The Other Side of the Altar: One Man's Life in the Catholic Priesthood

by Paul E. Dinter

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374299668
• ISBN13: 9780374299668
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

AMEN to Paul Dinter's "experience"!!!

As an ex-priest myself, I identify with Dinter's spiritual experience. I empathize fully with his emotional odyssey. I ministered in several parishes in NY, California and Rome. I was always shocked by the hubris and arrogant self-righteousness of church leaders (from pastors to the Vatican higher-ups!). As a priest I was and still am tormented by many unanswered questions re church dogma. I consider most religious beliefs as unproven and pure cultural myths. The spiritual void and emotional loneliness devastated me as a priest... I always looked down on celibacy as an absurd and unnatural requirement that renders the priestly ministry much more difficult and ineffective. NOW, just as Dinter I'm happily married and feel like a living human being.

The dysfunctional priestly caste

This is a riveting breathtakingly honest look behind the scenes of today's Catholic priesthood in America. It's not about the headline sexual abuse scandals. It's about abuse that seldom makes the headlines -- abuse inflicted by the systemically dysfunctional climate within which priests must conduct their lives. The picture is not a pretty one -- honest expression stifled, initiatives thwarted, and normal human friendships crippled or tabooed. It shows the disabling effect on priests of being subject to heavy-handed authority, unyielding dogma, unrealistic law, and a code of celibacy that is a prescription for aching loneliness. All too often alcohol and other addictions fill the vacuum. But this is not an angry book. Dinter doesn't whine or rant. And that is the book's power. It objectively states facts, events and names. Dinter clearly loved his ministry and pursued it with energy and commitment. But the tension between this pursuit of his calling, and the human toll exacted as the price of membership in the priestly caste, became intolerable. So he resigned, not from his ideals, but from the dysfunctional system within which he was forced to try and live out these ideals. Dinter's quiet eloquence gives us a rare glimpse into the abuse inflicted on good priests by the disabling role expectations of an outmoded caste system.

Why did he stay in the priesthood so long?

This revealing book sheds light on the seminary training and life in the priesthood which finally ended for the author after a 39-year journey. The writing in this book flows well as the author begins with his life as a child, his seminary years, pastoral work in several parishes, campus chaplaincy, doctoral work, and a sabbatical at the Vatican. He tells about bad priests he encountered along the way and the many good priests who remain devoted to the flocks that they serve.I wondered how he could continue as a seminarian in such a repressive and then permissive atmosphere. A sign should have been placed over the seminary door: "Beware all ye who enter here!"He was a glutton for punishment from his domineering, powerful prelates as a priest, and I wondered why he stayed in the priesthood. After a lengthy description about all the good work he and others had accomplished while he was a chaplain at Columbia University, I expected that he would at least receive high marks from the bishop. Instead, he was called on the carpet and told that he no longer had a job!He then went to study for a year in Rome after spending a summer in England. He describes the Vatican disparagingly as "a men's club on the Tiber." He was uncomfortable in the atmosphere of suspicion and distrust that prevailed there. When a group of priests had dinner with a visiting bishop from America, it was a command performance where the bishop embarrassed and humiliated the priests instead of being an enjoyable occasion of friendship and congeniality.Upon returning to the U.S., he was not given an assignment and was treated with disdain when he pleaded with the chancery office to place him somewhere. When he received no placement, he took matters into his own hands and asked a fellow priest if he could stay at his rectory. After he moved there, he substituted as a fill-in priest in that area and also taught at colleges. He soon made many friends among the laity who supported him when he fell in love with a widow in the parish, left the priesthood, and married there. They are still members of that parish.Dr. Dinter's experiences with his bishops left me with bad feelings toward them. The career men fawning on their superiors so that they will receive promotions are a despicable lot who have lost sight of the church as the Body of Christ. For them it has become a corporate ladder, and they care not for the lowly priests under their dominion after they reach the top.I believe the author's writing is an honest, brave portrayal of his priesthood. One prevailing theme is the unnecessary mandated celibacy for priests, which he compares with a disability. The book explains why so many priests become sexually abusive to children and adolescents. Dr. Dinter paints priests as extremely lonely men who cannot openly dissent about any Catholic teaching for fear of being ostracized by their superiors and/or being sent off to remote parishes in the hinterland. Banishment is the club

The First Estate - Heaven Help Us!

Paul Dinter gives the Catholic laity a rare view into the process of priestly formation. The Other Side of the Altar confirmed some of my ideas of this process, but revealed many other aspects of the continuous formation of Catholic clergy.Mr. Dinter's use of his own story, his personal experiences, makes the book credible and interesting. The layers of possible dysfunctional behavior -- that of the individual priest, the collective group of priests and the entire Roman Catholic hierarchy -- are intertwined and bring understanding to many of the problems currently associated with the Catholic clergy.The author clearly defines a curious view of human sexuality that is mainstream to past and present Catholic doctrine. How important this issue is to letting the Catholic Church move forward and into the new millennium is a matter for all readers to decide. Paul Dinter's ideas on this issue certainly broadened my perspective in this area.Paul Dinter spares no punches and names some prominent people that touched his priestly formation. A great read for all readers and a must read for all Catholics.

5 STARS!

This is a beautifully told story of a man's journey of self-discovery. The parallel story of the Catholic Church and the priesthood is equally compelling. Mr. Dinter is a writer and philosopher who expresses himself with grace and humor. I could not put this book down.Thank you, Mr. Dinter, for sharing your story.