children is horrifying and it is just as wrong -- morally and legally -- when sexual abuse occurs with teen-agers. But it isn't helping matters, right now, for people to keep blurring the lines between these two conditions. This isn't just about pedophilia."

Debates about sexuality and the priesthood will only heat up, if that is possible, now that a crucial Vatican voice has spoken. A close aide to Pope John Paul II told the New York Times that it's time to slow or even stop the flow of gays into the priesthood. "People with these inclinations just cannot be ordained," said psychiatrist Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

Cozzens stressed that he agrees with researchers who believe sexual orientation is irrelevant in discussions of pedophilia. But what if pedophilia is not the issue?

By definition, pedophiles are sexually attracted to boys and girls who have not reached puberty. But Cozzens said reports he has studied, and his own experience as a counselor, indicate the more common problem among Catholic clergy is "ephebophilia." This is recurrent, intense sexual interest in post-pubescent young people -- teen-agers.

The term "ephebophilia" is rarely used in church debates and the press. Yet, Cozzens said that whenever clergy vicars held conferences 90 percent of the sex-abuse cases they discussed fell into this category. Church authorities are reluctant to investigate this reality.

Why this conspicuous silence?

"Perhaps it is feared that it will call attention to the disproportionate number of gay priests," wrote Cozzens, in his influential "The Changing Face of the Priesthood," published in 2000. "While homosexually oriented people are no more likely to be drawn to misconduct with minors than straight people, our own experiences was clear and, I believe, significant. Most priest offenders, we vicars agreed, acted out against teenage boys."

In his most controversial chapter, Cozzens quotes reports claiming about 50 percent of U.S. Catholic priests are gay, with the numbers higher among priests younger than 40. Talk of a "gay subculture" grew in recent decades as 20,000 men left the priesthood to get married.

The seminary climate changed - radically. Cozzens cited a survey in which 60 percent of one seminary's students identified themselves as gay, 20 percent were "confused about their sexual identity" and 20 percent said they were heterosexual.

Cozzens concluded: "Should our seminaries become significantly gay, and many seasoned observers find them to be precisely that, the priesthood of the 21st century will likely be perceived as a predominantly gay profession."

This is the proverbial elephant in the sanctuary that few bishops want to discuss.

Cozzens said that, along with many other researchers, he does not see a direct link between homosexual orientation and sexual abuse. Yet the cloud of secrecy and denial that swirls around the gay subculture makes it hard to discuss urgent issues -- such as ephebophilia.

"Pedophilia is a totally different kind of sickness and it can't really be treated," he said. "You simply have to do what you can to help the abuser and then make sure all future contact with children is cut off. There is no other way. ...

"But there are many bishops out there who, for a variety of reasons, have been convinced that priests can be successfully treated and reassigned to other parishes if the sexual contact was with teen-agers. Now, that belief is being shaken."