A Calling in Question: A Memoir

From the moment of his birth in 1937, author Peter Walther was absorbed into the culture of the Catholic Church. Later, as an elevenyear-old boy, he believed he was called by God to be a missionary priest. Seventeen years later, he found himself-an ordained Catholic priest-journeying to a mission station in Sabah, North Borneo. A Calling in Question tells Walther's story of his struggle to free himself from the tangled web of a Catholic upbringing. This memoir presents a collage of several stories, weaving in and out like patterns in a fabric. It is the story of a small boy, growing up in the midst of a world war. It is the story of a family caught in the disintegration of the British class system. It is the story of a Catholic Church, toying with the challenge of change and failing to accept that challenge. It is the story of his experiences deep in the Borneo rain forest, where he initiates a project to teach desperately needed vocational skills. It is a story of his burgeoning relationship with a local health worker that forces Walther to finally confront his ambivalence about being a priest. Most of all, however, A Calling in Question narrates the story of a young man struggling to be authentic while breaking from the embrace of a Catholic culture that had become a substitute for family.