Tom McCabe, who has just written a book, and I have been friends for more than 55 years, having met in the first year of college. When we were parish priests, we often would meet on our day off to play touch football.

An image just entered my mind! When we were in the major seminary, we played on the class football team. I was the passer and Tom was one of my key receivers. Forty-eight years ago, I threw a perfect pass right into his hands and he dropped it. I now want to go on record that I have forgiven him. I am not the type of person who holds a grudge for 49 years!

Though Tom and I have seen each other only rarely since he left the active ministry in 1970, our mutual admiration has continued through the years. His new book is “Hidden Holiness: Voices of Priests” (Mequon, Wisconsin: Caritas Communications). It is a collection of interviews that Tom conducted with 15 priests, 14 celibate and one married. Except for two, I know personally all of them, having studied with several and having taught three. Since the interviews were conducted, three of the priests have died.

Early on, Tom explains what he is trying to do with the book:

“This book was written with a clear focus: to listen to the stories of a few priests, some of whom may be living heroic lives, but whose stories we never hear. Most of us are tired of hearing the stories of the ‘bad priests’ in newspapers and TV talk shows. We’d like to hear the stories of some of the ‘good guys’ for a change…

“The methodology used in this book is that of case studies. It does not pretend to be a scientific study of the Catholic priesthood whose results can be applied to a larger population beyond those who took part in the study. Questionnaires were not filled out. The priests in this study represented themselves, not all priests. This does not make their stories less important…”

I can see both the advantages and disadvantages of oral history. One advantage is that all the comments are very personal; one of the disadvantages is that each comment is coming from one individual’s perspective.

Let me state first what I liked in Tom’s book. I was touched by the obvious sincerity and zeal of almost all the participants. The picture that comes across of many in the book is self-sacrificing individuals who want to do the work of Christ. Some of the priests in the study appear as literally tireless in their efforts to build God’s kingdom.

I was amazed at some of the accomplishments of some of the priests. From building a homeless shelter that housed men for years to defending and saving thousands of immigrants from being deported; from founding an ecumenical social action organization called East Brooklyn Congregations that built over 3,000 affordable single-family homes in Brooklyn’s inner-city to being a priest-worker for over 20 years; from spending 17 years in a mission in the Dominican Republic working on basic issues such as making clean water available for people to directing a successful shelter for addicts for over 20 years without getting any money from the government. I don’t see how anyone could not be impressed by these and other accomplishments of some of these priests. I was also touched by the comments of one of the priests indicating that he was a recovering alcoholic.

However, I have serious difficulties with the book. Often I wanted to interrupt an interviewee and ask either what he meant by some statement or for some clarification about what was being said. I would have several questions for the one priest in the group who was excommunicated. I also wonder if the priest who said that in the seminary we were taught that women were evil attended some class that I missed.

I found judgmental and really silly some critical comments about priests going on vacations or owning summer homes. Concerning problems with authority, I would like to have heard from the other side.

Occasionally as some priests spoke about their apostolates and style of living, I wondered if their remarks were self-righteous. Concerned that I was reading into their remarks, I spoke to two other priests who had read the book and they had the same impression.

I wish Tom had said what he means by “holiness.” While reading the book, I wondered if I was writing a book like this whom I would select as holy. Four or five priests came to mind. Of course, no one knows who is holy but probably all of us think of characteristics that we think reveal holiness.

I am not sure how much our impressions reveal about ourselves. I know that dropping a football pass does not mean you are not holy – and throwing a perfect pass does not mean you are!