![\"a](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/41M4rNvT7PL._SX322_BO1204203200_-195x300.jpg?resize=262%2C403\")
A Giller Prize winner for 2009, The Bishop’s Man\u00a0is told largely in dialogue,\u00a0It exposes the humanity of priests and their fallibility. Their church expects celibacy from them. No wonder so many fail. A priest is just a man.<\/p>\nI just finished reading The Bishop’s Man\u00a0by Linden MacIntyre, a great read following Pope Francis’s recent visit to America and his acknowledgement of the past sins of some Catholic priests. The book underlined the fact that a priest is just a man.<\/p>\n
This novel touches on the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church\u2014how it’s perceived by those within its organization, and how it’s covered up.\u00a0We follow Father Duncan MacAskill, a priest in Nova Scotia, as he struggles with what he knows and what the bishop is asking him to do. He is known as the “enforcer”, the priest who deals with priests who’ve lost their way.<\/p>\n
A Giller Prize winner for 2009, The Bishop’s Man\u00a0is told largely in dialogue,\u00a0It exposes the humanity of priests and their fallibility. Their church expects celibacy from them. No wonder so many fail. A priest is just a man.<\/p>\n
I think back to my childhood, when I regularly attended St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox church in Winnipeg. \u00a0The Orthodox faith is similar to Catholicism in its liturgy and belief in the Holy Trinity. \u00a0But there are some significant differences. In the Orthodox church: \u00a0priests can marry, there is no infallible pope as the head of the church, no purgatory, no original sin, no immaculate conception, and no detailed confession expected. And there are no rumblings about any priest being sexually inappropriate.<\/p>\n
The priesthood is supposed to be a humble calling. A sacrifice, meaning celibacy in the Catholic church. Seems like an unreasonable request unless you’re a man who has no sexual desire. So was it a shocker when a prominent Vatican priest came out a week ago and appeared before the cameras with his lover? I admired his courage and his honesty. He was subsequently fired by the Vatican, the body of men who are not ready to accept that the priest is just a man, one who like anyone else craves affection from a female or a male. Why pretend that a priest can manage celibacy? Everyone knows most can’t. So why does the church insist on this path for priests? Perhaps, if it allowed men to be honest about their feelings and have sexual relationships through marriage (straight or gay), there wouldn’t be so much sexual scandal.<\/p>\n
What do you think? And have you read a book that touches on faith, that moves you, that leaves you wondering about the rules of man, ones that seem impossible to follow.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I just finished reading The Bishop’s Man\u00a0by Linden MacIntyre, a great read following Pope Francis’s recent visit to America and his acknowledgement of the past sins of some Catholic priests.… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A Priest is Just a Man","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[744,88],"tags":[796,800,78,803,797,9,792,798,801,795,802,799],"class_list":["post-2366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-life","tag-catholic-church","tag-celibacy","tag-diana-stevan","tag-faith","tag-linden-macintyre","tag-novel","tag-pope-francis","tag-priest","tag-sexual-scandal","tag-the-bishops-man","tag-ukrainian-orthodox","tag-vatican"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/41M4rNvT7PL._SX322_BO1204203200_.jpg?fit=324%2C499&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-Ca","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2358,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2015\/life\/accepting-differences-at-ground-zero\/","url_meta":{"origin":2366,"position":0},"title":"Accepting Differences at Ground Zero","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"25 \u0412\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0441\u043d\u044f, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I watched the televised broadcast of Pope Francis at Ground Zero. 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We`ll have Easter dinner and admire the pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs) my grandson and I made.\u00a0 He did one based on a short film he`s almost finished (more on that\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/P1090314-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3819,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2018\/writing\/long-lens-at-ukrainian-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":2366,"position":2},"title":"A Long Lens at Ukrainian Christmas","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"13 \u0413\u0440\u0443\u0434\u043d\u044f, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Our Christmas Tree I\u2019ve always loved this time of year,\u00a0 a time to celebrate and once more, revel in the traditions of \"English\" and \"Ukrainian\" Christmas. 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She\u2019d become depressed over racist comments\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"believing the woman","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/2-MP-The-Rubber-Fence.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/2-MP-The-Rubber-Fence.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/2-MP-The-Rubber-Fence.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/2-MP-The-Rubber-Fence.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/2-MP-The-Rubber-Fence.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":560,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/uncategorized\/partying-with-the-deceased-at-hollywood-forever-cemetery\/","url_meta":{"origin":2366,"position":5},"title":"Partying With The Deceased At Hollywood Forever Cemetery","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"12 \u0421\u0435\u0440\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Who knew when my husband and I set out on our trip to Los Angeles, we'd be partying with the deceased. 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