The Von Hügel Institute is pleased to announce the publication of Catholic Priests and the Matter of Sex: New Approaches to Clericalism and Sexuality, edited by Luigi Gioia, OSB, Travis LaCouter, and Philip McCosker (Cambridge University Press: 2026).
This book originated from a seminar held at the Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry in 2019, which explored the interconnections between clericalism and sexuality. Participating scholars brought together expertise spanning multiple disciplines, including theology, gender theory, history, sociology, psychology, ethics, spirituality, and queer theory. Drawing inspiration from Pope Francis’s address on clericalism and guided by a deep love for the Church and a desire to support awareness, integrity, and renewal, researchers provided a comprehensive analysis of clericalism as a contemporary global challenge within the Catholic Church.
Addressing the complexity and global variability of clericalism, the volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach that bridges theology, ecclesiology, and lived experience. By integrating sociological and historical perspectives, it reframes clericalism as a systemic phenomenon, sustained by structural mechanisms that privilege clerical authority while obscuring the shared dignity of the People of God. This volume offers critical tools for anyone dedicated to guiding the revitalization of the Church’s mission in the twenty-first century.
Pope Francis’ courage in challenging clericalism marked the beginning of a change. Yet it was still necessary to undertake an interdisciplinary, intercontinental and pluralistic analysis of such a systemic phenomenon. This volume brings together leading academic voices who freely put forward hypotheses and solutions. It opens up promising avenues for research. It inspires action.
These impressively interdisciplinary contributions open up, in helpfully plural ways, questions of clericalism, priesthood and power, and the formation and deformation of basic human relationships. They offer a considered, constructive response to the recent global cry of Catholics to foster a whole People of God theology in which all flourish in a common, differentiated service, and in a mode of deep Christian friendship.
About the Editors
Luigi Gioia, OSB, is a Vising Scholar at St Edmund’s College, where he was previously a Research Associate of the Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry, and Theologian in Residence at Saint Thomas Church, New York City. He is the author of award-winning books including The Theological Epistemology of Augustine’s De Trinitate (2008), Say it to God. The Archbishop of Canterbury Lent Book in 2018 (2017), and The Wisdom of St Benedict (2020), winner of the Catholic Media Association Book Award in 2021.
Philip J. McCosker is Director of the Religion and Theology research program at the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry of Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. He is also a Fellow of St Edmund’s College in Cambridge. He was previously Director of the Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry, and Vice-Master of St Edmund’s College. He is the co-editor, with Denys Turner, of The Cambridge Companion to the Summa Theologiae (2016) and author of Christ as Paradox: Expanding Ressourcement Christology.
Travis LaCouter is an adjunct professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts. He was previously a postdoctoral research fellow at KU Leuven in Belgium and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. His first book, Balthasar and Prayer, was published by T&T Clark in 2021. He is currently working on a monograph on doctrine and dissent.
