The Rectory takes place starting in 1968 when Sandy finds her way to Father Martinelli for help with the chaos in her life, but instead adds to her problems by falling in love with him and moving into the rectory as his secretary. The story takes place in a small town in Indiana, somewhat insulated from much of the turmoil that marked 1968 in America. Here are just a few of the dramatic events that took place that year:

In The Rectory, Sandy is finalizing her divorce from Wayne, her husband of eight years. She seeks guidance and counseling from a Catholic priest, Father Martinelli. She learns that the Catholic Church does not recognize civil divorce, which is still the case today, in 2024. In order for a marriage to be dissolved, an annulment must be granted by the Catholic Church. Up until 1968, annulments were extremely difficult to obtain in the Catholic Church.

In 1968, the Catholic Church granted only 338 annulments in the United States. Starting in 1968, the rules for annulment were relaxed somewhat by the Catholic Church and there are currently around 50,000 annulments granted each year in the United States.

One important theme that runs throughout The Rectory is the issue of Catholic priests and celibacy. In my research on why priests break their vows of celibacy, I relied on an excellent book on the subject by A. W. Richard Sipe called A Secret World: Sexuality and the Search for Celibacy from 1990. He provided a history of celibacy in the Catholic Church which, surprisingly, was not a requirement of Catholic priests for the first 1,000 years of the Church. Early on in the Church, even Popes were married and had children. Even Peter, the first pope, was not celibate and had a family.

From Mr. Sipe’s book, and from my own questions posed to former priests, it’s clear that the Church does not do a very good job preparing seminarians for a celibate life, and, when they fail at it, the Church has not handled it well. While we are all aware of the terrible abuses of our youth brought to light in the Catholic Church, there are plenty of other priests who have broken their vows in consensual relationships as was the case in The Rectory. Mr. Sipe estimated twenty percent of priests were involved in heterosexual relationships during his period of observation.

Mr. Sipe also dives into the reasons why priests break their vows and I did borrow from his findings to provide Father Martinelli’s rationalizations on why he is not celibate.

In the late 1960’s, with all of the societal upheaval and with many changes happening in the Church, it was thought that the issue of celibacy might be on the table for review and possibly be changed to allow priests to marry, but as we now know, that didn’t happen and most likely won’t for the foreseeable future.