Summary

In Chapter 5, "Ordained," Joe has completed his seminary training. As is the custom in the Church, Joe, newly ordained, is preparing to celebrate his first Mass at the small parish where he grew up. And, Father Stock explains to Joe, following another longstanding Church tradition, during his first Mass Joe himself will go up and down the church’s center aisle and collect a special second offering from the congregation as a way for the parish to express their thanks for providing the Church with a priest. The parish would then accept the second collection money in Joe's name.

Still uneasy with the economics of the Church, Joe objects to actually doing the collecting. In his confrontation with the pastor, Joe decries the tradition. "[F]or us to take up the collection is to cheapen the Mass and the priesthood" (59). Surely, Joe argues...