Once A Priest

Young Father Griffin marches from Selma to Montgomery with Dr. Martin Luther King. He feels alive, living his religion. When he returns to his all-white parish in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, he discovers that some parishioners have threatened the pastor of the parish, his superior. “Get that nigger-lover out of here or we’ll never contribute another dime.”
Griffin is moved to a church in Cleveland’s slums. He’s hurt. His church has not stood behind him. His disillusionment grows as he sees the church’s indifference to the problems of the poor. He leaves the priesthood in 1968.

Does he abandon his priesthood? Forget about helping people? No, but he eliminates the vocabulary of religion and searches for what ennobles and empowers people. He helps young people sort through life’s problems. He serves a term as a city councilman in Milwaukee, builds a successful business and teaches in prison. Everywhere he tries to lead people to a higher level. In marriage, he finally discovers the love he preached about as a priest. He learns what it means to be a ‘father’ by really being one.

Griffin lives the spirit of ministry, stripped of religion and exercised in the world. Others who love the work, but suffer under institutional rules, will see hope in his life. Any reader who has wrestled with helping others will enjoy Griffin’s spiritual journey.