KEVIN'S BOOKS
Coached by the Curé: Lessons in Shepherding with St. John Vianney
In this imaginative “letter from Heaven”, the heartfelt voice of the Curé coaches today’s parents and laity on how to save their lost lambs in these modern days of moral collapse. At an hour when the consciences of Catholic youth and young adults are hourly invaded by a modernist secular culture - and so few clergy are regarded as their rescuers - St. John Vianney emerges in this book as a titan and rescuer of souls.
Coached by the Curé captivates readers from the start, when a gathering of priest-saints from the heavenly court begin to discuss the state of a wounded worldwide presbyterate. After the raw diagnosis, the humble Curé is given a new name by God. He is told he is no longer "The Patron Saint of Parish Priests", but now, "The Patron Saint of the Domestic Home." It is the humble Curé's task to instruct parents - not the many modern priests who’ve rejected him - how to become the domestic priests in their homes. His letter from heaven - aided by his muse, the martyr St. Philomena - has been written for a single reason: to bring the millions of wandering souls back to grace. Through his holy life in Ars, Vianney shows parents how they can save their lost ones through the manner in which he brought an entire guillotine-haunted nation back to the Catholic faith.
We learn why Vianney turned himself over to poor sinners: He understood he was the shepherd of their souls. Coached by the Curé is a loving dialogue between the travailed reader and the heart of a saint - a saving martyr who sacrificed all for the sake of even one single soul. Herein, Vianney coaches his saintly characteristics into modern man, so that we can all learn the self-offering and self-giving needed to protect and save our lost loved ones.
The Hermit: The Priest Who Saved a Soul, a Marriage, and a Family
In his raw and tender memoir, biographer Kevin Wells pulls readers into the unforgettable story of a parish priest turned hermit, Father Martin Flum, who orchestrated the slow resurrection of his wife, Krista, from the nightmare of her deep wounds and addiction.
In gripping fashion, Kevin tells the story of his family’s own long suffering, which culminated in the dark spring of 2020, as a strange fear pressed down upon the world and his wife spent most nights drinking away long-held shame. When a near-universal chorus of politicians, medical professionals, and Catholic clergy megaphoned the command to “isolate,” Kevin couldn’t imagine a more dooming word for his family, his marriage, and the life of his wife.
Yet God had other plans. Wells’ honest tale of inner crisis and hope-filled resurrection takes readers on a spiritual rollercoaster, offering a penetrating exploration of the sacramental grace of marriage and the mysterious movement of God in dry, lonely places.
In the journey from darkness to light, three lives—Krista, Kevin, and Father Flum—became forever entwined. It is a deeper kind of love story. The chapters on the fits and starts of renewal unfold like the piecemeal opening of a tomb. The Hermit is a true account of marital survival, a holy priest, redemption, and even the miraculous, where imprisoned shame and sin are transformed into the joy of freedom.
Priest and Beggar: The Heroic Life of Venerable Aloysius Schwartz
In 1957, at twenty-seven years old, Father Aloysius Schwartz of Washington, D.C., asked to be sent to one of the saddest places in the world: South Korea in the wake of the Korean War. Just a few months into his priesthood, he stepped off the train in Seoul into a dystopian film. Squatters with blank stares picked through hills of garbage. Paper-fleshed orphans lay on the streets like leftover war shrapnel. The scenes pierced him.
Within just fifteen years, Father Schwartz had changed the course of Korean history, founding and reforming orphanages, hospitals, hospices, clinics, schools, and the Sisters of Mary, a Korean religious order dedicated to the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor. All the while, he himself—like the Sisters—lived the same hard poverty as the people he served and loved.
Biographer Kevin Wells tells the story of a different kind of American hero, an ordinary priest who stared down corruption, slander, persecution, and death for the sake of God’s poor. “What Father Al managed to do is beyond the pale”, said his longtime collaborator Monsignor James Golasinski. “He was the boldest man I ever knew. He feared nothing.”
Known for his joy and his humor, even in the teeth of Lou Gehrig’s disease, Schwartz was declared a Servant of God by Pope Francis in 2015. By the time of his death in 1992, his work with the Sisters of Mary had spread to the Philippines and Mexico; and since then, the Sisters have founded Boystowns and Girlstowns across Central and South America, as well as in Tanzania. Father Schwartz died calling out to his beloved Mary, the Virgin of the Poor, saying, “All praise, honor, and glory for anything good accomplished in my life goes to her and to her alone.”
The Priests We Need to Save the Church
In Kevin’s best-selling book The Priests We Need to Save the Church, he lays out a blueprint of priestly heroism, calling for today’s shepherds to take the narrow path of self-denial once tread by St. John Vianney, the priest-saint of old, and his own uncle, beloved Monsignor Thomas Wells, who, before his shocking murder, led more than a dozen men to the priesthood and affected the lives of thousands.
The Priests We Need has been read by countless hundreds of priests and seminarians throughout the world. Laity, too, has been impacted by the searing work of the holy priest presented in its pages. Bishops in several diocese have disseminated The Priests We Need to seminaries in their diocese. Many priests have reached out to Kevin to explain how the words in his book have re-engineered their priesthoods.
It is the day-to-day witness of the sacrificial parish priest that will rescue a Catholic Church in seemingly terminal disarray. Exploring the astounding impact that his Uncle Tommy — thought by many to be a martyr for the Faith — had on so many souls, Wells shows how only the sacrificial and steady work of the parish priest can steer the Church aright, forming it into the holy, fruitful institution Christ intended two thousand years ago.
Burst: A Story of God's Grace When Life Falls Apart
When a thick vine of vessels in his brain burst one ordinary evening, Kevin Wells’ life took an abrupt, unanticipated turn. After having already navigated past a series of devastating events, the former sportswriter was now forced to push back death. And, miraculously, it was his beloved deceased uncle, Msgr. Tom Wells, who helped spearhead the comeback. In this riveting story, Wells details his reliance on steady humor, persistent faith and the prayers of thousands to win back life. The result is this spiritually-rich memoir, which offers hard-earned encouragement for those struggling through perilous times and looking for a reason to hang on. Readers will come to see what Wells eventually did: that Christ’s graces are always hidden in the pain.