THE LAST PRIESTS IN AMERICA

Interviews with 42 American Catholic priests who loosen their Roman collars and bare their souls. Unsworth (The Lambs of Libertyville, 1990) assembles an impressive cross-section of the priesthood: alcoholics, dissidents, gays, Latinos, academics, and blacks rub shoulders with the quintessential Irish working-class parish priest. Superstar Andrew Greeley takes a bow, as do Chicago's Joseph Cardinal Bernadin and powerhouse theologians Richard McBrien and John Tracy Ellis. From this vast chorus come three dominant notes: most priests love their jobs; most oppose mandatory celibacy; most put more faith in their parish laity than in the Vatican hierarchy (Greeley quips in this regard that ``Catholicism means `here comes everybody' ''). Some reel off statistics on sexuality or church attendance; others offer memorable quotes (``a priest must be willing to let people take little chunks out of him''). Despite the low pay, not one grumbles about money. Here and there bitterness crops up (``I felt like a well-paid prostitute...people came only when they needed me''), but more typical is this exuberant send-off from an Ohio pastor: ``I love my priesthood...My retirement plan is eternal life.'' The ``last priests in America''? Obviously not, but perhaps an endangered species—priestly vocations continue to decline—to which this volume serves as an unsystematic but sympathetic guide.