Some quetions and observations about Powers's Morte d'Urban

Some questions and observations about J.F. Powers's Morte d'Urban (1962), such as: Is this novel in any way allegorical (given that it's about the life of a small group of priests in an obscure, fictional order)? The central figure, Father Urban, is torn between two poles of his calling: priestly duties and development of the order (the Clementines!). Is that an analog for the struggle for his soul? The "development" work, which sends him to various locales across the country, where he is taken care of very well (first-class train accommodations and hotels, fine dining, lots of drinking and cigars), compared w/ the priestly duties, lonely and unappreciated. Struggle between God and Mammon? And, is Father Urban as good a public speaker as he likes to think he is? The examples show that he's intelligent and clever, but his dreams of being a Catholic v of Billy Graham are rather ludicrous: his speeches are to small groups of the faithful in a community hall in the basement of some rural parish church. Yes, he gets fine ovations and utters some wise quips - but really it's like a slugger on a weekend adult softball team thinking he could play in the Majors. In short, Father Urban is full of himself (his most notable rhetorical flourish is "not a-tall," such as when he denies an accusation of subterfuge or when he refuses the take an honorarium following one of his speeches - a grandiose flourish that others must see through and laugh about, in private. And what about his relationship w/ the wealth donor (who seems like a gangster, though that has not been state directly), Billy Cosgrove, who provides money for Urban's small order to buy land for a golf course to help w/ development of a retreat for the laity. Does the golf course represent some version of purgatory (the ultimate retreat is salvation after death)? Or does it represent the worldly and the commercial encroaching on sacred grounds? Father Urban takes w/out question or compulsion many gifts from Billy. Is Father Urban being corrupted? Or do the gifts represent the benevolence of Jesus in a way that Father Urban doesn't understand? In short, why is Father Urban a priest, after all? does he really care to save souls or to bring comfort to the afflicted? Or is it a safe profession - removing him from the struggle most adults endure? Oddly there's not even a hint of sexuality - homosexual or hetero - anywhere in the novel (through p.. 200 or so) - an omission that would be impossible in any work  today about the Catholic clergy.