The Cardinal Virtues

Father Laurence O'Toole McAuliffe, the pastor of Saint Finian's parish in Forest Springs, is weary and worn out, his priesthood and faith in tatters. Once literally a bomb-throwing radical and then a Vatican Council liberal, Lar McAuliffe has grown old and cynical and, worse, is smart enough to know what is happening to him and to despise himself. God, the Cardinal, or some combination of the two, play a dirty trick on Lar by sending Father James Stephen Michael Finbar Keenan, the 'new priest', to the parish. Lar is expecting a classic confrontation between young and old, between sardonic maturity and enthusiastic inexperience. But the new priest does not fit the stereotype. Father Lar is tempted to try to create the classic rectory conflict, but the new priest forestalls that by becoming his friend. Together they face the conflicts and joys, the hopes and pains of the contemporary Catholic parish - the old-fashioned school principal; the bravely dying woman; the destroying mother; the broken family; the reactionary finance committee; frustrated young lovers; and, the chancery office and timid Cardinal, who interferes with the priests' work on every possible occasion.