By Michael Motes

There's a marvelous scene in the musical comedy "Gypsy" in which several burlesque dancers explain to newcomer Gypsy Rose Lee that "You gotta have a gimmick."

Publishers feel the same way and realize that a snappy title is a good gimmick for selling their books. So, it was no big surprise that a manuscript entitled Whose Sins You Shall Forgive appeared on the bookstands as Playboy to Priest.

Catchy, huh?

The author is Father Kenneth Roberts and the book is his autobiography, which has recently been reprinted in paperback by Pyramid Publications by arrangement with Our Sunday Visitor.

Fr. Roberts' story is a fantastic one. Born in England, he was orphaned at the age of six months and sent to foster parents.

During World War II, he was evacuated at the age of eight to a small English Village to escape the Nazi bombings of the large industrial centers of Great Britain.

Young Kenneth did not see his foster parents for the next three years. His reunion with them came after he ran away from school to find his adopted family.

At the age of 16, he dropped out of school and became a bus boy on the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner. For three years, he toured the world and then decided to apply to the seminary. He was rejected, and abandoned the idea of being a priest for the next 11 years.

Roberts was studying in Portugal when called back to England for Army duty. Because of his language training and aptitude testing, he was assigned to British Army Intelligence and sent to Germany.

After completing his military duty, Roberts took a job as a lab assistant in a plastics company and met the girl to whom he became engaged for three years.

His travels, military experience and private study had brought about fluency in French, German, Portuguese and he next took a position with BOAC Airlines as a chief steward, flying throughout the Orient and Europe.

During this period, the playboy emerged. Roberts enjoyed the fast-paced lifestyle of his new jet-set friends and his salary enabled him to maintain a London penthouse.

He was leading a double life -- the playboy while flying and the conscientious fiancée while home. The engagement, however, was finally called off through "mutual agreement."

The opportunity arose for Roberts to make more money by becoming involved in an international gold-smuggling operation headquartered in Hong Kong.

BOAC became aware of their employee's involvement in this venture, and Roberts was fired. He had now mastered two more languages, Italian and Spanish, and returned to the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner in the prestigious position as first-class ship's interpreter. This role further cemented his connection with the rich and famous.

During one voyage, he met a group of nuns in Calcutta and the course of his life began to change. The nuns "were really happy," Roberts recalled, commenting that happiness was a state that he found little of in his jet-set acquaintances.

One of the nuns told him that she had given up a life of great wealth to work among the poor. He was moved by this encounter and the old idea of entering the seminary momentarily returned.

For the first time in many years, Roberts returned to the Church, attending Mass daily.

"I stilled mixed with the jet-set, but I had stopped drinking," he recalls. "I still went to parties, but I also attended Mass each day."

The major turning point in the ex-gold smuggler's life came in 1959 when he met Bishop Thomas Gorman of Dallas, Texas. The bishop was a passenger on the Queen Elizabeth and Roberts struck up an acquaintance, telling his newly found friend the story of his life.

He was astounded when Bishop Gorman asked him if he still had the idea of becoming a priest.

"After what I've done!" he asked the bishop.

Bishop Gorman replied, "St. Augustine was a playboy before finding the Church. Think about it."

A few months later, at the age of 30, Roberts was studying for the priesthood in London. Ironically, he was being taught by a priest who had rejected his application for the seminary more than a decade before.

After studying in London for two years, he was given the opportunity to study in Rome because of high scholastic standing. There, he attended Bede College a seminary designed for late vocations, and was ordained in Rome in 1966.

Today he is assigned to the Archdiocese of St. Louis where he is chaplain for the Sisters of the Good Shepherd who run an institution for problem girls.

In Atlanta as a stop on a 50-city tour to promote the release in paperback of Playboy to Priest, Fr. Roberts proved to be a warm, witty, urbane and most dedicated Servant of God.

He is proud of the success of Playboy to Priest, which was originally released last November and sold out before Christmas.

But his pride is not derived from personal gain. Rather, he is happy that the book has proven to be a valuable tool for vocations. This is evidenced by the letters Fr. Roberts has received from 24 young men who have applied to seminaries after reading his autobiography.

He was inspired to write the book because he became "sick to death of reading about the 'ex' Father and why he had to leave that domineering, choking, irrelevant Catholic priesthood to make a 'new and meaningful' life."

Writing for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in reply to one scathing article by an ex-priest, Fr. Roberts summed up his feelings, "The thing that always amuses me is how they (ex-priests) start their new, meaningful life, and shed all their ecclesiastical hang-ups but still manage to make a buck by exposing their chipped shoulder and telling the world what their life was like while they were in. They still capitalize on their past life. Some have made quite a living at it as professional ex-priests.

Fr. Roberts is in a position to make quite a living from his writing, also, but royalties from the sales of both Playboy to Priest and his The Rest of the Week (a fictional account of what a priest does after Sunday services) go to a scholarship fund he has established for vocations and to the Good Shepherd sisters.

Fr. Roberts is, by his own terminology, an "Orthodox Progressive." He is neither liberal nor conservative, but "as conservative to the Church as I must be and as liberal as the Church allows me to be."

His "Orthodox Progressive" viewpoints bring results, such as a recent appearance at a high school where he encouraged 1,560 students to go to confession following the Liturgy he conducted.

"I told a school official in advance that I would need 15 priests to help me with Confessions following the service. I was told that I must be overrating myself, for these kids rarely went to confession anymore. I held my ground and insisted that the 15 priests be available. Following the service it took the 16 of us two hours to hear over 1,500 young people confess."

How does he do it?

"I believe Liturgy for the people. It's not enough to put on vestments and celebrate Mass. We have to get people involved. I use lights, music and a great deal of personal contact. If I have to leave the pulpit and walk out among the congregation, I do so. It reaches people and they are touched."

Among his many activities, Father Roberts has been the guest on several national television shows in the past few months. In advance he prepares himself for debate with such prominent figures as Madeleine Murray O'Haire, Pamela Mason, Diana Riggs, and ex-priest James Cavannaugh.

An appearance on the Merv Griffin show with Cavannaugh led to thousands of letters and invitations to speak throughout the United States.

His wit is exemplified by a debate he had with Pamela Mason, who is also a very articulate English person.

"All Miss Mason wanted to talk about was sex and cats," Father Roberts recalls. "I asked her if she believed in God and she responded that she didn’t believe in the type God yhat would peek down from Heaven into someone's sex life.

"I then asked her, what makes you think your sex life is worth peeking into?"

When British actress Diana Riggs told Fr. Roberts that she thought he played it safe by staying in the middle on issues, he responded, "Certainly I'm in the middle. That allows me to pull both ways."

Father Roberts is using experiences from his past debates with ex-priests, atheists and celebrities as the basis for another book. His working title is Confrontations. The book will undoubtedly appear and will be interesting. What title his publisher might substitute for Confrontations remains to be seen.