“Where Angels Pass”
Ellen Gable Hrkach, Full Quiver Publishing (2022)
322 pages, $14.99
Catholic writer Ellen Gable Hrkach’s latest book “Life From the Bottom Shelf” (Full Quiver Publishing) is a bit of a departure from her traditional writing canon.
Detailing the lifelong struggles of someone, shall we say, “vertically challenged,” the book shares the ups and downs of being short-statured in a tall world. Gable Hrkach, who is four feet eight inches tall, has always tried to keep a sense of humor about her height. Her latest book is about embracing one’s size and finding joy and humor in it.
The book invites readers to imagine themselves in a number of tall-world scenarios, such as: Have you ever gone to a public bathroom just to find that the mirrors are so high that you can only see your forehead? Or have you ever had a young child stand beside you and exclaim, “I’m as tall as you!”
The essence of Gable’s writing inspiration however, is more readily to be found in her “Where Angels Pass” release of 2022, or in her collection of faith-based novels, “A Subtle Grace” (2014), “In Name Only” (2009) and “Stealing Jenny” (2011).
To date, Gable Hrkach has written 13 novels, ghostwritten six others and contributed to an additional half-dozen more. A former president of the Catholic Writers’ Guild, Gable Hrkach also keeps busy as a writing coach, Natural Family Planning instructor and as co-founder of her own Full Quiver Publishing organization.
Although she was born and raised in New Jersey, Gable for the last several years has resided in Pakenham, a community of some 16,000 in eastern Ontario, Canada.
An avid reader since childhood, Gable Hrkach turned to writing “Catholic” fiction just over two decades ago. “Years ago, I devoured so-called ‘trashy’ romance novels like candy,” she said. “Like anyone, I love a good story, but I especially enjoy a compelling romance or suspense novel.”
In plotting her novels, Gable Hrkach allows readers to experience stories from a specifically Catholic worldview. And as the church responds to attacks on its moral teaching authority, Gable Hrkach hopes her books in some small way will enable readers from all backgrounds to consider Catholic characters and situations in a more positive light.
“Where Angels Pass,” however, could well be Gable Hrkach’s most personal and painful book. Written in just three fervid weeks, the book is a fictionalized but facts-based account of the horror and damage arising from priestly abuse. Gable Hrkach’s own father was one such victim.
Her book is told from two points of view and from two separate time frames: Hank Gallagher, a high school student victimized by a charismatic but corrupted priest in the mid-1950s, and Evie, the victim’s adult daughter, who comes to understand the soul-destroying consequences for the survivors of such abuse.
“This was an incredibly difficult book to write because I used my father’s articles, essays and journals to write it, along with my own journals and the memories I have of him. It’s been 45 years since he passed away, but it still seems like yesterday,” Gable Hrkach said.
“Where Angels Pass,” which won a 2023 Catholic Media Association award in the Catholic educational novel category, is a sobering but timely story at a time when the Catholic Church is still recoiling from the priestly abuse scandals, which came to worldwide attention in the early 1990s, but have occurred for generations before then.
The abuse scandal and attempted cover-up by high-ranking prelates of recent decades has induced a generation of Catholics to lose confidence in its moral teaching authority, or in some cases, to leave the church outright.
As a cradle Catholic with strongly held traditional beliefs, Gable Hrkach was equally outraged by the scandal and its aftermath. But as outlined in “Where Angels Pass,” the author takes a more nuanced view of the situation.
Gable Hrkach hopes readers of “Where Angels Pass” might understand that the Catholic Church is not an evil institution, and that believers should not leave the church because of the sins of some of her members. “One thing I didn’t realize until recently was how widespread the clerical abuse problem has been for many years. And while it saddened me that my father was abused, it breaks my heart that so many others suffered like my father,” she said.
One of the more remarkable themes in “Where Angels Pass” is what healing or expiation might flow from crimes committed by priests and high church officials. While the book captures the victims’ rage and sense of betrayal, it also hints at the redemptive power of forgiveness.
“It’s my hope that the reader will be able to learn that just because a person has suffered clerical abuse — in this case, my father — does not mean his life had any less value than any other person,” Gable Hrkach said. “Did he make mistakes because of his woundedness? Of course, he did, because we’re all born with original sin and with free will.”
As the character Evie expresses toward the end of the story, “… She had to admit that ever since her father’s death, she’d had a problem with trust: trusting God, trusting her husband, even trusting the Church. But Jesus wouldn’t give us a prayer that called us to forgive if it wasn’t essential to do so.”
In an engaging afterword in “Where Angels Pass,” Gable Hrkach offers an attitude all might consider in reconciling clerical sin and corruption with the determination to remain focused on the faith’s essential challenges.
“Did my father ever leave the Church of his youth?” the author writes, “No. Following his example, I will do the same. Why? Because my faith is not dependent on the pope, or any priest or any human being. I’m Catholic and will remain so because of the Eucharist, because of Jesus Christ and because I believe God’s Word. My faith tells me to forgive: the priest who abused my father, anyone who tried to cover it up, and any past and present priests, bishops, and cardinals who have been guilty of any wrongdoing.”
Mike Mastromatteo is a writer, editor and book reviewer from Toronto.