Opening with a scene from his real-life March, 1969 experience of crossing the Iron Curtain at the German-Czechoslovakian border, Jack Doherty instantly captures the reader’s attention in Abandoned by the Vatican. These were the days of Soviet control throughout the Eastern block of Europe. Doherty then describes his efforts in getting books beyond the Iron Curtain, for priests and bishops who dared to practice their faith and minister to people during those dark days. For Doherty himself, the going was difficult. There were legal hoops to find his way though, and required permissions to be obtained. In addition came the practical difficulties of traveling in a country with vehicles one couldn’t entirely depend upon, on roads left in poor repair, to destinations hard to find. The people lived in fear, never knowing when someone might accuse them of some illegal action — whether that action was true, or merely provided by the accuser as a way out of a difficult situation for himself. Doherty describes the prisons in which many priests found themselves during Stalin’s time, and of their courage and abiding faith while there, as well as thereafter. He also offers information as to the role the Vatican played in the events.

While I’ve studied the WWII days fairly extensively, and have a firm grasp of Russian — and later of Soviet — history, the information in Abandoned by the Vatican was, for the most part, new to me. I knew the Vatican played some role in events, but had never engaged in a particular study of those days and times. In Part I, Jack Doherty tells of secret meetings, masses held in defiance, and the risks taken by all, as they suffered under the oppressive Soviet regime. In Part II, Doherty provides considerable information on the Vatican’s own spies and of its political machinations. I found the reading riveting, the information most revealing, and Doherty’s proposals for changes the Vatican might well have considered after the breaking down of the Iron Curtain (in order to acknowledge the lives of the “secret priests” during the Soviet days), fascinating. For anyone interested in these historic days, or interested in what some recommend for changes within the church worldwide, I highly recommend Abandoned by the Vatican.

What does it take to be a priest in forbidden places, in a climate characterised by communist oppression, communist propaganda, and religious intolerance, where danger lurks around every corner? Abandoned by the Vatican: My Journey to Support Secret Priests Behind the Iron Curtain by Jack Doherty answers this question in many ways and chronicles the adventures of a priest working to support his confreres who live as prisoners, deprived of their basic human freedom, and striving clandestinely to bring God’s message of hope and love to humankind. Readers get a powerful glimpse of what it was like to be a priest behind the Iron Curtain, to live knowing that one is suspected at every moment, to be faced with the fragility of life that could be ended at any second and for the flimsiest reason. But it’s the experience of priests working behind the Iron Curtain that is shocking and horrifying.

This nonfiction read is a compelling account of a priest’s ministry to his fellow priests, a tale that is heart wrenching and that will come across at times like fiction, only it’s as real as the rising sun. Readers watch with bated breath as the author navigates the Iron Curtain, crossing borders, meeting priests abandoned in prisons and concentration camps, smuggling books and goods, and doing the impossible to assuage the hardships of abandoned confreres. Readers will be stunned to read about the secret sufferings of thousands of priests transformed into faceless humans in labor and concentration camps, many of them living in misery and very deplorable conditions. Besides bringing to light the lives of these servants of God, the author offers insights into what it was like to live under the communist regime. Abandoned by the Vatican: My Journey to Support Secret Priests Behind the Iron Curtain by Jack Doherty combines history, politics, and religion to weave a compelling memoir about some of the horrors of history and man’s inhumanity to man. This memoir is worth featuring on screen. Well-written and poignantly satisfying. A work of incomparable worth.