Louden, Stephen H. 1941–

PERSONAL: Born November 18, 1941, in Southport, England; son of Joseph and Sarah (McNaughton) Louden. Ethnicity: "White Anglo-Saxon." Education: Open University, B.A., 1975; Oxford University, M.Th. (with distinction), 1993; University of Wales, Ph.D., 1998. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Home—7 Jubilee Green, Papworth Everard, Cambridgeshire CB3 8RZ, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Roman Catholic priest. Liverpool Catholic Diocese, Liverpool, England, assistant priest and hospital chaplain, 1968–78; British Army, Royal Army Chaplains Department, reserve chaplain, 1972–78, regular army chaplain, 1978–97, retiring as vicar general and colonel. Registrar, Kigezi School of Medicine, 2001–02, and St. Christopher's College of Medicine, 2002–03.

MEMBER: Army and Navy Club.

AWARDS, HONORS: Named right reverend monsignor by Pope John Paul II, 1993.

WRITINGS:

Chaplains in Conflict, Avon Books (London, England), 1996.

(With Leslie J. Francis) The Naked Parish Priest, Continuum Publishing Group (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor to periodicals, including Psychological Reports, Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Pastoral Psychology, Transpersonal Psychology Review, Review of Religious Research, and British Journal of Theological Education.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Research on anomalies in military chaplaincy.

SIDELIGHTS: Stephen H. Louden told CA: "In spite of my devotion to the Catholic Church, a debilitating influence upon this writer has at best been the antipathy and at worst the hostility of Catholic Church authorities to research into priests and priesthood. In spite of recent public claims to the contrary, there would appear to remain among the authorities of the Catholic Church worldwide a cynical hostility toward anything that does not present the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church in precisely the light in which She herself would wish to be seen. Such an attitude can be seen to be both self-serving yet singularly delusional."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

National Catholic Reporter, November 7, 2003, Wayne A. Holst, review of The Naked Parish Priest, p. 16.