Nothing Sacred: A Journey Beyond Belief [Paperback]

From the author of the award-winning memoir, A Blue Boy in a Black Dress, this follow-up, subtitled "A Journey Beyond Belief," revisits and continues Rigelhof's story. Written after he suffered a stroke at age 59, the story deals with his experiences as an altar boy in Regina (from the amazingly youthful age of five) through his life at seminary in Saskatoon and Ottawa, his near-suicide, and his present secular life as a college teacher in Montreal, the "city of churches." This tour of the attractions (mostly intellectual) and failings (mostly sexual) of Roman Catholicism includes a wide variety of intriguing topics: Saskatchewan history, the immigration of the Volga Germans to the new world, the nature of dyslexia, the mind of Thomas Merton, the results of Vatican II, the future of charismatic Catholicism, and so on. Portraits of a number of priests he has known are a highlight of the book, as the author provides an excellent depiction of the good and not-so-good men who are drawn to the clerical life, from narrow-minded bishops to tough drill-sergeant types at seminary to softer, gentler souls. Particularly fascinating is Father Kitchen, a teetotaler who brings duty-free booze to his friends and who is in constant conflict with "'Archy'--the archbishop--whom he regarded as arch-enemy and arch demon." The description of this priest's lesson to a farmer who beats his wife is alone worth the price of the book. Nothing Sacred is a smooth, thoughtful read from a literate, intelligent man. --Mark Frutkin

The choice man for reading our society’s erratic spiritual pulse. -- The Montreal Gazette

When Rigelhof wrote his award-winning memoir A Blue Boy in a Black Dress, the wall of silence erected by the Roman Catholic hierarchy around the sexual mistreatment of boys remained intact. Nothing Sacred: A Journey Beyond Belief, picks up the threads of his earlier book and sets the revelations of the past decade into the context of his own experience. Rigelhof became an altar boy at Holy Rosary Cathedral in Regina when he was only five. As a youth, he found the church both seductive and disturbing. Yet, his five years of preparation for the priesthood, which spanned the tumult of Vatican II, nearly ended in suicide. Although his allegiance to the Catholic Church ceased with his vocation, the same spiritual passion that drew Rigelhof to the church still fuels his interest in the future of religion and the meaning of faith in contemporary society. In Nothing Sacred, he looks ahead to the fate of organized religion in the 21st century, probing the forces of the human spirit and exploring the meaning of ritual and the human need for myth-making. Hugo Meyell, referring to A Blue Boy in a Black Dress, writes in the Globe and Mail, “I hope that this book will be widely read by those who wonder what the religious future will bring.” Jeet Heer, writing in the National Post, says “Rigelhof combines the urgency of good journalism with the depth of a true scholar . . . Canada needs more Rigelhofs to stir up debate.” Uncompromising and provocative, Nothing Sacred will do just that. Nothing Sacred was a finalist for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction 񢉔).

When T.F. Rigelhof wrote his memoir A Blue Boy in a Black Dress, the wall of silence erected by the Roman Catholic hierarchy around the sexual mistreatment of boys remained intact. In Nothing Sacred: A Journey Beyond Belief, Rigelhof sets these revelations into the context of his personal experience. Nothing Sacred encompasses and builds upon A Blue Boy in a Black Dress. Rigelhof reflects on why he loved serving as an altar boy and why his five years as a seminarian, which spanned the tumult of Vatican II, nearly ended in suicide. Looking ahead to the fate of organized religion in the twenty-first century, he probes the driving forces of the human spirit and speaks up for a more fully human world.

T.F. Rigelhof teaches social analysis at Dawson College in Montreal. His story collection Je t’aime Cowboy was a finalist for the 1994 QSPELL Award for fiction. His 1996 memoir A Blue Boy in a Black Dress was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award and won the QSPELL Award for non-fiction.