by Anne Hendershott | Catholic World Report blog
Review of Why Priests? A Failed Tradition
By Gary Wills
New York: Viking Press, 2013.
It was no surprise to see Gary Wills’ op-ed on the upcoming papal conclave published in The New York Times, Wills has been a longtime critic of the Church and her leaders—so when he titled his opinion piece, “New Pope? I’ve Given Up Hope,” it was nothing new. The author of the virulently anti-Catholic book, Papal Sin, Wills—a former Jesuit seminarian—gave up hope for the Church many years ago. Now, in his new book, Why Priests? A Failed Tradition, we find that in addition to giving up hope, Wills has now given up his faith. Denying the Real Presence in the Eucharist, the sacrificial interpretation of the Mass, and the salvific mission of Christ, Why Priests? argues for a “re-envisioning” of the Church which removes the distinction between the ordained and the laity. Rather than lobbying for female priests, or gay priests, Wills chooses instead to do away entirely with apostolic succession and the God-given power of the priest to consecrate the Eucharist.
Indeed, Wills’ hatred for priests and the priesthood is palpable on nearly every page of his angry polemic. But it is difficult to understand the source of this hatred because his examples of “clerical privilege” are so silly. For example, on page 31 we begin to get an idea of his early anger toward priests when he describes his days as a young golf caddie who had to give priests “special treatment” on the golf course: “Men already prepared to tee off let him go ahead of them. It was presumed he had to get back to his spiritual tasks.” Wills also recalled that priests often abused parking rules: “once when a priest drove me to the airport to pick up a friend, he stopped in a no-parking area just outside the entry…he told me he had a clerical sticker on his car.” (p 31)
So why did Wills enter the seminary and stay for five years if he had such hostility for the priesthood?