"Owen Pick's life is falling apart. In his thirties, a virgin, and living in his aunt's spare bedroom, he has just been suspended from his job as a geography teacher after accusations of sexual misconduct, which he strongly denies. Searching for professional advice online, he is inadvertently sucked into the dark world of incel - involuntary celibate - forums, where he meets the charismatic, mysterious, and sinister Bryn. Across the street from Owen...

"Bishop's Lynn, England, 1413. At the age of forty, Margery Kempe has nearly died giving birth to her fourteenth child. Fearing that another pregnancy might kill her, she makes a vow of celibacy, but she can't trust her husband to keep his end of the bargain. Desperate for counsel, she visits the famous anchoress Dame Julian of Norwich and confesses that she has been haunted by visceral religious visions. Julian offers up a confession of her own:...

In all the coverage of the priestly sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, one story has been left untold: the story of the everyday lives of Catholic priests in America, which remain so little understood as to be a secret, even as one priestly sexual predation after another has come to light. In The Other Side of the Altar, Paul Dinter tells one priest's story-his own-in such a way as to reveal the lives of a generation of priests that spanned...

A young Roman Catholic priest in a Liverpool parish must learn to deal with the issues of homosexuality and incest, as well as conflicts between his vows and his conscience.

Brady Bledsoe and his mother, Carmyn, have a strong relationship. A single mother, faithful churchgoer, and the owner of several successful Atlanta beauty salons, Carmyn has devoted herself to her son and his dream of becoming a professional football player. Brady has always followed her lead, including becoming a member of the church's "Celibacy Circle." Now in his senior year at college, the smart, and very handsome, Brady is a lead contender for...

"Responding to calls for refashioning the priesthood, including proposals from the Amazonian Synod, two ... pastors explain the biblical and spiritual role of the priesthood, celibacy, and genuine priestly ministry. Drawing on Vatican II, they present priestly celibacy as more than 'a mere precept of ecclesiastical law.' They insist that renewal of the Church is bound to a renewed understanding of priestly vocation as sharing in Jesus' priestly identity...