In the film, Father Chuck O'Malley arrives at St. Dominic's Church at the behest of the Bishop, tasked with solving the church's financial difficulties without stepping on the toes of the resident priest, Father Fitzgibbon. Fitzgibbon, played by Barry Fitzgerald, is a lovable curmudgeon who has been at St. Dominic's since it was built, forty-five years before. He is frustrated- and sometimes scandalized- by O'Malley's modern and seemingly casual approach to his calling, regarding him as frivolous and irresponsible. He eventually sees, however, that Father O'Malley's methods may be unorthodox but they are effective, especially when dealing with the gang of boys who run the streets of the parish causing trouble. The two gradually begin working together and make great strides towards dealing with both the financial woes of the church and the various troubles of their flock. Unfortunately, just as everything seems to be going well, a crisis arises which may spell the end of St. Dominic's entirely.
Oh- just a correction here: in my post about The Bells of St Mary's last week, I said that at the end of Going My Way, Father O'Malley doesn't say where he's been transferred to, but this was wrong. He actually tells Father Fitzgibbon that he's been transferred to St. Charles' church, so he had at least one other posting before arriving at St. Mary's. I don't remember catching that before.
Going My Way is a wonderful movie filled with great performances and if you haven't seen it, you should.