Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me

April 11, 2011
For good and ill, parents shape their children's lives in several ways. For decades, Episcopal priest Cron (Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale) bore the scars of having grown up with an emotionally distant alcoholic father. His story is heartbreaking and brutal, but simultaneously redemptive and consoling with bright moments of humor. An agent for the CIA, Cron's father was an enigma to his family and lacked the resources, financial and psychological, to take care of them. When he slides deeper into depression and alcoholism, Cron's heroic mother struggles to support the family, leaving Cron in the care of a warm and nurturing nanny. Their relationship is touching, but also serves to highlight the dysfunction in this family. Cron eventually succumbs to alcoholism, too, and spends years denying the problem until a trusted therapist challenges him to face it. The author finds the courage to release the repressed inner pain that he had been self-medicating through booze, and begins a slow healing process. While there are not many overtly religious passages, this story is chock-full of sacredness and hope. Cron is one of only a few contemporary spirituality authors who could articulate these themes as poignantly.

June 1, 2011

An Episcopal priest's journey back to God and grace.

An alcoholic father who works for the CIA, an English nanny in powder-blue cat-eye glasses and an elegant but distracted mother are the three major influences that Cron (Chasing Francis, 2006) brings to life with much tongue-in-cheek humor (and pain) in a fast-paced narrative that "dances on the hyphen between memoir and autobiographical fiction." Told from a Christian perspective, the book does not directly proselytize; instead, it is the story of Cron's own faith walk and relationship with his father—an intriguing and somewhat sympathetic character when he was not punching his son or passed out on the floor. By the time the author was born, his father's shadowy career as a CIA agent and family's wealthy life in the UK had devolved into the horrors of alcoholism, desperate financial straits and social ostracism in Connecticut. From a good Catholic child who held "communion" with squirrels and longed for paternal love, Cron, not surprisingly, became a pot-smoking teenager and alcoholic who rejected his faith. Though his similes are a bit excessive (some work beautifully while others don't), the author's English major shines through with an interesting, well-written plot of pain and redemption. If the CIA element were removed, this could be the account of many post–World War II suburban children struggling to come to terms with emotionally distant fathers. Cron's realism and lack of bitterness are a refreshing blend. 

A powerful story of faith and forgiveness.

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