Above: Father James Magee
This year Pope Francis shared his thoughts on reading. Novels and poems, he wrote, are part of one’s path. And they’re more than just entertainment. This letter on literature maybe wasn’t a surprise, considering Pope Francis once taught the subject in a Jesuit school in the 1960s.
While the letter was addressed to seminarians, its advice garnered the interest of many.
NC Catholics interviewed eight priests who shared what’s on their bookshelves, which words resonated and what the habit of reading means to them.
Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama shared some titles on his bookshelf: The Good Pope by Greg Tobin and Anam Cara, a book of Celtic wisdom, by John O’Donohue. And if you spot Bishop Luis in a bookstore, it may be in the biography or historical fiction section, as those are his favorite genres.
Father Michael Schuetz, trying to read more
All-time favorite book:
Come Rack, Come Rope by Robert Hugh Benson. I love the idea of missionaries … they are always a great witness and example. What I love about this story is the way the writer shows a young man’s desire to serve God as a priest … and the man’s own struggle with his human attraction to marriage, family life, comfort and self-preservation.
As a reader:
I feel like our modern world is constantly telling us that the only way to live is to live for efficiency and productivity. I feel like we are told that we cannot take time to do things that will nurture us. Yet, that is exactly what seems to happen when we read literature. We are not being productive, in a strict sense. There is the obvious benefit of helping us understand people and the ways that people interact with each other. However, there is no benefit in the sense of gaining success or advancement. Sometimes, I find it very hard to be committed to reading. After a long day, I don’t always want to pick up a book. I would prefer to watch a baseball game or some other sporting event! So, I have intentionally blocked off time on my calendar every week for reading.
Recent read:
I just finished reading a murder mystery from the Joe Pickett Detective series by C.J. Box. I’ve also enjoyed mysteries stories. I love trying to solve the mystery along with the characters. I have also read a lot of Agatha Christie novels. I just started reading The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. I always try to have a pious spiritual book, a biography or life of the saint/Christian and a professional development book on my reading table.
Father Mark Betti, can read in four languages
On reading:
We never read the same book twice. Even if we have read a book before, the next time we read it we come to it with new life-experiences that shape our values, priorities and outlook. Thus, some parts of the book that were not important to us in the first reading may be completely enriching after the second read-through!
Last book read:
My African Journey by Winston Churchill, in preparation for the arrival of two Ugandan priests to our diocese
Personal favorites:
1984 by George Orwell. I read it every 10 years or so. My favorite genre is "seafaring adventure" novels, such as the Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and The Battleship Boys series by Frank Gee Patchin.
Father Michael Burbeck, reading helps him personally and pastorally
Thoughts on literature:
One of the values of literature for me is that it broadens empathy and understanding of the human condition. Any one of us only has so many experiences. Great literature can help the reader to enter and see the world through another person’s eyes, imagine their interior life and taste their experience. This is enriching personally but also pastorally as it helps the priest to more easily engage with others who, by definition, have a different perspective and set of experiences than he does. Good literature also helps me to know myself better, as each book can also be a mirror of sorts, helping me to understand and give words to my own experiences.
Reading now:
I am currently rereading The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) by Alessandro Manzoni. It is regarded as one of the great works of Italian literature and is one of Pope Francis’ favorite books.
Some favorite authors:
Leo Tolstoy, J.R.R. Tolkien, Evelyn Waugh, Henry James and Walker Percy
Father John Durbin, read the Harry Potter series during pandemic
Importance of reading:
I have found that in order to preach, I have to read. Bits of science … of course theology, but also poetry, literature, biography and fiction. Several of my homiletics professors suggested that novelists can often touch the heart far more deeply than any theological treatise/book. I have often found that to be true, and I think immediately of Morris West’s The Clowns of God and The Shoes of the Fisherman, two old classics.
Reading now:
A book on D-Day. I visited the grave of Philip Edelen, a priest of Raleigh who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943, was at Normandy on June 6, 1944, was wounded on the 9th, and died on the 10th. He was just 30 years old. It was a very moving experience to be there, and reading the book gives me some small insight into the bravery and sacrifice of so many.
Favorite poets:
Mary Oliver, who writes “At the end of my life, I don’t want to simply have lived; I want to have been a bride married to amazement, a bridegroom gathering the world into my arms.” Brian Doyle wrote poetry-prose with images, such as “the thin, bony man of Nazareth,” that caught me off guard.
Father James Magee, called doing this interview “homework”
Thoughts on the pope’s letter:
He shows the importance of literature in our formation as Christians. This is true for literature more than any other medium. It is best able to communicate the human condition in all its depth, riches and struggles.
Last book read:
American Lion by Jon Meacham. It is a biography on Andrew Jackson.
Favorite genre/author:
I enjoy history, theology, biography, classic novels and stories about the sea. Authors whose works I enjoy are J.R.R. Tolkien, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Patrick O’Brian and Pope Benedict XVI.
Father Javier Castrejón Flores, agrees with Pope Francis about reading and mental rest
How reading helps:
Reading has helped me a lot to rest my mind from work issues and it helps me think and use my imagination. I agree that literature is like mental rest and at the same time it continues to give us ideas in the creativity of our life and ministry. As Pope Francis wrote, "it provides an oasis that keeps us from other choices that are less wholesome” and "the habit of reading has numerous positive effects on people’s lives, helping them to acquire a broader vocabulary and thus develop broader intellectual abilities".
Reading lately:
The last two books I read are by Arturo Pérez Reverte: A History of Spain, and by Jonas Jonasson, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. The next book I have at home to read is by Jon Fosse, titled Blancura.
Favorite authors:
Authors like Amedeo Cencini and Marian Rojas Estapé; I have certainly been reading more books of psychological and canonical nature because of the service I provide in the Diocesan Tribunal as judge and judicial vicar.
For the classics … authors Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo, who are an older style, but I like to reread them for the great stories they tell us.
Father James Labosky, father told him books were key to traveling time and the world
Value of literature:
It’s a written expression of people and culture as well as a doorway into hearts and lives. My parents were both avid readers and fortunately passed that gift on. I remember my father telling me that with a book in your hand you can travel into the past, through the present and into the future.
A book club:
Currently I am finishing Jon Meacham’s American Lion and have Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton lined up. Years ago one of the UNC students who lived across the street started coming by and the first thing Will always asked was “What are you reading?” We began reading a lot of biographies of the founding fathers and presidents. He even talked me into reading Robert Caro’s four-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. It gave me a real insight into this man of contradictions.
Favorite authors:
I am an avid reader of American authors. I love the works of Melville, the great and thundering sermons of Cotton Mather and the gentle and profound poetry of Emily Dickinson. I love the great works of John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway. I also read “pallet cleansers” for a change of pace. I just finished Thomas Ricks’ Everyone Knows but You, a story about an FBI agent in Maine.
Father Thomas Davis, still remembers the first time the book was better than the movie
Current read:
I have a seminary classmate, Father John Tuohey, who got a doctorate in moral theology, taught at Catholic University of America and then served as the ethicist for a chain of Catholic hospitals. He's just retired and written a small book on morality that I am reading. It’s titled Striving to Be Perfect as the Heavenly Father Is Perfect.
On the road:
When I'm driving, I have an audio book playing. Right now it is a detective novel by Donna Leon about Commissario Guido Brunetti in Venice. She has written a whole series of crime/justice novels. A crucial character in every book is Venice, its monuments and its people. I feel I have been there even though I haven't.
Reading influencers:
Father Charlie Mulholland … Charlie was an inveterate reader of poetry. And he'd tell you about it and share new finds. Because of him … I will memorize something of beauty when I discover it. They can be creative sources of prayer.
My family liked to read … when she was suffering from Alzheimer’s, my mother missed reading. You need to remember the last page you read for the next page to make sense. I was with her once when America's Funniest Home Videos was on TV. She watched, smiled and laughed. They were all short stories, pie-in-your-face and it's over. The best ones are those that make us think and then laugh at ourselves. Jesus taught by telling stories and most of them are short. At our best, we remember them, internalize and apply them and, if we are lucky, we share them.
Note: NC Catholics edited responses for style and space.
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