Book Review: It's Not Necessarily So; A senior priest separates faith from fiction and makes sense

MORRISTOWN, N.J. - June 23, 2016 - PRLog -- Fr. Richard Rento approaches his mission of "separating faith from fiction" devoid of any reference to ontological differences or special signs which distinguish and separate him from the mass of "banished children of Eve"-- words which make him bristle and which he will not say today.  Instead he declares:  "To anyone who holds that God's love is constant, infinite, unconditional, the very notion of banishment from that love is inconceivable.  There never have been 'exiled children of Eve' and no one, including the mother of Jesus, has ever had to gain access to God for us.  Nor are we priests and religious…to be bridges between the unwashed masses and the unapproachable deity."

Such expressions of realistic, objective, honesty provide insight into the character of this gentle, octogenarian priest.  He is not intimidated.  His desire is to inform and encourage us to ask questions--to seek intelligent responses and affirmation of the dignity and right of the laity, with the clergy and theologians, to participate fully in the examination and discussion of church teachings.  He affirms repeatedly the work of the Spirit, active always within all creation.  He recognizes and empathizes with the suffering of all the "excluded."   He acknowledges the legitimacy of the sensus fidelium.  He laments the inability of the church to recognize fully the consequences of our 14-billion-year story and the necessity to develop theology enabling us to live intelligently and honestly with 21^st century scientific actuality and discovery (which he terms a form of revelation).

As he himself points out emphatically, he is not a professional theologian.  But he certainly does not present any watered-down theology, and he demonstrates his great courage in frankly addressing, examining, and answering many questions to which both clergy and theologians continue to offer the same inadequate, moribund answers or to slink away seeking safety in conservative bishoprics and institutions.

Fr. Rento uses the basic questions of good reporting to head the titles of his chapters:  Who Do You Say I am? What's It All About? When Life Happens; Where Did It Go Wrong? How Do We Make Things Better?  Why Stay in the Church At All?

Within these chapters, he addresses a myriad of topics including: Our Concept of God; Who Do We Say Jesus is? Faith, Hope and Miracles; God in Intervention; Original Sin?  Primacy of Conscience; Gay and Straight; Cleric-ism; Laws and Orders: Church As Community, Not Dictatorship; A Growing Changing Faith: A Faith In A God for Today; Till Death (of the Marriage) Do Us Part; Marriage and Divorce Jesus Style; In Vitro Fertilization; Confronting The Sexual Abuse Crisis In the Church; Faith-Filled Doubts; The Holy Spirit: God In Us; Responsibility of  Authority'

A native of Clifton, NJ, Father Rento, graduated from St. Paul's Elementary School and Clifton High School.  He went on to Seton Hall University, Immaculate Conception Seminary, and the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he obtained his Licentiate in Sacred Theology.  A priest of the Diocese of Paterson, NJ, for 58 years, he ministered as pastor, administrator, educator, hospital chaplain, radio broadcaster, lecturer, and retreat-giver. For 20 years he was diocesan director of religious education and director of continuing education for priests; for the next 20 years he served as pastoral team coordinator at St. Brendan Church in Clifton, NJ.  In 1998, he retired and now lives in Lavallette, NJ, where he remains active, serving as Catholic chaplain at the Seabrook Village retirement community in Tinton Falls, NJ; presides at the weekly WPAT Radio Mass in Paterson, NJ; and lectures, gives retreats and days of recollection.

Who should read this book?  To whom is it addressed?  EVERYONE!  As editor Mary Aktay says in her Editor's Note:  "It would be a danger not to read this book."  And as Fr. Rento says in his Preface:  "I hope you find yourself very often in these pages." For more information go to VOTFNJ's website: http://www.votfnj.org