Shepherding the Family of God: The Spirituality of Diocesan Priests in St. John of Avila

This is an important book, and it comes at a crucial moment when there is growing awareness that we are living in a time of reform and renewal in the Catholic Church. The troubles of the Church in our times are not unique. In fact, we see striking similarities between our times and those of St. John of Avila in pre-Reformation Europe. What Pope Francis has said about our times also applies to St. John's times: "We are not living in an era of change but a change of era." As in John's time, the Church carries out her mission today in an emerging global society marked by rapid and profound changes -- technological, economic, political, and cultural. These changes challenge the Church's moral authority and institutional structures and call into question her truth claims in a secularizing society. In every period of the Church's history, the key to her reform and renewal is the reform and renewal of the priesthood.