A TROUBLED PRIESTHOOD

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30076, 9 March 1963, Page 3

A TROUBLED PRIESTHOOD

•forts DUrban. By J. F. Powers. Gollancz. 338 pp

Morte D’Urban is the first novel of an American writer already well-known for two volumes of short stories •bout the Irish-American clergy, “The Presence of Grace,” and “Power of Darkness.” The central character of his present book is an ambitious and energetic priest who has the misfortune to belong to the Order of St Clement, a community of Catholic priests noted for its lack of initiative and zeal. Father Urban is a powerful preacher, popular with the laity and an excellent organiser. In his own estimation, he is the “Star of the Order,” but confesses that it is difficult “for a superior man to keep from going sour in the Order of Clement."

His despair of ever “beef-ing-up" the Order increases when he is suddenly transferred to a tumble-down retreat-house in rural Minnesota, formerly a Sanitarium, which is run by three men. Here Father Urban shares a claustrophobic intimacy more conducive to hate than goodwill, though there are moments of tranquility and companionship. He escapes periodically to the surrounding parishes where he preaches at retreats and missions, and very soon adds to his reputation as a popular preacher, and someone who gets things done.

“The usual thing was to drop in on executives at their places of business, but to let them know that he didn't want anything, and if nothing developed, he’d soon be on his way. ’Just wanted you to know where we are. Drop in on us sometime.’ Later, if he ran into somebody he’d met in this fashion, it was like old times ’Hello! Hello!’ He watched the papers for important funerals, too, and turned up at some of these. Wherever he went, people always seemed glad io see him —and, of course, it was all for the Order.” In fact, however, his deeper motives are not so altruistic. At heart he is dazzled by the romance of big-business. Forbidden to accumulate material goods, he finds satisfaction in smoking the occasional expensive cigar (Dunhill Monte Cristo Colorada Maduro No. 1) and in making friends with well-to-do laymen. In this way he becomes friendly with Billy Cosgrove, a ruthless tycoon, who becomes a generous benefactor of the Order, while yielding not an inch to moral pressures. Indeed. it is Father Urban who is led into compromising

situations from which he is forced to withdraw at the price of several disrupted friendships He never really ge>ts through to these people, because he himself is more than half-committed to their •et of values. “Be a Winner” is Father Urban’s motto, and he finally does achieve the recognition within the Order which he desires He remains, however, a lonely man, whose proud policy of “going it alone” has earned him no real friends. When he finally casts off his worldliness he loses all his energy and initiative. and his health de-

teriorates. He becomes like Sir Launcelot' in Malory’s romance, who, when he forsook the world, “waxed full lean.” Morte D’Urban is written with remarkable assurance for a first novel. The characters are all firmly drawn, and the balance between humour and seriousness is delicately handled. In the last chapter, the priest’s isolation is subtly conveyed by a shift in the angle of vision. Throughout the book events are recorded through Father Urban’s eyes; at the end, he is watched through the critical eyes of others. There are some very funny scenes, notably the game of golf between the bishop (who has ideas of appropriating the golf-course and the retreathouse for a seminary) Father Feld, a friend of the bishop’s and Father Urban, during which the green rapidly becomes an arena for the play-

ing-out of personal rivalries. The predominant tone, however, is serious. There is little spirituality in Mr Powers’s priesthood. Religion appears in the light of an economic concern, infiltrated by the materialism of the outside world. Love and obedience are overshadowed by petty jealousy and power politics. There is no stability of values, it seems, to be found anywhere, either in the Church or out of it, a state of affairs which suggests affinities with the late middle ages when “nothing and nobody was for sure, when kings and prelates were selling out right and left."

In contrast, the long, eloquent passage from St Bernard of Clairvaux, at the end of the book, exhorting humility, compassion, prayer and purity of heart, provides a necessary touchstone and affirmation of the spirit.