Santiago resident Marty Meyer-Gad is one of these women, and she recounts her life journey to her ordination in a new book titled Seventy-Four Cents.  That is the exact amount of money she had in her pocket as she stood on the doorstep of the convent she had just been ordered to leave after a run-in with the Mother Superior of the Order.

 

Of her book, Meyer-Gad says: “Lately, the Catholic Church is put in such a negative light due to the actions of priests and bishops.  My memoire acknowledges grass roots, life-giving efforts toward a renewed Catholic Church with accountability and ownership by all the baptized.”

 

“Obedience” was not a trait that came easily to the young nun depicted in the book, even though she had entered the convent at the age of 14, and had a powerful affinity for the Church as far back as she can remember.  That affinity was coupled with an intense desire to become a priest herself; recalling instances where she and her siblings conducted practice Masses in their home.  And yet she also yearns for a return to the earliest Church, which had no priests.

 

Meyer-Gad also wrote about the advice she received from an older mentor, who urged her to leave the Church and join another denomination where it was possible for women to be ordained, but that was the one thing she simply could not do.

 

Of her ordination day she wrote:  “In 2010 I ritualized my commitment to this Church as I lay prostrate before a community of like-minded believers who refuse to leave the Catholic Church because it is “our” Catholic Church.  A Church we love enough to demand it scrape off the barnacles of history and return to the Church of a ragtag collection of fisherfolk, housekeepers, tax collectors, cooks, prostitutes, child nurturers and all gradations of sinners in touch with the realities of life: the Church of our founder, Jesus Christ.”

 

The book also details her earlier experiences outside the Convent, working in two of the largest parishes in the country, the Archdioceses of Detroit and Chicago, where she served as a consultant, writer and teacher.  The book also contains a fascinating account of her life after she had made the final decision not to seek a life inside a Religious house.

 

With little experience to guide her, she decided that she should marry, and set about the process with the same laser-like focus she brought to her previous endeavors.  Step one was a detailed examination of the mechanics of sex that any wife should know, knowledge of which she obtained through the research section in a branch of the Chicago Public Library. 

 

Having no experience in discovering places to meet suitable men, she also delved into “phone dating” and other matrimonial schemes, interviewing or conversing with an estimated 300 potential spouses before finding “Mr. Right”.  That man, Bruno Gad, is a well-known figure in this area, a very visible member of the Becker Lion’s Club who also works with the American Legion post and a host of other social organizations.

 

The couple and their son, Josh, moved to Princeton, MN in 1989, and have resided in Santiago Township since 1995.  In that time, Meyer-Gad has been a counselor on a suicide prevention hotline, and served as a prison chaplain and was a hospital chaplain in St. Cloud as well. 

 

The book is harrowing at times, as in the case of an interrupted call to the hotline from a desperate teenager, and also contains moments of bliss, like the beautifully-rendered chapter on the chaplain’s relationship with a dying woman who faced her fate with an immense dignity of spirit and joy.

 

Meyer-Gad also expresses her hope for the future of the Church under the new Pope thusly:  “If tomorrow Pope Francis would say that those women validly ordained may serve in diocesan parishes, I would decline. We do not need a church where a female body replaces that of a male.  We need a new structure, where all the priestly people become the ministers of the parish.”

 

The book provides many interesting insights into Church history and practices, along with the author’s views on a wide variety of subjects, including the Latin Mass, the effects of Vatican II and beyond, birth control and abortion, and the future of the structure of the Catholic Church.

 

Seventy Four Cents was published by Create Space, a print-on-demand publishing house.  It is available in book form and on Kindle® through Amazon Books, and hard copies are available at Pedal Inn Antiques in Becker and at Willow Tea in St. Cloud.

 

Meyer-Gad is currently working with a writing group in the area, and has a number of book ideas in the planning stages at the moment, including one for young adults.