A DEGREE OF DIFFERENCE

by George Barry Ford ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 8, 1969

Father Ford has spent fifty of his eighty-four years reacting against prejudice, piousness and popes. He has been a rebel Roman Catholic since the boyhood days when he snuck into the Protestant services down the Street and discovered that every sect considered itself ""the sole repository of religious truth."" In this long look back he snipes at everything from the sterility and artificiality of seminary training to the kind of political pussyfooting that maintains an ultraconservative impotence in the higher levels of the Church. As Chaplain for Columbia University's Newman Houses he found that ""in order to be a bishop one does not have to be either a Christian or a gentleman"" in his run-ins with the ""Gestapo"" tactics of his superiors. He also became an intimate of everyone from Thomas Mann to Eleanor Roosevelt and he discusses the activist ""climate"" of the twenties and thirties and the slow, painful steps toward reform movements. He has his own proposals for enlightened advancement in the Church--an end to the burden of parochial schools, a sweeping change in the political structure and hopes for a ""divine discontent"" among laymen that will speed up the process. If Father Ford's writing were as fine as his instincts this would be a real lift for the laity; but it's a little like reading gossip according to the Gospel.

Pub Date: Dec. 8, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION