Half way through the book and a lover of his poetry for many years, the point is not is he a Catholic poet, but is he someone with a Catholic background still trying to deal with the present reality of the world.  He is having to deal with a clergy whose point of reference is hundreds of years out of date.  How does one be Catholic in the face of such stupidity?  So much of Catholicism is mired in the limited language of the past.  So one becomes something else.  Much more difficult.  He is interested in the world and human relations.  Like Jesus.  Fr. Tom Gumbleton and the poet would understand one another immediately.