How is it possible for an idealistic young priest to keep the spirit alive when he finds money changers in the temple?
Father JP Lacey throws himself into the priesthood after twelve years in the seminary. The year is 1964.
He's going to free the captives and give sight to the blind as the prophet Isaiah has directed. He hears confessions, chaplains parish groups and struggles to bring God into the lives of the people. But nothing works as he anticipated. The world is in tumult with the death of JFK, civil rights demonstrations, the war in Vietnam and the sexual revolution. Even the rock-strong Catholic Church has been shaken by the second Vatican Council.
JP searches for answers. The fierce God of his childhood gives way to a God of love. Helping others replaces a life of rules. But a deep void eats at his heart. He is alone.
When a young woman in the parish, Caitlin O'Neil, contacts him for help, JP must decide what kind of priest he will be. Caitlin has been ordered to fire the only black man in the company she works for. Will JP offer pious advice or will he stand with her, even when he discovers that the owner of the company is a good friend of the bishop's?
The Catholic Church, which has filled the two of them with a desire to make the world better, now stands in their way.
JP finds himself falling in love with Caitlin despite his vows. Caitlin struggles with her feelings. She's been raised Catholic and falling in love with a priest is taboo. In addition, a dynamic union organizer has proposed to her. A wild ex-nun shows JP one way to leave the priesthood, while a self-educated church janitor counsels a different way.
What is love? Where is God? Why celibacy? When do you follow your conscience and not the church? JP and Caitlin search for answers as they stride toward the light.
Review from The Surrey Now, Saturday September 22, 2001
Fictional account tells Christian truths
"Spirituality is found beyond the church, not in the church," claims former Catholic priest and Surrey writer Ed Griffin.
"The church is a school. You learn your lessons and then you graduate and become an adult Christian."
In
Beyond the Vows, Griffin fictionalizes the story of his own five years as a Catholic priest.
"The young priest sets out to save the world, but soon discovers that he's the one who needs saving. He tries to have his church confront modern problems, but he finds that money rules. On his journey to the light he meets a greedy bishop, a philosopher-theologian janitor, a courageous young woman and a wild ex-nun. He tries to replace the fierce God of his childhood with a God of love. Even though he pours himself into parish work, a deep void still heats at his heart. He is alone."
What is love? Where is God? Why celibacy? When do you follow your conscience and not the church? These are the questions of
Beyond the Vows.
Griffin was a Roman Catholic priest in Cleaveland, Ohio between 1962 and 1967. He became active in the civil rights movement and marched in Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King. Removed from a surburban parish for his activities, he served for three years in Cleaveland's central city.
After leaving the priesthood Griffin earned a master's degre at the University of Wisconsin and was elected to Milwaukee's city council in 1972. He met his wife, Kathy, in Milwaukee. Raised an Irish Catholic, she was active in the civil rights and peace movements.
Griffin and his family moved to British Columbia in 1988, where Griffin helped establish a dynamic writing community in Surrey.
He is the founder of Western canada's largest writers' conference, the Surrey Writers' Conference. Griffin teaches creative writing at Matsqui Prison. He taught the same subject at Waupun prison, a maximum security prison in Wisconsin.