Diary Of A Ghetto Priest

Father Richard Ho Lung, M.O.P. - poet, teacher, musician - is the founder of the Missionaries of the Poor, one of the fastest growing religious orders in the world. Known as the "reggae priest," Fr. Ho Lung had a hit single and critically acclaimed musical. He and his band - Father Ho Lung and Friends - toured the world. In his spare time he taught literature at the University of the West Indies. In 1980, he left behind the fame and academic life, and founded the Missionaries of the Poor to serve the poor and downtrodden in his island home through service and song. Now, marked by a joyful sense of sacrifice and love, Fr. Ho Lung and his more than 550 brothers and his army of volunteers minister to thousands in eight countries around the globe. Here, in the first and only authorized biography of Father Ho Lung and his order, Joseph Pearce - the pre-eminent Catholic biographer of our time - gives a full and vibrant account of a man who, along with his brothers, is truly changing the world. Candles in the Dark is not simply the fascinating story of a man and his order, it is a powerful reminder that God still works in our world today.

The slums of Kingston, Jamaica are among the most poor and violent on earth. But in the midst of crumbling buildings and shattered families, of addictions, hunger, and crime there is a sign of hope: Father Richard Ho Lung and his Missionaries of the Poor. Here on the streets of Kingston, Fr. Ho Lung and his brothers care tenderly for the poor, pray with them, and preach the Good News. In Diary of a Ghetto Priest, Father Ho Lung offers readers an extraordinary glimpse into his life's work. And he extends an invitation: Come see the exuberant, tragic lives of the poorest of the poor. Dare to experience their sorrows and their joys. Be willing to encounter the Lord in the most unexpected places. Your life may never be the same.

From a back garden near Liverpool to the borders of Afghanistan, from Moscow to New York, author Paul L. McGregor takes us on a journey of discovery through fiction and journalism. A son of the working class, he presents narratives that combine fictional portraits of those who today would be called underprivileged with journalistic pieces whose countercultural commentaries offer a reminder of long-lost and much-maligned cultural, spiritual, and personal values. In these tales, McGregor recalls his parents, his childhood home, and his working-class neighbourhood in England; the collapse of the workers paradise in Russia; and meeting the saintly Fr. Ho Lung in Kingston, Jamaica. Riding a bus to the Mexican border an ex-convict gives him a lesson in dignity, and centuries-old frescoes in Italy lead him to reflect on what future awaits the Western world. By turns poetic and whimsical, this insightful collection of stories describes one mans quest to sail off into the world and share the adventure.

Originally published in Hebrew, this memoir bears witness to the systematic destruction of some 135,000 Jews in the Ukranian city of Lvov during the Holocaust. The author, a rabbi, escaped death because he was hidden by the Ukranian archbishop of the Uniate Catholic Church. His wife and young daughter were also given refuge, separately, in Catholic convents. The memoir covers the period from July 1, 1941, when the Germans occupied Lvov, to July 27, 1944, when the city was liberated. In the first part of the book, the author is living in the Jewish ghetto under increasingly dire circumstances; in the second part, he is imprisoned in a forced labour camp; and in the third part, following his escape, he is hiding under the protection of Metropolitan Sheptytskyi.

Reprint. Originally published: New York: Holocaust Library, c1978.

A brilliant young atheist in Weimar Germany finds himself among Hitler’s inner circle—as his moral conscience—in this debut historical thriller. Hans Keller was always highly intelligent—so much so that he learned to place little value in what the school or church tries to teach him. But after a chance meeting with the charismatic Josef Goebbels, a leader of the burgeoning Nazi Party, atheistic Hans is offered a key role in shaping the future of the new Germany: providing essential influence within the Catholic Church. As the nation prepares for war, Hans finds himself gaining power in a shadowy world of manipulation and deceit. He soon rises to a level of ultimate status—and ultimate compromise—as Hitler’s personal priest. In this original thriller full of fascinating period detail, author and former priest S. J. Tagliareni offers a rare window into the psychological and moral conflicts raised by Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.

This remarkable chronicle of life and death in the Jewish Ghetto of Kovno, Lithuania, from June 1941 to January 1944, was written under conditions of extreme danger by a Ghetto inmate and secretary of the Jewish Council. After the war, in order to escape from Lithuania, the author was forced to entrust the diary to leaders of the Escape movement; eventually it made its way to his new home in Israel. The diary incorporates Avraham Tory’s collections of official documents, Jewish Council reports, and original photographs and drawings made in the Ghetto. It depicts in grim detail the struggle for survival under Nazi domination, when—if not simply carted off and murdered in a random “action”—Jews were exploited as slave labor while being systematically starved and denied adequate housing and medical care. Through it all, Tory’s overriding purpose was to record the unimaginable events of these years and to memorialize the determination of the Jews to sustain their community life in the midst of the Nazi terror. Of the surviving diaries originating in the principal European Ghettos of this period, Tory’s is the longest written by an adult, a dramatic and horrifying document that makes an invaluable contribution to contemporary history. Tory provides an insider’s view of the desperate efforts of Ghetto leaders to protect Jews. Martin Gilbert’s masterly introduction establishes the authenticity of the diary, presents its events against the backdrop of the war in Europe, and considers the crucial questions of collaboration and resistance.