The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism [Hardcover]

For those of you who have read Boswell's two epics "Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality" and "Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe," this book doesn't present anything 'new,' in terms of scriptural translations/interprestations per se. However, it is probably one of the few recent books I've seen which focuses on the plight of homosexuality exclusively in the Catholic Church. The author discusses several of the Vatican documents(1975, 1986,1992)on homosexuality as well as the American Bishops letter of 1997-8. What is most striking in his approach is Jordan's breakdown of the rhetoric of the Catholic Church. In order to better understand what the Church's statements themselves mean, Jordan enables the reader by breaking down the layers of 'silence' by the church: their background, and the rhetoric used to maintain the status quo. Stylistically, parts of the text seemed fragmentary. It did not help that almost every paragraph was separated by little ____ dividers, which distracted this reader to the overall thought process. Jordan borrows and builds on several notions from Sedgwick's "Epistemology of the Closet." I found the chapter on the 'Liturgy Queen' and Clerical Drag quite amusing. For a book focusing on 'catholic' issues with homosexuality, the last chapter offers the most promise by describing the possibilities of living as a lesbigay Catholic. Overall I'd give the book between 3 and 4 stars (3 and a half, if there was the option).

Mark Jordan breaks rank with D.S. Bailey, John McNeil, S.J., and John Boswell, who preceded him in writing about homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church. His keen analysis of homoeroticism in the life of the church, specifically among the clergy, has more in common with Raymond de Becker, who, in The Other Side of Love, wrote convincingly on the latent homosexuality of Christianity. Jordan also writes convincingly on the homoeroticism that continues to attract so many young men to join the Catholic clergy. The church's liturgy, music, and art continue to offer outlets for expression that are acceptable among a celibate clergy. There is probably no other religion so disturbed by homosexuality. Echoing Michel Foucault, Jordan states that the homophobia of recent church pronouncements is a new, modern phenomenon adopted from the modern state's need to control sexuality. This position supports that of Garry Wills, who, in "Papal Sin," shows how the modern papacy has become obsessed with the need for absolute authority. "In the last few centuries," Jordan writes, "Catholic life has been ravaged by the requirements of absolue obedience. Whether seen from the inside or outside, the distinguishing mark of modern Catholicism has often seemed obedience and nothing more. The theological virtues are no longer faith, hope, and charity, but submission, sumission, submission." He quotes Nietzche's description of Catholicism as "a continuing suicide of reason." Jordan writes, "Nietzche is astute to single this out as a distinctively Catholic pleasure--the protracted, the deliciously painful self-mutilation of a magnificent mind undoing itself in obedience." We wonder, if Jordan rejects the authority of the Pope, how is he different from a Protestant, and why does he fret so about finding a place for homosexuality within the Catholic church? In rejecting the concept of gay identity as an oppressive role that is a function of homophobia, Jordan follows the prevalent consensus of sociologists, who have confirmed Kinsey's assertion that there is no such thing as a homosexual. "We should feel contrition," Jordan writes, "for having pretended to have a sexual identity, when what we had were desires, memories, and loves." Yet, why does he persist in labelling people as if there were two kinds of people on earth, "gay" and "straight." In failing to perceive the term "homosexual" as too large an umbrella to tell us anything meaningful about a person's behavior or feelings, he missed a unique opportunity to clarify our language about sex. Jordan calls for a new language, but what we need is not a new language about gay and lesbian lives but about how all people can accept and integrate homoerotic pleasures and feelings into their lives and their faith.

In the recent media feeding frenzy around the topic of priests and minors this important book has rarely been quoted. Has it been totgeschwiegen? I found it far more instructive and thought-provoking than Donald Cozzens's cautious and rather preachy work, which has been referred to again and again. Habent sua fata libelli. Jordan is a distinguished scholar of historical theology, so one of the high points of this book is his commentary on the style of recent Vatican pronouncements on sexual ethics. Every moralist, pastor, counselor should read those pages -- the most telling analysis of the mentality behind current Vatican teaching that I have ever read. One thinks of Soviet dissidents doing an analysis of official communist jargon. Jordan writes with more than usual openness and vulnerability -- an edge of anger. But his writing also has a ludic, witty dimension. Even the much-derided comments on liturgical camp have a flair missed by those unaccustomed to literary ironies. He quotes French authors such as Pierre Klossowski, certainly a tactical error in dealing with the American public. I would say that Jordan lacks the common touch. As to his accusations against the Catholic clergy, I do not think they can be easily dismissed. In fact they are profoundly unsettling. The recent scandals are only the flip side of a great betrayal of the flock, especially its gay members, by priests who have gone along with the "Don't ask, don't tell" policies imposed by Rome since 1968 (Humanae Vitae). Garry Wills said the same thing in his study of the "structures of deceit" shaping Catholic lives. But Jordan's indictment reaches deeper, probes more intimately. The gay priesthood is a vast, unexplored universe, simply because those who know don't talk. Jordan has shone a torchlight into the dark jungle. Perhaps he might think of writing in a happier, more celebratory style the next time.