Fifty Years In A Jealous Marriage
Seeking a Healthy Sexuality in a World of Power and Control
Rev. James Lex, Ed.D., With Ann M. Ennis

An honest story of one man's life in the Roman Catholic priesthood. This is a book that challenges all of those on either side who claim to have a corner on the Truth.

Through this candid and challenging look at celibacy, Father James Lex provides a compelling and emotional portrait of the Roman Catholic priesthood at the dawn of the vocation's third millennium.

A lifetime struggle with celibacy is a lifetime struggle to stay whole inside a jealous marriage. As with any marriage, Lex's has been a creative interplay of weakness and strength, of finding and asserting power, and of knowing how and when to submit. This book is the story of any of America's more than 46,000 active and more than 20,000 inactive priests. It is a book about learning the rules and unlearning them....about learning to love and to let go...about forgiveness and yearning...about the choices people make everyday. Fifty Years in a Jealous Marriage chronicles a transformation -- the transformation of a young, naive, eager to please, seminarian into a mature and surprisingly sane, truly catholic, Roman Catholic priest.

What others have said about Fifty Years in a Jealous Marriage...

What a lovely gift to human nature! What a fine presentation of the struggle, the beauty and the victory of spiritual love. James Lex is honest without being grandstanding or harsh; he is hopeful without being naive. He gives faith a good name, and though some may not think so, this book could give church a very good name, too. Only an adult church could be a partner to such a mature person.Richard Rohr O.EM.
Center for Action and Contemplation
Albuquerque, New Mexico

As a priest only slightly younger than Jim Lex, I could completely identify with his experiences.... His description of seminary life at that time and life as a diocesan priest are totally accurate. He writes in a way that makes it all so very real.... Certainly one of the attractive qualities of his memoir is that he is so obviously at peace with the decisions he has made. He isn't angry and bitter, even though, like all of us at that time, he got no real preparation for the struggles he was to face as he tried to become a developed adult after he was ordained.Thomas Gumbleton
Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit

Anyone who reads this book will discover a story of a person, a priest, whose life has been driven by his love for God, his love for God's people and his gratitude for being called to be a priest in our world today.... None of us is perfect, but all of us have a big part of our lives that is good. James Lex knows that about his life and honestly shares it with us.... May all who read this book find something of themselves in it. I did, and I pray others will as well.
John McRaith
Bishop of Owenshoro, Kentucky

In addition to being a Catholic priest for more than 50 years, James Lex had an Ed.D. in educational psychology from Indiana University (1972). Heself-published two books: My Weakness is My Strength and The RecycleCookbook. Working closely with Trappist Father Vincent Dwyer, Lex ledretreats for ordained ministers and priests in New Jersey, California,Korea, England and Ireland (testing more than 3,000 priests). He served asa secular priest in the Diocese of Evansville (Indiana) for 50 years. Thistime included service as superintendent for Catholic Schools for the Dioceseof Evansville and as Spiritual Director for the Diocese of Owensboro(Kentucky) for several years.

Ann M. Ennis has worked extensively as a freelance non-fiction writer and earned her bachelor of arts in journalism and political science from IndianaUniversity (1984). Ennis is under contract with Orbis Books as co-authorwith Helen Prejean, C.S. J., for the manuscript The Women of Batahola:Stories of Struggle and Adventure. Ennis has been published in MaryknollMagazine, Sisters Today, Radical Grace and Christian Social Action. She is currently Development Director for Habitat for Humanity of Evansville,Indiana. She is a Lay Affiliate of the Maryknoll Missionary Society.