Shattered Vows (Book Review)

David Rice, Shattered Vows: Priests who Leave, New York: Triumph Books, 1992, ISBN 0-8007-3037-2, pp. 280, $10.

David Rice was born in Northern Ireland and was ordained a Dominican in 1958. He left the priesthood in 1977 to marry. He has worked as a journalist all his life and was an editor and award-winning syndicated columnist in the U.S. during the 1970s.

Having undergone the experience of ‘leaving the ordained ministry,’ Rice is in a good position to make this presentation about the sad and troubling, yet awfully sensitive and pressing issue. The book is written in true journalistic style, without jumping to conclusions and backing up claims with significant evidence. One can take his word for truth since he has personally travelled thousands of miles across the globe, visiting, interviewing and even living with ‘priest who left’ besides those who had troubles but didn’t leave. His travels have taken him to places like U.S., Britain, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, Peru, Chile and Colombia, and have allowed him to meet a total of 442 ‘priests’, besides 177 wives and women friends of these ‘priests’ and 41 of their children!  

The author puts forward the claim that celibacy is an outdated, autocratic and therefore, irrelevant practice that is enforced onto priests by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy without sound theological reasons and human discretion. Despite not wanting to attack the Church directly for its autocratic stance, he does make a good case for lifting the blanket application of the celibacy rule. What he seems to propose, with undeniable evidence, no doubt, is that celibacy be made an option. He opines that this would help, in no small way, to curb the mass exodus of ordained priests, a number which he surmises to be something like 100,000 worldwide.

The book is beautifully written and one can almost sense the pain, anguish, joy and hesitation that envelopes each case and experience that is narrated in simple, yet touching fashion. The author wrote the book with the intention of exploring the hope that burns in the hearts of priests who left the active formal ministry. He doesn’t resort to simply stating facts and quoting figures. He offers a glimpse into the multi-faceted reality of the men who chose to break free from the shackles of Church orthodoxy. For the sake of readers who aren’t very familiar with Church terms relating to the priesthood, the author offers a succinct glossary.

The book is simply brilliant. One of the most provoking, insightful and inspirational books I have read in the past year. It raised a lot of questions and offered very few answers. It challenged me to reflect on my own decision to choose the Salesian religious way of life. It helped me see the Church in a new light and urged me to raise my level of consciousness with regard to Church policy. I won’t lie to you, but there were stories that brought tears to my eyes and also stories that made me smile. There were moments of deep empathy with the situations of some priests and moments when I felt nothing but shame. The book is definitely not for the light-headed. It has the capacity to shake one’s faith right to its very foundation. But if one does manage to undergo the process of deep and critical self-reflection that the book provokes then I think, individually and ecclesially, there is much to be gained from it.

P.S.: A must-read for all seminarians, priests and those deeply in love with the Church.