Summary

In Chapter 8, “The Rectory and Thereabouts,” Joe begins his first pastoral appointment at the parish of SS. Francis and Clare in Inglenook in the sprawling suburbs of Minneapolis. The parish is new, part of the surge in Catholic membership following the sweeping modernization protocols of Vatican Two. The congregation is white, well educated, and upper-middle class. Indeed, when Joe first arrived, he relocated a poor family from inner city Minneapolis and provided them low-rent housing in the hopes that his parishioners would learn the realities of poverty. The plan failed. The relocated family never attended church. The parish is proud of its new rectory (a stunning architectural feat with not one but two offices for the pastor and his assistant as well as spacious living quarters) and its new school, which will attract affluent suburban parents interested in providing private school education for...