A father recounts his rollercoaster life

Review by TIMOTHY HARTNAGEL
Special to the WCR

Secure and Uncertain is Raymond Currie’s contribution to the Inspiring Lives memoir series of Anderson House Press. And a very inspiring contribution it is.

It’s a personal and moving reflection on an interesting life filled with more than the usual number of struggles and challenges, but also with a secure foundation of love and support.

An outline of his life -- growing up in Winnipeg in the 1930s and ‘40s in a traditional Catholic family; entering the Franciscans and ordained a priest in 1960; ministry in Western Canada; graduate studies in sociology at New York’s Fordham University, obtaining his PhD in 1973; a faculty position at the University of Manitoba, followed by resignation from the priesthood and marriage; parenting with his wife Charlene two adopted children with severe disabilities; a distinguished academic career as teacher, researcher, head of the sociology department and dean of arts; followed by a very active retirement — merely touches the surface of a life lived with an admirable combination of wisdom, intelligence, compassion and insight.

Catholic influence

In the Introduction, Currie says that writing this book allowed him to discover things about himself, particularly how prominent his Catholicity has been in his life, and specifically his work as an academic.

The remaining chapters illustrate well the competing realities of the security and uncertainty of the book’s title: the security found in the love and support of family and friends; the uncertainty of belief, motivation and, in particular, how to best support and parent children with disabilities.

The first chapter is titled Noranne and describes his first experience as a teenager of falling in love while a student at St. Anthony’s College in Edmonton, the Franciscans’ minor seminary.

This experience was an early struggle with his vocation to the priesthood and resulted in his dropping out of school for a year to consider his future. While he decided later that year to prepare for the priesthood, I would have been interested in more details of how he managed to resolve this early struggle. In retrospect, Currie believes this early experience made him more compassionate as a priest.

Currie then proceeds to describe his early Catholic family life characterized by a strict but thoughtful father and a compassionate, interceding mother who was supportive of all his life choices.

The early years

Three chapters concern his early years in the Franciscans, his training in philosophy and theology in Quebec, and his initial years of ministry in Western Canada. His years in the seminary were times of theological debate leading up to the Second Vatican Council. Currie was privileged, I think, to experience first hand some of this debate.

From 1967 to 1972 Currie was permitted to pursue doctoral studies in sociology at Fordham University. Already he was experiencing some doubts regarding his faith; and he candidly describes his graduate student life apart from his religious community. In hindsight he recognized his neglect of prayer and meditation and claims not to have a sense of a personal relationship with the Divine, the expectation of which he somewhat surprisingly states was naïve.

It was during this time that he quickly became friends with his future wife Charlene, a religious sister who was also a sociology graduate student. The ferment created by Vatican II, the intellectual stimulation of graduate studies, and the exciting social and cultural life of New York all helped create intense relationships among his cohort of graduate students.

Currie now recognizes how little he understood that in allowing himself to become so close to Charlene while still in the priesthood he was laying the groundwork for a major life shift. Their separation at the completion of their graduate studies was difficult, made more so by the sense that their time in New York had been the most exciting of their lives.

Currie returned to Manitoba to begin his academic career, a time of personal turmoil regarding his future as a priest and Franciscan. His decision to obtain laicization was a culmination of his doubts about his faith, the lack of personal bonds with his confreres, and his love for Charlene, resulting in their marriage in 1975. He regrets neither his years in the Franciscans nor his decision to resign.

The sociology side

Two chapters are devoted to his academic career of teaching, research and university administration. While as a fellow sociologist (full disclosure -- I’ve met Ray Currie once or twice, but mainly know of him by reputation) I found these chapters informative, most readers will be more interested in the two chapters focusing upon his family and personal life.

The first — titled Suffering with our Children — is a moving discussion of his and Charlene’s parenting of two adopted children, both of whom turned out to suffer from severe mental disabilities. As the seriousness of their respective disabilities became clearer, family life became extremely stressful and filled with struggles, some of which resulted from dealings with social service agencies and the legal system.

In the midst of these difficulties Charlene suffered a stroke and an operation for cancer; and Currie’s brother John, a diocesan priest, died. Currie’s candid reflections on these struggles, and the other events of his “secure and uncertain” life story, present an inspiring message of unconditional love and trust.

(Timothy F. Hartnagel is professor emeritus, department of sociology, University of Alberta.)

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 -- Western Catholic Reporter