A group of dads whose children attend St. Francis Xavier Catholic School in Birmingham are on a journey through Middle Earth to destroy the ring of power and defeat the dark forces of Mordor once and for all.

Last semester, the school’s Dad’s Reading Group read the first book in English Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. 

The Dad’s Reading Group started in the summer of 2024 when St. Francis Xavier’s Director of Marketing and Enrollment Will Blakely recruited a group of school dads to read G.K. Chesterton’s monumental work of apologetics Orthodoxy. 

“I very much enjoyed the SFX dad’s reading group this summer,” said Brian Clifford, father to three St. Francis Xavier students. “It was nice to get to know other St. Francis Xavier dads in a social setting and discuss a book that was new to all of us."

When the fall semester came around, Clifford and other school dads decided to tackle another book together; this time a work of fiction. The dads chose Fellowship of the Ring due to its subtle Catholic themes and widespread renown in both Christian and literary circles. 

The Lord of the Rings is the sequel to Tolkien’s earlier work, The Hobbit. It follows Frodo Baggins, nephew to Biblo (The Hobbit’s main character), as he journeys to the evil realm of Mordor to destroy a powerful ring that, if in the wrong hands, stands to bring about the return of the Dark Lord Sauron. 

The Fellowship of the Ring concerns the beginning of Frodo’s journey, the forming of the fellowship of eight companions at the Council of Elrond, and the subsequent disbanding of the fellowship. 

To celebrate the completion of the novel, the Dad’s Reading Group met in the church’s new Youth Center in January to watch the movie based on the book directed by Peter Jackson and released in 2001.

“Though I grew up watching the movies, this is my first time actually sitting down and reading the book,” said Blakely. “Reading a great story written by a great Catholic writer with some of the dads at the school has not only been a fantastic way to build community among our parents at St. Francis Xavier, but [also a way to] teach us about what it means to have virtue and faith.”

“The Lord of the Rings may take place in a fictional world, separate from our own timeline culminating at the incarnation of Christ,” Blakely continued, “but the struggle of Frodo and his companions to destroy the ring and defend Middle Earth from the forces of evil teach us so much about our own struggles with pride, greed, fear, and doubt. These are battles we all fight as Christians. We have to overcome them so we can learn to carry our cross as Christ carried His.”

St. Francis Xavier Catholic School is an accredited classical Catholic PreK-8 school in Birmingham’s Crestline neighborhood that uses the time-tested Catholic intellectual tradition to form students in virtue through the pursuit of academic excellence and service toward God and neighbor. Online applications for St. Francis are now open for the 2025-2026 school year and are available at sfxcatholic.com.