Small Paperback, Good Condition, 1969, 258 pages, ISBN 14 003099 9

Three Cheers for the Paraclete – Thomas Keneally

People matter. Their feelings, their joys and sorrows matter.

These principles, plus his belief in his own small book The Meanings Of God, set young Father Maitland at odds with his superiors and his Bishop.

In a church which sees religious truth as fixed and immutable, Maitland cannot help but become embroiled in a conflict which threatens to destroy him as a priest and as a man.  His efforts to help Egan, the canon lawyer who asks for release from his vows of celibacy, and Hurst, the student who is slowly going mad, and his attempts to speak to his own generation, only lead to further trouble.

Against this background Keneally has created a vivid and thought-provoking novel about the problems which beset the Church today.

"I've read it with great pleasure. I found it very funny indeed: the rather awful comedy inherent in a priest's life, especially a post-conciliar priest's life" – Graham Greene