Priests: What Lies Ahead

This book offers in-depth interviews of four prominent priests and Church leaders on the meaning and vocation of the Catholic priesthood today. The changes that our society and the Church are going through in the modern world present an opportunity for a new, broader productivity and impact of the priest. Those interviewed show that todays priest will be able to achieve that impact by focusing on what he is called to be: teacher, father, physician and shepherd. These are four images of the One Priest, who is the true Teacher, Father, Physician and Shepherd: Christ the Lord. In order to better understand these images of the priesthood, four priests  Archbishop Charles Chaput, Fr. Luis Ladaria, Cardinal George Pell, and Fr. Livio Melina present their personal insights on the meaning and future of the priestly vocation. They present these insights with the authority, the experience, and the gravity of their own priesthood on what makes a priest's life productive and spiritually fruitful. Within the framework of an extended conversation with another priest, Fr. Carlos Granados, they present to us a vivid, straightforward testimony, while raising and answering the major questions about the priesthood.