Charles lives with his wife Ana in Roseville, Minnesota, where they raised three children. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1962 and left the priesthood in 1970. He did not leave the Catholic Church, however and has remained an active member on the people's side of the altar. Waiting for Mozart, a novel, is his first book.
A Novel about Church People Caught in Conflict
Waiting for Mozart is not about music! It is fiction about a power struggle and the madness it causes in a Roman Catholic parish twenty-five years after Vatican II. Simmering conflict explodes over a seemingly insignificant matter. Deeper issues drive the desperate behavior of the pastor while members of the parish council and the staff bring to the story their own obsessions and slanted ways of handling matters. The conclusion offers abundant, redemptive deliverance. Characters are torn by a vision for change in the Church that cannot happen until the stakeholders learn that the vision itself is flawed because they are.
Opportunity
Waiting for Mozart invites reflection and repentance of those who forget that they are not gods.
The story invites the question: how will church members talk civilly with each other when they disagree on matters considered important for the Church?
Waiting for Mozart is relevant for all Churches, not the Catholic Church alone, and for any institution or organization struggling with change and reform.
Charles lives with his wife Ana in Roseville, Minnesota, where they raised three children. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1962 and left the priesthood in 1970. He did not leave the Catholic Church, however and has remained an active member on the people's side of the altar. Waiting for Mozart, a novel, is his first book. 
Waiting for Mozart is not about music! It is fiction about a power struggle and the madness it causes in a Roman Catholic parish twenty-five years after Vatican II. Simmering conflict explodes over a seemingly insignificant matter. Deeper issues drive the desperate behavior of the pastor while members of the parish council and the staff bring to the story their own obsessions and slanted ways of handling matters. The conclusion offers abundant, redemptive deliverance. Characters are torn by a vision for change in the Church that cannot happen until the stakeholders learn that the vision itself is flawed because they are.