A Dying Breed of Brave Men: The Self-Written Stories of Nine Married Priests

The celibacy rule, birth control, pedophilia, cover-upcrimes, etc. are merely symptomatic problems of the Church. Her root problem is her diseased monarchical, authoritarian structure, which has no basis in scripture, apostolic tradition or common sense. It is purely man-made. There is no reason she couldn't be democratic and thereby truly Christian.  Rather, as a natural enemy of personal freedom, she chooses to reject change and dissent, to govern secretly through the hierarchy and to remain accountable to no one but herself. Trying to reform her can be a frightful challenge. She is like a gigantic glacier grinding an inexorable path through history, crushing everything before her. She will use all manner of spiritual and moral weapons of retribution to suppress dissent: excommunications, anathemas, censures, condemnations, and yes, sin. Socially, she will demean; psychologically, browbeat; and spiritually, abandon - all in God's name. Having lived so long in the clerical womb, we men of this book have lived where the good and devout layman will never tread. We know what goes on behind her gildedfaade. We understand her pitilesswrath. Certainly, she must want our kind simply to go away and die. We won't do that just yet. With the ice axes of truth in hand, we will relentlessly chip away ather cold, icy slopes. These are our stories.