Fatherless is reductionist: the novel reduces Christianity to sexual morality and the pro-life cause, however important these may be. In so doing, and in seeking to interpret, for example, the thought of St John Paul II, it could confuse readers—as well-intentioned as the author undoubtedly is. The magisterium of John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis, and Leo XIV leads Catholics in a different direction from the author's. The author makes several factual mistakes about the history of the Church.
Fatherless is about the struggles of several married professional men and women to live the Gospel with unity of life—but above all, those of their confessor and spiritual director, Fr. John Sweeney, as he seeks to pastorally apply the Church's teachings. Fr. John has not absorbed well the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. Fr. John would have benefited from Pope Francis' 2016 Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, addressed to bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, Christian married couples, and all the lay faithful on love in the family.