Everything Hidden Shall Be Revealed: Ridding the Church of Abuses of Sex and Power Paperback – March 12, 2019

Adam Deville is an Eastern Catholic theologian and notes that he is ordained as a subdeacon. I expected himto fall on the conservative or right end of the spectrum with regard to Western theology. This is true whenit comes to the basics of sexuality and liturgy, among other things. But this book transcends the usual spectrum.As expected, he refers to Orthodox figures like Sergius Bulgakov, and Catholics like Joseph Ratzinger. OtherCatholics, which are in the area of theology with which I'm most familiar, include Yves Congar with his True andFalse Reform, John Quinn, Francis Sullivan, and John O'Malley. Early on in the book there are also referencesto Anglican thinkers. Deville sees the objection coming and says yes, I was an Anglican for 25 years so I'm awareof their problems, but the Catholics and Orthodox have them too. What matters is not the origin of an ideabut whether it fits theological tradition and is good politics. Politics is not a dirty word, but is used in the senseof Aristotle's politics, the ordering of our common life together.This book is a response to the crisis and scandals of 2018, but is also part of a larger reflection going backto Deville's previous books. One major problem is ultramontanism, where all the power is in the pope,and through him the bishops. There are criticisms of Pius IX and several popes who were involved inthe development of this movement. Last fall the American bishops were ordered by Rome to stopaction on the abuse problem until after the February summit. The liturgical reform imposed underPaul VI is another example of ultramontanism.Deville reflects on the laity, or more precisely, the laics, which has a positive and not just negativeconnotation. He calls for lay participation in the decisions at every level, in parish councils, diocesansynods, and the synods of the whole Church. The synods since Vatican II, including the controversialevent in 2014, are not really synods, because they are consultation with the Pope rather than actualdecision making. Another issue is the selection of bishops, which since the early 1900s have all beendecisions made from Rome.The first chapter notes that Freud is no longer in style the way he once was, so the timing is better nowto make use of his valid ideas. There is a critique of the frequent transference made toward the bishop orpriest as a father-figure. This should be earned, not automatic. The Council of Trent even called theclergy "gods". I certainly see the point the author is trying to make, and have been uncomfortable withvarious personality cults of religious figures. But isn't the Council of Trent the teaching of the Church?What about the theology of alter Christus, other Christ, and in persona Christi, in the person of Christ?I find this theology challenging, but it is theology of the Church. I am uncomfortable with the transferencethat people put on us, but I've been on both sides of the transference. Anyway, the book is provocativeand I need more time to reflect on what I think about it.In canon law, the pastor, including the universal pastor the Pope, has the authority to make decisions. Thishas "no theological basis". This doesn't seem to fit with my understanding that theology is baked into thelaw. The munera are to teach, sanctify and govern, which is for the priesthood of all the baptized, but alsothe ministerial priesthood. Anything that is in canon law has historical events that led to its being includedthere. These may be more or less difficult to track down, but it seems overly simplistic to say there's notheological reason at all for a particular canon.The final chapter is the least important by the author's own admission, but is interesting. He calls for marriedpriests both East and West, and for smaller dioceses so that the Bishop can better know his people. Finally,he even calls for married bishops, which even the East has not had. His friend Fr. Jason Charron notes thatmany fine married priests would be outstanding bishops.

This is a short book that puts forward a number of fairly specific and concrete proposals for implementation both by clerics and laypeople (“laics”) and is argued with both flair and realism. “Flair” primarily because the author is fairly aggressive and direct both in identifying things he sees as problems within the Church and in proposing solutions, instead of keeping things overly general and trying to please everyone. “Realism” because he explicitly organizes his chapters from most pressing and likely to be implemented to least.He begins with an analysis of what he sees as pathologies in the Catholic “imaginary”—primarily a mental, emotional, and institutional papal-centrism and attitude of submission to the hierarchy. One of the book’s idiosyncracies is that the author has great esteem for Freud and draws on him to analyze these pathologies. He is certainly aware that people will think this is weird, but aside from some brief comments of justification, he does it without embarrassment. Simply on a rhetorical level, I’m not sure if this is a good idea. Anyway, his structural solutions deal primarily in an adoption of Eastern Orthodox and Armenian practices regarding parish councils, diocesan synods, and provincial synods. He is familiar with the canonical and organizational structures of the Latin rite and Eastern Catholic rite churches as well as those of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox and makes a pretty straightforward and to my mind convincing case for the adoption of some of the features of the latter. Think standing synods and councils of clerics and laics with voting power over financial and organizational (not doctrinal) features of local churches. He would also like to see more local selection/election of bishops, rather than the current practice (which has only been universal for about a century) of papal appointments in all cases. In the last chapter (i.e., least pressing and least likely to occur in the immediate future) he also advocates for the ordination of married priests and bishops.I like a lot of things about this book, not least that it is short, deals in the concrete, and is unambiguous in its argument. I think that’s a good kind of book to write in response to a crisis; it gives fodder for further debate and possibly action. That alone earns it 5 stars for me. I wish more people wrote (and read) this kind of thing.Some things about its tone, however, are slightly annoying. It is characteristic that Deville names his own forthcoming book on married priests as the best contribution to the topic. He’s really quite confident in his arguments and acts almost as if, once he dismisses an argument as illegitimate, it’s been vanquished permanently; on the flip side, you’d imagine that he’d roll his eyes at anyone who objected to his invocation of Freud. There are occasional comments that come off as snipes in some ongoing parallel debate that is not completely pertinent to the main argument of the book. It’s a bit essayistic and polemical rather than sturdily argued in this respect, but I think I can forgive it that with its good qualities in mind.

I actually attended his lecture that delivered on the concept of the book. Dr. Deville is very well versed in his research on this issue that plagued the Catholic Church. He touched base on the issue of “old Catholics and new Catholics” on how to handle the problem of sexual abuse in the Church. I gave this book to my mother as a gift and she read it cover to cover in a matter of a week. Deville is excellent on his delivery and his solution, he states, is very complicated yet can be achieved in a group effort from the Church. A great read and I would encourage Catholics to purchase for the person who is Anti-Catholic because of church sexual abuse scandals.

Very interesting book.