Young Man of the Cloth
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About this ebook
Many people have asked me about the costume I wore in the seminary (cassock) and in the monastery (habit). I often thought that was an odd question. Father Brendan, the Director of Students at Holy Cross Seminary once told us that the cassocks we wore and habits we would eventually wear were the most important part of us. What we stood for was more important than who we were. This became a central issue for me as my training continued and I realize I was wearing a costume and playing a role.
I spent nine years in the seminary and monastery from the mid 1950’s to the mid 1960’s during the time many of the priests in question were also in training. I have tried to portray here a straightforward account of my experiences in the seminary and
Recent concerns about sexual abuse have resulted in outrage and numerous opinions about how society in general, and the Catholic Church in particular, should respond. I have not seen much written about how priests became abusive or about how they came to be priests for that matter. I have always believed that the best way to approach difficult issues such as the recent uproar about priest sexual abuse is to work toward an understanding of how they arose in the first place.
Most of the priests accused of abuse trained in the 1950’s and 1960’s in diocesan and religious formation programs. Abusers have not been limited to Catholic priests but have also included ministers and rabbis. Since Catholic priests have received the most publicity and since I was involved in Catholic seminary training, these priests have attracted my interest.
I discovered a number of first person accounts of seminary training. All the ones I found contain relatively limited exposition of actual seminary experiences and expend the most effort evaluating the experience. I am more interested here in just telling my story.
I have reconstructed the events and conversations to the best of my recollection. Although I did not complete my training, I think my experiences are typical of seminarians who finished their training and went on to be exemplary priests or in some cases became problem priests.
My story is obviously limited to my own experience and may differ from the stories of others going through seminary training. Sexuality was a rarely mentioned mystery and was certainly a struggle for me during my seminary days. Seminaries have been working to make real changes in priest-formation programs, including aspects dealing with sexuality. I hope that reading the account of my years as a “young man of the cloth” may help lead to a greater understanding of some of the formative influences on future priests, at least during the fifties and sixties.
My tenure in the religious life did not last long enough to include theological training or early experience as a priest after ordination. I am hopeful that others may fill in these areas as well as sharing experiences different from mine. I hope for a deeper understanding of the life stories of those pursuing the priesthood.
A relatively small number of priests have been abusive but I offer a start to understanding the cultural and religious influences which formed the context of their lives and experiences. Although it is easy to condemn them, it is a much harder task to understand them. There is much to explore, but I offer my experience of seminary training several decades ago as a starting point.
The 1960’s were a time of tumult for the American culture as well as for the Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council raised hope on the part of many for changes in the church structure and way of doing things. For others, it was a time of fear that all they held dear would fall by the wayside. Monasteries served as a microcosm of the changes in the culture and in the Catholic Church. Although my limited perspective kept me from a full appreciation of these developments, my story may give you some insight into the struggles taking place in the ch
Joseph Langen
Personal Born in Dunkirk, NY, he moved to Rochester, NY when his father returned from his navy duties in World War II. He considered being a priest, and spent nine years in the seminary and monastery. He was married for twenty nine years and raised three children. He is currently in a wonderful relationship and lives in Leroy, NY. When he returned to the world at large after his monastery stay, he decided to explore psychology and switched from a philosophy major in the monastery to psychology and received his undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He stayed in Buffalo to receive a master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling. Then he moved to the University of Illinois for his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. Along the way during his training, Gowanda Psychiatric Center and Chenute Air Force Base Counseling Center gave him practical experience. Work Life After graduating, he moved to Philadelphia where he worked for two years at Temple University Counseling Center. Next he spent two years at De La Salle In Towne, an experimental day treatment center for delinquent boys. Then he came back to Western New York and worked at Genesee County Mental Health in Batavia. Being in a rural area with limited resources, he learned to work with a great variety of people of all ages. After eleven years, he decided to return to Rochester where he grew up and took a job at DePaul Mental Health where he learned about family therapy, ending up as supervisor of the children's treatment program. By 1990, he felt ready to be more on my own and became an independent contractor at a practice in the Buffalo area. Eventually he moved the rest of the way into private practice and returned to work in Batavia. He has since retired from psychology practice and now writes full time. He also worked for three years as an AmeriCorps volunteer at GO ART! in Batavia, NY. Writing He began writing short stories in the 1980's for his own amusement and published one. In 1990. When he began private practice, he started writing a quarterly newsletter for his referral sources. Eventually he converted this to a biweekly newspaper column now published online as Sliding Otter News. These articles formed the basis of two of his books, Commonsense Wisdom for Everyday Life and: Navigating Life: Commonsense Reflections for the Voyage. In light of his seminary and monastery background, he took an interest in the priest-sexual abuse crisis and thought back to his cloistered years. Pondering these years led to his memoir, Young Man of the Cloth. When he realized that no one had told the priest abuse story from the priest's point of view, he decided to write what he had learned from his research and personal experience about abusive priests as a novel, The Pastor's Inferno. He has published the following books available in paperback and Ebook formats: - Commonsense Wisdom for Everyday Life, thoughts on the events of ordinary life, - Navigating Life: Commonsense Reflections for the Voyage, a book of reflections about life's joys and predicaments and what to do about them. - Young Man of the Cloth- a memoir of the author's nine years in a Catholic seminary and monastery. - The Pastor's Inferno- a novel about an abusive priest in search of redemption. - Release Your Stress and Reclaim Your Life- a comprehensive look at what stress is, how it affects you and what you can do about it. - Make the Best of Your Teen Years: 105 Ways to Do It. A book for teens consisting of poetry by a teen, stories about teens and narrative based on interviews with teens. -From Violence to Peace- Understanding violence and learning how to deal with it in your life and in the world. -How To Transform Your Anger and Find Peace- Understanding your anger and that of others and how to deal with it constructively. -Stress Briefly Noted is a condensed version of Release Your Stress and Reclaim Your Life, available FREE in Ebook format only from various distributors. What To Do About Violence is a brief Ebook on the nature of violence and how to approach it at personal, family, community and government levels. It is also available free from various distributors He also maintains four blogs on Wordpress: - Chats with My Muse Calliope - Make the Best of Your Teen Years - Release Your Stress and Reclaim Your Life. - Reconsidering violence -Anger in America -What To Do About Violence He distributes Sliding Otter News a free newsletter featuring excerpts from his books, his original articles and links to articles by other authors on the themes of finding inner peace and living in harmony with others. A free subscription to Sliding Otter News is available at http://www.slidingotter.com/sign-up-for-free-newsletter. There are no commitments required and you can discontinue your subscription at any time. He welcomes your comments on his writing at jlangen@slidingotter.com. Visit his Pinterest page at http://www.pinterest.com/jglangen/
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