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What if Your Pastor Is a Dud? Asks the question that, until now, has been spoken only in private conversations. Brian T. Joyce, a retired pastor with decades of ministerial experience, has witnessed the best and worst of Catholic parish experience--and everything in between. The tone throughout is positive. He shines a loving light on a shadow area in the Church's life, with broad consequences for its evangelizing effectiveness. While the title may seem to address lay Catholics and parish staffs, the author's scope extends to all stakeholders, both lay and clerical, from top to bottom, Catholic and other denominations. Joyce calls for excellence in local communities, where Catholics of all levels of conviction, education, and commitment live, worship, and witness to the Risen Christ. Only a priest who has fought the good fight in parochial trenches can break open the meaning of pastoral leadership with such insight, compassion, and humor.

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9781593309138

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If this book had been written in the hope-filled years following Vatican II, the Catholic Church in America might look very different today. Parishes might not be shrinking or disappearing. Many good priests might not have turned away from active ministry to marry, work in education, counseling, law enforcement, and other service-oriented professions. And we might not be lamenting the diminishing number of vocations and ordinations. Better late than never. I applaud Brian Joyce for shining a light in the dark cellar of pastoral ineptitude, a problem that still diminishes effective evangelization in many American parishes. Alfred J. Garrotto is a lay minister in a Catholic parish. He has authored 11 books including The Wisdom of Les Miserables: Lessons From the Heart of John Valjean, The Saint of Florenville, and There's More: A Novella of Life and Afterlife. His Art & Soul book, workshops, and retreats speak to the intimate relationship between artists and the divine source of their gifted talents.

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