“Priests: The Guise and the Guys Behind the Collar,” by Gaston A. Hebert. CreateSpace (Charleston, 2014). 260 pp. $15.00.
This novel by Msgr. Gaston A. Hebert may be the most insightful book ever written about priests. The reason is that Msgr. Hebert does not pull any punches but presents real men, men with strengths and shortcomings that he undoubtedly has witnessed during his 54 years of priesthood. The novel is an artful presentation of this imperfect, but godly, brotherhood of men.
Each of the 19 fictional priests to whom individual chapters are devoted is carefully drawn so as to be a unique and multi-dimensional character. There are no stereotypes. Each man has a family background different from the family backgrounds of the others, a background important in his formation, for better or worse. While one priest grows up in a family devoted to God, another (of uncertain paternity) grows up in an orphanage. One has an overbearing, manipulative mother, and another has a father who left the priesthood and a mother who is a former nun, neither of whom practices the faith. But all 19 priests love God — sooner or later.
The alcoholic Father Adam loves God no less than the saintly Father Luke. Father Joe, who struggles with homosexuality, loves God no less than the kindly Msgr. Clement, who has no such struggles. Father Josh is a total fraud, for a while — until the moment of his personal metanoia. Readers will recognize their pastors and priest friends, or at least some traits of them, in these characters. Priests will see their brother priests — and maybe even themselves.
Author Msgr. Hebert is a raconteur par excellence. The men’s individual stories and their weaving into one another’s lives form a remarkable literary tapestry. The dialogue rings true, with a natural cadence and authentic voice — even to the point that some of the men swear, but only in a moment of intense shock, anger or pain.
Msgr. Hebert is a master of understatement and dry humor. When an arrogant young priest leaves the pastor he has come to think of as Father “Dumb-ass-ski” (actually Dumbarski) for a new assignment, the narrator comments, “Somehow (Father Dumbarski) got over the loss …” When the same arrogant young priest has difficulty in his new assignment, he is described as again facing “absurdity and frustration from people who had no vision and less intelligence.”
And there are occasional truisms sprinkled throughout the chapters. For instance, “Silver spoons in the mouths of babes rarely foreshadow vocations to the priesthood.” Or, “It is not without precedent that a father’s wishes for his son conflict with the son’s wishes for himself.”
An astute observer of human nature, Msgr. Hebert has written the stories with great love and respect for all the players — the priests and their families as well as peripheral characters.
Msgr. Hebert is a retired priest of the Diocese of Little Rock and currently resides in Albuquerque, N.M. In addition to having been a classroom teacher at Little Rock’s Catholic High School for Boys, he served as pastor for St. Paul the Apostle Church in Pocahontas and Christ the King Church in Little Rock. He also served as vicar general for the Diocese of Little Rock, and, in the absence of a bishop, served as diocesan administrator from 2006-2008.
The book is available from Amazon.com, Christ the King bookstore in Little Rock and Guardian Church Goods Store in Little Rock.
Charlotte Miller taught at Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock for 31 years and moved to Illinois upon retiring. She holds a bachelor’s degree in theology from St. Gregory University in Shawnee, Okla.
