A friend of mine is the daughter of a former priest and a former nun. Her family history is what attracted me to this book...however, "Vows" is very different from what I thought it would be. As its title states, this book is a true story about the author's parents. It isn't a romantic tale of a man and woman who fall in love despite their deep religious beliefs. Actually, there's nothing particularly romantic about the story of Bill Manseau and Mary Doherty, two young people who became disenchanted with the Catholic church long before their paths eventually crossed. "Vows" details what life in the Boston Archdiocese was like a half-century ago. The book explains how Bill and Mary were both inspired to give themselves to the church, but eventually ended up wanting more out of their own lives. Neither of them abandoned the church altogether: in fact, after their marriage, the Manseaus continued to campaign for the Vatican to lift the celibacy requirement that is imposed on all priests and nuns.
The sexual abuse scandal that engulfed the Catholic church several years ago is also a major part of this book. There are some shocking revelations about how the abuse hit close to home in the Manseau family. In spite of all that, however, this book isn't an anti-Catholic or anti-religious manifesto, as one might expect it to be. The author explains the central role that religion played in his family, detailing the ways in which he both shunned and embraced religion at different points in his life. Bill and Mary, who were both treated so poorly by the church in many different ways, never let go of their faith or their desire to help reform what they consider to be serious problems in the Catholic church.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but I really enjoyed reading it. Without being preachy, the author inspires readers to reflect on their own personal values, family ties, and religious beliefs. There is also a lot of interesting historical information presented in this book, and I learned a lot about the Catholic church (and about religion in general) that I never knew before.
Like many who are outsiders to Roman Catholicism, the idea of celibacy and leaving vows for family life is a fascinating subject. Some of the details of Catholic doctrine and practice had me rapidly skimming to the pages ahead. But the book is well documented and very well written. Getting to the parts that interested me, the vows, the marriage, the abuse scandals and the children's ultimate confusion on their places in Catholic world are stories made more fascinating by their "foreignness" to my experiences.
