Review: Kirkus Review of Books
An exploration of faith, doubt, and family that expertly balances tender recollection with sharp insight. … Gilger’s prose is consistently engaging—it’s succinct, humorous, and laced with self-awareness. She easily distills complicated theological practices and historical contexts into plain language filled with wry one-liners. (When discussing her attempts to commune with God, she jokes, “Being out of practice, it was a short conversation.”) Her skill as a journalist shines through in her deft scene-setting and dialogue; the author recreates difficult conversations with her son without ever losing her sharp, objective perspective.
Review: Publisher’s Weekly
Gilger critiques Catholicism while leaving room for its mysteries (‘I’ve given up trying to know everything, and I’m beginning to accept what I can’t possibly know yet deeply feel’). Most affecting is the depiction of a mother’s unflinching willingness to follow her son into unexpected places ('We went with Patrick, haltingly and stumbling at times, but we went with him’). This will strike a chord with Catholics who have questioned their own faith.
Review, The Los Angeles Times Review of Books
Ambivalence and Devotion, Dec. 4, 2025
… a frank and affecting memoir that braids together family history, investigative reporting, and theological questioning. At its heart lies a universal parental dilemma: how to love a child whose choices don’t align with the vision his mother had for him. … In the end, My Son, the Priest is less a memoir of conversion than one of mutual acceptance: between mother and son, doubt and faith, ambivalence and devotion. Gilger never resolves her unease with Catholic teaching, nor does she pretend to. But she does learn to appreciate the beauty her son finds in the church: its history, its liturgy, its ability to offer both courage and wonder. In a time when American Catholicism is as polarized as the culture around it, Gilger offers no easy answers. What she offers instead is rarer: an honest account of trying to remain open, of saying yes where she can, and of loving through deep differences.
Review: National Catholic Reporter
A feminist mom, a Jesuit son and the story of a rekindled Catholic, March 14, 2026
For generations of Irish Catholic mothers, few phrases packed more parental pride than "my son, the priest." But for Kristin Grady Gilger, the prospect of her son, Patrick, joining the Jesuits felt less like a blessing and more like an unwelcome challenge. Gilger, who spent two decades as a journalist, questioned the story of her son's vocation with the stance of an editor determined to get at the truth. The result is the new book My Son, the Priest: A Mother's Crisis of Faith, a lively and layered memoir that braids several stories around the journey promised by her subtitle. Throughout her account of her son the priest and his mom the skeptic, she offers running commentary on a church that left her outside, shaking her head.
Article: Tucson Sentinel
ASU professor emerita presenting spiritual memoir at Tucson Book Festival, March 12, 2026
Article: Focolare Media
“Not the Life I would Have Chosen for My Son”, Sept. 30, 2025
Article: America Magazine
“How Writing a Book Changed My Understanding of the Divine,” November 2025 issue
Podcast: AMDG A Jesuit Podcast
Life as a Jesuit’s Mom, Nov. 30.2025
Podcast: Jesuitical
When your son becomes a priest—and you’re not so sure about the Catholic Church, Feb. 19, 2026
Radio
KJZZ The Show; interview conducted by the author’s daughter, Lauren Gilger
This fallen-away Catholic made peace with her son's calling to priesthood through writing, Nov. 25, 2025