Joseph Nangle, O.F.M. is a Franciscan priest who serves as codirector of the Franciscan Mission Service, Washington, DC

In 1964 Fr. Nangle, a young Franciscan priest from the U.S., was assigned to found a new parish in a middle-class neighborhood in Lima, Peru. This book tells the inspiring story of his journey with that parish�eleven years that saw the impact of Vatican II and Medell�n�and of what happened when they undertook to make an �option for the poor.� Unlike most accounts of liberation theology set among the poor and marginalized, this story highlights the impact of renewal on a middle-class parish. As such it has uncanny relevance for the typical North American parish. Painful struggles over such basic questions as liturgy, the mission of the parish school, the role of the parish council, relations with wealthy donors and church authorities, shake up the assumptions of pastor and parishioners alike. Ultimately the story of this one parish about new life and conversion; it is an image of a church reborn from the margins.