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.

Publisher’s Weekly Review: publishersweekly.com

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.

Article: Focolare Media

“Not the Life I would Have Chosen for My Son”

Article: America Magazine

“How Writing a Book Changed My Understanding of the Divine,” November 2025 issue

The Los Angeles Times Review of Books: Ambivalence and Devotion

… 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.