PRIESTS: A CALLING IN CRISIS

"Hyperbolic and misleading coverage of recent scandals has created a public image of American priests that bears little relation to reality, and Andrew Greeley's Priests skewers this image with a systematic inside look at American priests today." "Drawing upon reliable national survey samples of priests, Greeley demolishes current stereotypes about the percentage of homo-sexual priests, the level of personal and professional happiness among priests, the role of celibacy in their lives, and many other issues. His findings are more than surprising: they reveal, among other things, that priests report higher levels of personal and professional satisfaction than doctors, lawyers, or college faculty; that they would overwhelmingly choose to become priests again; and that younger priests are far more conservative than their older brethren." "Greeley does not hesitate to criticize the Church's significant short-comings. Most priests, for example, do not think the sexual abuse problems are serious, and they do not think that poor preaching or liturgy is a problem, though the laity give them very low marks. Priests do not listen to the laity, bishops do not listen to priests, and the Vatica