High hopes And why not? The 'Sixties arrives with a young president, a Catholic Church on the brink of Vatican II, a youth culture pulsing with the energies of Rock and Roll, the civil rights movement gathering force. A young priest, newly ordained, eager to make an impact, ambitious without being aware of it, plunges into the 'cultural revolution.' He will learn that other agendas exist and other life possibilities, too. He discovers a world larger, richer, more exciting and darker than his sheltered upbringing permitted him to imagine. The 'Sixties ends with assassinations, betrayals, disappointments, drugs. Paul VI closes the window on Vatican II reforms, but other windows have opened for Father O'Brien-windows to a wider and wilder world, but that's another story