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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Cardinal Spellman meet in 1950?

2. For what are students at this university notorious?

3. By the will of whom does Diem rule Vietnam?

4. Who is the host in place of Dick Cavett?

5. Why does James keep secret that he met and was kissed by Pope John XXIII?

Short Essay Questions

1. General Carroll's DIA offers up analysis that the bombing is having no effect on Hanoi's ability to wage war. How do the Joint Chiefs respond?

2. Why is General Carroll successful in his government position?

3. What is James' opinion of segregation and white supremacy as a child?

4. Why does James have a hard time promising to obey and respect Cardinal Cooke and his successors?

5. Ritual requires a newly-ordained priest perform his first priestly blessing on his parents. How do his parents react?

6. Why does James feel out of place among the working-class Irish novices?

7. Why does the President begin to reject escalation of the war and refuse any use of nuclear weapons?

8. Who are the Paulist Fathers?

9. What is the tone difference between Robert F. Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover?

10. Father James continues to have struggles with his vocation and decides to spend the summer on retreat in the Holy Land to reconsider his vocation. How does this trip help him make a decision about being a priest?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Joe feels like a disgrace for leaving the seminary.

Part 1) Why does he leave the seminary?

Part 2) Why does he feel guilty for leaving? What curse manifests from his leaving the seminary?

Part 3) How does his disgrace linger for the rest of the life?

Essay Topic 2

When James is growing up, the Catholic Church is still hiding its accounts of sexual immorality.

Part 1) How does James deal with his struggle with his sexuality?

Part 2) How does he view the religious men around him? How they aid him in his choices?

Part 3) Predict James' reaction to the priests he knows, if he had learned about their breaking of the vow of celibacy. How might this knowledge have affected his decisions?

Essay Topic 3

When given a crayon, Joseph, in the depths of his Alzheimer's, writes his wife's name repeatedly.

Part 1) Why do you think he does this?

Part 2) What does this say about his choice to leave the seminary and wed Mary?

Part 3) How might this make Mary feel? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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