A Roamin’ Catholic

It was a fluke. I was out walking, listening to CBC radio and heard the parent of a trans kid was Rita Celli’s guest on Ontario Today. I changed my walking route to listen uninterrupted. Rick Prashaw, a former Roman Catholic priest was sharing how he left the priesthood to marry and later became dad to Adam, his trans son; a story of life, faith, transitions, tremendous joy, and profound sorrow. As a person of faith and mom to a trans daughter, I bought his book Soar, Adam, Soar (Dundurn Press, 2019); I encourage readers to do the same, it’s a story for everyone.

So is his newly published second book, a memoir, Father Rick Roamin’ Catholic. It too is a story of transitions. He takes readers on a journey through them all; you won’t want to put the book down, eager to hear what’s around the next corner. A great storyteller, Prashaw invites us to the kitchen table to listen along with his niece (who is among “the nones” – no religious affiliation nor church attendance, Canada’s fastest growing religious group – Pew Research 2019) and his great nephew. He regales them with fun memories and personal discoveries from some of the most profound moments of his life as a kid in a big, Catholic, northern Ontario family, a journalist, a priest, a husband, a politician, an advocate and a dad. Gently but honestly, Prashaw also leads readers through the heartbreaking topics of abuse by clergy and the church’s role in Residential Schools.  

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Prashaw’s son Adam, with childhood wisdom, once said, “God is big, very big. God is bigger than the sky.” From Adam, and from life, Prashaw has learned that God’s plan is not always precise: “My faith was now more Roamin’ than Roman Catholic, a God bigger than any catechism taught me. Be who we are. Love who we love. A believer, still standing.”

Thank you, Rick (and Friesen Press) for sharing your story!