ABOUT THIS BOOK

Loyal Dissent is the candid and inspiring story of a Catholic priest and theologian who, despite being stripped of his right to teach as a Catholic theologian by the Vatican, remains committed to the Catholic Church. Over a nearly fifty-year career, Charles E. Curran has distinguished himself as the most well-known and the most controversial Catholic moral theologian in the United States. On occasion, he has disagreed with official church teachings on subjects such as contraception, homosexuality, divorce, abortion, moral norms, and the role played by the hierarchical teaching office in moral matters. Throughout, however, Curran has remained a committed Catholic, a priest working for the reform of a pilgrim church. His positions, he insists, are always in accord with the best understanding of Catholic theology and always dedicated to the good of the church.

In 1986, years of clashes with church authorities finally culminated in a decision by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by then-Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, that Curran was neither suitable nor eligible to be a professor of Catholic theology. As a result of that Vatican condemnation, he was fired from his teaching position at Catholic University of America and, since then, no Catholic university has been willing to hire him. Yet Curran continues to defend the possibility of legitimate dissent from those teachings of the Catholic faith—not core or central to it—that are outside the realm of infallibility. In word and deed, he has worked in support of more academic freedom in Catholic higher education and for a structural change in the church that would increase the role of the Catholic community—from local churches and parishes to all the baptized people of God.

In this poignant and passionate memoir, Curran recounts his remarkable story from his early years as a compliant, pre-Vatican II Catholic through decades of teaching and writing and a transformation that has brought him today to be recognized as a leader of progressive Catholicism throughout the world.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Charles E. Curran, a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Rochester, New York, is Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values at Southern Methodist University. He was the first recipient of the John Courtney Murray Award for Theology and has served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the Society of Christian Ethics, and the American Theological Society. In 2003, Curran received the Presidential Award of the College Theology Society for a lifetime of scholarly achievements in moral theology, and in 2005, Call to Action—a reform movement of 25,000 Catholics—presented him with its leadership award. He is the author of The Moral Theology of Pope John Paul II and Catholic Social Teaching, 1891-Present, both published by Georgetown University Press.

REVIEWS

To some Fr. Curran is a radical progressive; to others, and angry dissident. The truth is that he is neither . . . Read the book.

-- National Catholic Reporter

For an intellectually gifted young man like Curran, there could be no going back to a time when theologians simply submitted to ecclesiastical censorship. Whether one ultimately agrees with Curran or not, his story is a reminder that when ideas lose their intrinsic power to command assent, authority can only do so much.

-- Commonweal

An inspiration. It is the story of a man totally dedicated to his vocation as theologian and priest, one who was treated harshly and unjustly and harbors no slightest touch of bitterness . . . His book is entertaining, enlightening, challenging and hope-filled.

-- Doctrine & Life

Readers here encounter both an autobiographical work and a reflective memoir chronicling Curran’s evolving moral reasoning. He adroitly confronts established moral tenets with the brilliance of a scholar and the sensitivity of a seasoned pastor.

-- Library Journal

Curran is a clear and engaging writer, and Loyal Dissent introduces us to many compelling personalities in the American Catholic Church, in its Roman guard, and in Catholic higher education, even as it provides us with a familial invitation into the lives of priest-professors from the 1950s to the present time.

-- Journal of Religion

[Curran] thinks laypeople ought not to be powerless within their own church. In short, he believes in freedom of thought and speech within his own religion.

-- Fort Worth Weekly

As this newly released memoir recounts, at a relatively young age Curran became, by choice and circumstance, the most infamous American Catholic theologian of his time.

-- America

A compelling look into the machinery of one of the world's largest religious communities. Curran reflects on both his ongoing commitment to the church that condemned him and his responsibility to challenge its positions.

-- Science & Spirit

The book deserves a wide readership, if not for learning about a critique of US Catholicism after Vatican II, then surely for drawing inspiration from the narrative of one moral theologian's fidelity and commitment to the best in the Catholic tradition.

-- The Jurist

"To some Fr. Curran is a radical progressive; to others, and angry dissident. The truth is that he is neither . . . Read the book."

-- National Catholic Reporter

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PrefaceAcknowledgments

1. Beginnings

2. CUA: The Early Years

3. The Uproar over Humanae Vitae

4. Growing Tensions and Maturing Theology: The Seventies

5. Investigation and Condemnation

6. More Trials

7. Life after Condemnation

8. My Moral Theology

9. The Development of Theology in the Past Fifty Years

10. My Relationship to the Catholic Church

NotesPublished Works of Charles E. CurranIndex