Parish Priest, Douglas Brinkley
Parish Priest, Douglas Brinkley
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Parish Priest

Author: Douglas Brinkley, Julie M. Fenster

Narrator: Julie M. Fenster

Abridged: 5 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 01/10/2006


Synopsis

Father Michael McGivney was a man to whom ""family values"" represented more than mere rhetoric, a man who has left a legacy of hope still celebrated around the world.In the late 1800s, discrimination against American Catholics was widespread. Called to action in 1882, Father McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus, an organization that helped to save countless families. It has since grown to an international membership of 1.7 million men. At heart, though, Father McGivney was never anything more than an American parish priest, and nothing less than that, either.In an incredible work of academic research, Douglas Brinkley and Julie M. Fenster re-create the life of Father McGivney, a fiercely dynamic and yet tenderhearted man. Moving and inspirational, Parish Priest chronicles the process of canonization that may well make Father McGivney the first American-born parish priest to be declared a saint by the Vatican.

About Douglas Brinkley

Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, presidential historian for the New-York Historical Society, trustee of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master.” He is the recipient of such distinguished environmental leadership prizes as the Frances K. Hutchison Medal (Garden Club of America), the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks (National Parks Conservation Association), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lifetime Heritage Award. His book The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He was awarded a Grammy for Presidential Suite and is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates in American studies. His two-volume, annotated Nixon Tapes won the Arthur S. Link–Warren F. Kuehl Prize. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and three children.

About Julie M. Fenster

Julie M. Fenster is an award-winning author and historian, specializing in the American story. In 2006 her book Parish Priest, written with coauthor Douglas Brinkley, was a New York Times bestseller for seven weeks. She also wrote Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It, which won the prestigious Anesthesia Foundation Award for Best Book. Fenster is the author of six other books, including Race of the Century: The Heroic True Story of the 1908 New York to Paris Auto Race and The Case of Abraham Lincoln: A Story of Adultery, Murder, and the Making of a Great President.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Fredrick on October 07, 2014

In the latter part of the 1800s, an anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant attitude prevailed in America. In the midst of this setting in Connecticut was a young, caring Catholic priest. His concern for widows and orphans led him to form a fraternal organization of Catholic men to aid widows and orphans.......more

Goodreads review by Thadeus on February 08, 2011

This book does a great job of laying out the life of a parish priest in America. It also gives a lot of great information about the founding of the Knights of Columbus which is a Catholic fraternal order focused on charity, unity, fraternity, and patriotism that supports church and family. Highly rec......more

Goodreads review by Tony on August 25, 2017

It's remarkable that today we seem to think the only way someone can be discriminated against is by the color of their skin. As a Franco-American raised Catholic, I've long been interested in its other forms. Part of the history behind this diverging avenue can be found among the many and well-publi......more

Goodreads review by John on November 27, 2019

This is a biography of a man I had never heard of before, Father Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus. As the son of a Lutheran minister, I find myself sympathetic to finding out about the lives of people who choose the ministry as an occupation. Using mainly newspaper articles,......more

Goodreads review by David on June 09, 2018

This was a well written account of the life of Father Michael McGivney using limited documentation. The bio information was sparse and the authors filled in with the history of the Catholic Church in Connecticut and New England in general. The founding of the Knights of Columbus was covered well as......more