Press Release

A REFRESHER COURSE FOR BUSY PRIESTS—IN ONE VOLUME

New Book Helps Priests Rediscover What Makes Their Sacred Ministry Unique

Omaha, Neb., January 21, 2008 – Every day Catholic parish priests juggle an endless series of demands on their timeand attention. Many priests lament that in the rush of so much “busy-ness,” the essence of their priestly vocation can get
lost. But help is at hand.

In his new book, Reclaiming Our Priestly Character, Father David L. Toups, S.T.D., offers a doctrinally sound vision ofhow the Catholic priesthood can be renewed. While providing his priest-readers with a refresher course in the sacredcharacter of their vocation, Father Toups also recommends practical ways a priest can live his vocation more fully everyday—even when his schedule is full.

As Associate Director of the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations for the U.S. Conference of CatholicBishops, Father Toups understands the challenges Catholic priests face, and so he surveys, in Scripture and Tradition, the foundation of the priestly character. He identifies the cultural and social “convulsions,” as Father Toups calls them, which followed the Second Vatican Council and led to confusion about the distinctive role of the priest among the Catholic laity and even among Catholic clergy. He reviews the data of the last 50 years and finds that priests who understand the Church’s theology of the priesthood are likely to remain true to their vocation.

Writing to seminarians, the newly ordained, and veteran priests, Father Toups suggests practical ways to keep priestly life from becoming routine, to deal with frustrations and disappointments, and to pattern one’s life after the Good Shepherd and enter, each day, a little more deeply into the love of the Holy Trinity.

“Absolutely indispensable,” says Father Toups, “is a priest’s close attention to his own interior life by reverently offering Mass and praying the Liturgy of the Hours daily, as well as seeking out experienced spiritual directors and confessors, and making time for at least one retreat every year. And in all things the priest must remember who he is and what Christ has called him to be: Amid all the demands of contemporary parish life, this faith in the special character he received at ordination can be the priest’s spiritual anchor.”

Writing of Reclaiming Our Priestly Character Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., said, “If the priesthood is to be renewed—and it surely must be—the renewal must take the form described by Father Toups.”

Father David Toups is available for interviews. Please contact Christine Schicker at 404-610-8871 or Ashley Walker at 678-990-9032, both with The Maximus Group.

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