MARRIED PRIESTS AND MARRIED NUNS

by James F.--Ed. Colaianni ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 1968

Mr. Colaianni (of Ramparts magazine) has put together a hodgepodge of material on married priests and married nuns which, if it were gathered within the glossy covers of Ramparts itself, might make a creditable issue, but which, qua book, is as formless, aimless, and purposeless as the editor's intent is nebulous. Specifically, what the book lacks is editorial direction. The several first-person accounts, by ex-priests and ex-nuns, which should be the strong nucleus of the book, are superficial, repetitive, and range in tone from banality to semi-literate flippancy. Interspersed among these Maria-Monk narrations are several commentaries (one or two of them first-rate if published separately) which apparently were written without reference to one another or to the accounts of the men and women who fled their rectories and convents to marry. The question of the troubled men and women who have the courage to leave the security of the religious life for the uncertainties of the conjugal board is a hot issue, and one with serious implications for institutions and souls. At this stage of confusion, it deserves something better than a treatment which comprises a thin veneer of sensationalism under which there lies nothing.

Pub Date: Sept. 17, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION