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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Back in the 1950s when Dinter was an altar boy, Catholic priests were generally respected and even revered. By 1993, as he prepared to leave active priesthood, a wave of sexual abuse scandals was engulfing the church. From its low-key title and first chapter, a reader might expect Dinter's memoir, though engagingly written, to be merely a personal account of this time of turmoil. To be sure, one of the book's important themes concerns his search for wholeness and connection through his student days and early years as a parish priest, his 15 years as Catholic chaplain at Columbia University, his sabbatical year in Rome and his eventual decision to resign from the priesthood. A parallel theme is equally important and far more provocative: the story of "how the Catholic priesthood's efforts to control the moral terms of debate regarding the proper role of human sexuality have irrevocably collapsed." Dinter's characterization of the lives of many priests is devastating: intense loneliness, "a variety of self-soothing mechanisms" including solo drinking and sexual acting out, loyalty to the priestly brotherhood rather than to parishioners. Especially damning is the chapter on the Vatican ("The Men's Club on the Tiber"), with its "self-confirmatory culture" and obsession with power. Now happily married with two stepdaughters, Dinter has this advice for church leaders: "Holy fathers! Get back to the drawing board and study nature's God-given designs before you pronounce so firmly about what you do not know and have not even begun to ask women about."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In September 1964 Dinter entered a seminary. Like many fellow students, he was excited about the future of the Roman Catholic Church, seemingly emerging from a long, medieval slumber. Three months earlier, Vatican II had introduced the vernacular mass and the promise of further change. How long ago that now seems to him. He here recounts how the priesthood and its mystique have changed during the last few decades. Furthermore, he tells how he came to terms with his sexuality and the church's attitude toward celibacy and how, in his opinion, the church's moral authority has collapsed because of the persistent controversy over sex. After years of agonizing self-doubt and guilt, Dinter resigned from the priesthood in 1994. A terrific writer, Dinter fills his anecdotal accounts of daily priestly life with revelations and insight. He allows even readers who suspect next to nothing about the inner life of the clergy into a secretive, idealized male subculture, helping them understand that the church's recent sex abuse scandals are not merely possible but inevitable. June Sawyers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Back in the 1950s when Dinter was an altar boy, Catholic priests were generally respected and even revered. By 1993, as he prepared to leave active priesthood, a wave of sexual abuse scandals was engulfing the church. From its low-key title and first chapter, a reader might expect Dinter's memoir, though engagingly written, to be merely a personal account of this time of turmoil. To be sure, one of the book's important themes concerns his search for wholeness and connection through his student days and early years as a parish priest, his 15 years as Catholic chaplain at Columbia University, his sabbatical year in Rome and his eventual decision to resign from the priesthood. A parallel theme is equally important and far more provocative: the story of "how the Catholic priesthood's efforts to control the moral terms of debate regarding the proper role of human sexuality have irrevocably collapsed." Dinter's characterization of the lives of many priests is devastating: intense loneliness, "a variety of self-soothing mechanisms" including solo drinking and sexual acting out, loyalty to the priestly brotherhood rather than to parishioners. Especially damning is the chapter on the Vatican ("The Men's Club on the Tiber"), with its "self-confirmatory culture" and obsession with power. Now happily married with two stepdaughters, Dinter has this advice for church leaders: "Holy fathers! Get back to the drawing board and study nature's God-given designs before you pronounce so firmly about what you do not know and have not even begun to ask women about."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In September 1964 Dinter entered a seminary. Like many fellow students, he was excited about the future of the Roman Catholic Church, seemingly emerging from a long, medieval slumber. Three months earlier, Vatican II had introduced the vernacular mass and the promise of further change. How long ago that now seems to him. He here recounts how the priesthood and its mystique have changed during the last few decades. Furthermore, he tells how he came to terms with his sexuality and the church's attitude toward celibacy and how, in his opinion, the church's moral authority has collapsed because of the persistent controversy over sex. After years of agonizing self-doubt and guilt, Dinter resigned from the priesthood in 1994. A terrific writer, Dinter fills his anecdotal accounts of daily priestly life with revelations and insight. He allows even readers who suspect next to nothing about the inner life of the clergy into a secretive, idealized male subculture, helping them understand that the church's recent sex abuse scandals are not merely possible but inevitable. June Sawyers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
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