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Confessions of a
Serial Celibate: Mysteries from an Irish
Catholic Rosary Book One: The Joyful Mysteries
By
J. G.
McAllister (Greg, R'61)
Paperback:
September,
2003
Publisher: 1stBooks Library, 1-601-987-4899
ISBN:
1-4107-6013-8
 In
1958, after the death of Pius XII and the unforeseen election of
Guiseppe
Roncalli as his successor, a revolutionary change began to rock the
Catholic
Church. Young seminarians who were
studying for the priesthood during that time were profoundly affected
by the radical
changes initiated by Pope John XXIII and also by the often- virulent
opposition
from other members of the hierarchy. Confessions
of a Serial Celibate is the account of one such seminarian whose
life was
profoundly transformed during those turbulent days.
With poignant wit and honesty, the author
describes his sometimes painful journey of faith, from the security of
rules
and dogma, to the ambiguities of social concern, and eventually to the
freedom
of laughter and detachment. Central to this journey is the author’s
gradual
recognition of what he calls the “Catholic Operating System,” that
underlying
behavioral program which has determined the thoughts and actions of
Catholics
for the last seventeen hundred years.
Anyone
who has begun to perceive a discrepancy between organized religion and
his or
her own spiritual values will find Confessions of a Serial Celibate
a
stimulating and enjoyable read.
About Greg
McAllister
J.
G. McAllister is a native of northern California,
who entered a Catholic seminary at age sixteen and left nine years
later at age
twenty-five. His seminary tenure
coincided with the reign of Pope John XXIII, whose ideas sparked a
period of
revolutionary change in the Catholic Church. Those
were years of turbulent idealism for
seminarians, the “Joyful
Mysteries” of McAllister’s Irish
Catholic rosary.
After leaving
the seminary as a deacon in 1966, he has
worked as a college instructor, bartender, restaurant manager, truck
driver,
career and education counselor, and tuition benefits administrator. He has two children, Elan Vital and Shane,
and presently resides on the East Coast in a small cottage near a pond.
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