Document Type
Article - On Campus Only
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
While social scientists have long studied secrecy as a cultural practice, theologians have neglected it as an ecclesial practice. This article examines “segmented secrecy” as an ecclesial practice, that is, secrets kept or divulged in different social networks in a segmented manner. That secrecy is examined in the lives of gay priests in Roman Catholic ecclesial settings in the United States. After a brief sociological analysis of secrecy, the theological analysis reckons first with the ethics of segmented secrecy, arguing for segmented secrecy as a “burdened” form of the virtue of honesty. Next it turns to segmented secrecy as an ecclesial practice, a provisional way of securing protection for marginal persons amidst the larger eschatological protect of the church in the world, despite some moral hazards involved.
Digital Commons @ LMU & LLS Citation
Hoover, Brett C. "Segmented Secrecy as Catholic Ecclesial Practice: The Case of Gay Priests,” International Journal of Practical Theology 26, no. 1 (2022): 111-129. DOI: 10.1515/ijpt-2021-0015.
