Enormous Prayers

the long version

Thomas Kunkel takes the reader along with him on a personal journey through the United States to meet twenty-eight working priests. Through absorbing portraits that enable each Father to speak for himself, a broad painting of a diverse and changing Catholic Church - and even larger mural of contemporary America - emerges. Kunkel's interviews cut across a wide variety of priests, from those who are part of monastic communities to those who are responsible for parishes in impoverished urban neighborhoods. Without shying away from the very real problems plaguing the priesthood, Kunkel still manages to provide a humane lens through which to view these mortal men who have taken on the yoke of living a godly life. The result is a compelling, "inside" documentary of present-day Catholicism in the United States.