Parish!: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Story of One Vibrant Catholic Community

In 1995, Newsday reporter Keeler began a 16-month series of reports on life in a modern Roman Catholic parish. Because of his own experience with what he perceived to be the rigidity of Catholic dogma and liturgy, Keeler was initially apprehensive about his assignment. Yet, as he reports, he discovered in St. Brigid's, the mother church of the parish of Nassau County, N.Y., a dynamic church full of the life and vitality generated by the enthusiasm of its members for their faith. Keeler was given complete access to parish affairs by St. Brigid's priest, Monsignor Francis X. Gaeta, and the members of the church invited Keeler's questions on the politics of the church and on their own spiritual life. Through interviews with church members and Gaeta, Keeler paints the portrait of a church that has embraced multiculturalism through its liturgies and social programs. Keeler also draws the picture of a parish family whose spirituality is closely connected with their sense of themselves as a growing religious community seeking to practice their faith in ordinary life. Keeler's lively prose brings this dynamic parish to life for readers and provides a glimpse of the ways that the Catholic church might carry itself into the future. (Oct.)