Worried about eternal damnation? Think a sweet potato pie may grease the skids at the pearly gates? The Rev. Ken Fleck of Tinley Park’s St. George Church may have the answer.

After 12 years of research and delicious experimentation, Fleck has finished his self-published cookbook, “Burnt Offerings.”

The book contains recipes for the favorite dishes of over 80 Catholic priests and even some bishops, cardinals and popes.

Fleck came up with the idea for the book after realizing a compilation of priests’ recipes might be a better seller than a book by a single pastor.

“I thought, ‘Lots of other priests cook or bake and live by themselves. What do they do?'” he said. “So I sent a letter out to all the priests in the archdiocese (of Chicago).”

The Rev. Dennis O’Neill of St. Martha Church in Morton Grove was skeptical when he first heard about the cookbook.

“When he asked me for a recipe, I told him I’ve never cooked anything,” he said.

But O’Neill remembered he had a recipe for a primitive beer tucked away in his great-grandfather’s journal.

O’Neill thinks his great-grandparents mixed up the rye, cracked corn, sugar and yeast in their home during Prohibition.

From Venetian Shrimp Scampi to Poached Nairobi Steak, 339 recipes run a fascinating gamut of simple and succulent dishes.

After-dinner recipes run from St. Aquin chocolate chip cookies and walnut tortes to apricot strudel and pecan balls.

Fleck said he thought the book might take a little starch out of the collars of many priests. Many parishioners think of priests as stuffy and forbidding, but that’s not usually the case, he said.

“We’re common guys taken from our communities who decided to take God into our heart,” Fleck said.