One of the most important books in religion this year is a tour-de-force of new investigation, scholarly rigor, storytelling, and humor. In this authoritative work, Mark Massa, program director of Fordham University's Center for American Catholic Studies, reveals how American Catholics’ distinctive way of viewing the world is constantly misunderstood by outsiders. This book tells the astonishing story of how a supposedly tolerant American culture has prejudged members of their largest religious group, and how the profound differences between Catholics and non-Catholics explain this animosity. Crossroad is pleased to present the paperback edition with major study guide. Chapters include: The Varieties of Anti-Catholicism in the United States; Do Catholics and Protestant See the World Differently? Catholic-Protestant Tensions in Postwar America; The Power of Negative Thinking; The Death Cookie and Other "Catholics Cartoons"; Catholicism and Science; "Why Does He Say Those Awful Things about Catholics?"; Betrayal in Boston; The Last Acceptable Prejudice?
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One of the most important books in contemporary religious publishing. This book explores the astonishing story of prejudice against Catholics and what it tells us about Catholic identity.
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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The oft quoted saying that problems can't be solved at the same level that they were created applies here if the study of anti-Catholicism is intended to help alleviate it. `Unlike Catholic and non-Catholic authors of other books on the subject that I have read, the author of this book (in spite of being a Catholic priest) appears to be himself quite hostile toward Catholicism (but not somehow 'being a Catholic').
People who despise Catholicism and appreciate a well written and well referenced book arguing that Catholicism itself is the root of its problems will enjoy this book. The author genuinely seems to want anti-Catholicism to end. However he considers the substance of Catholicism to blame and believes that the solution is Catholicism reinventing itself so that its structure and beliefs enable it to blend better with popular secular culture.
The issue of the sexual abuse scandals is legitimately raised as a catalyst for extreme modern anti-Catholicism. The author rightly points out that "One of the many tragedies of the Boston Clergy sexual abuse case is its handy availability as proof positive for those citizens already uneasy with Catholicism that their fears were well placed after all."
Nevertheless, as has been pointed out in other literature, the scandal was exacerbated by critics of the Church who helped generate the media construct and who fanned the flames hoping to derive support for their ongoing attack on Catholicism.
Unfortunately the author leans toward continuing this exacerbation. Don't expect more than an incidental mention of the low incidence of abuse among the clergy relative to comparable groups and the mitigating reasons for inappropriate management by the Bishops. Such mention is made only passingly to rebut its mitigating implications for the moral culpability of the Bishops.
Ironically the facts adduced to condemn the Bishops almost completely exonerates them. The exception is a March 2002 psychiatrist's statement contradicting claims of Edward Cardinal Egan. Other attempts to establish moral culpability are weak and clearly establish that psychiatric and medical opinion at the time resulted in and supported Bishop's decisions. Nevertheless the author strings the proverbial long bow in second guessing a Bishop for failing to reject the medical opinion of a molestor's "family doctor and friend". Another example of an equally long bow is represented by holding up a 1985 Bishop's report as a smoking gun. The report was partly based on testimony of psychiatrists. It held that treatment could "help rehabilitate (paedophile) clerics so that they could return to active ministry" providing that a specific treatment regime was followed to avoid recidivism. The key treatment required was 6 months at a facility. The author focusses on the example of molestor Father Georghan to demonstrate non-compliance with the report recommendations. Although in that example rehabilitation at facilities clearly lasted less than 6 months per visit it is plain that Georghan attended facilities for treatment and plain that the treatment duration was based on the recommendations of the facilities. That an honest attempt was made to follow the report recommendations is palpable.
The unreasonable assumption that such facts are a smoking gun appears to be based on the author's bias toward viewing Bishops as villains presumably due to being part of institutional Catholicism. Indeed he even dismisses Catholics with the temerity to criticize media reports on the topic which included exageration or misrepresentation. He implies that such Catholics are labelling legitimate criticism as Catholic bashing. Further, he so ardently seeks condemnation of Bishops that he considers the following comment somehow self evidently relevant to the above situations: "a church culture that places the reputation of that church above the safety of children is a church culture that must be seriously reexamined." Implicit is an unestablished extrapolation that relying on then current medical opinion was somehow a coverup wilfully accepting that children would continue to be harmed and any call for fair and honest media reporting on such an inflamatory issue equates to an attempted cover up.
For the record I firmly believe that Bishops deferring all authority to mental health professionals (even if they consulted canon law to ensure the rubber stamping was implemented with correct procedures) acted extremely misguidedly and incompetently. They failed miserably to act as shepherds rather than rubber stamps for secular decision makers. This resulted in tragic consequences for some of their flock. However that does not mean that the author's weak excuses to unfairly condemn the Bishops for more damaging reasons should be countenanced.
Unfortunately the author seems more interested in changing Catholicism then analysing anti-Catholicism. Noteable is the glossing over of the statistical surge in abuse cases commencing in the 1960s and ending in the 1980s an era when liberal Catholicism dominated the Church. Indeed the author's casual use of the term "homophobic" in the final chapter when arguing that Catholics are not the only group who encounter modern prejudice speaks volumes about his level of acceptance of Catholic teachings. Likewise the uncritical and undue emphasis (compared to other Catholic views) afforded to recording explanations for anti-Catholicism derived from "Catholic commentators" who blame institutional Catholicism itself for its problems supports this view. This emphasis includes quotes from a gay Catholic and a Catholic who states "the arguments for what passes as current church doctrine are so intellectually contemptible that mere self respect forbids a man to voice them as his own." The corollary of the willingness to embrace opinions violently opposed to Catholic doctrine is presumably that the author shares the hostility.
In the final analysis the irony here is that a book from a Catholic priest and academic apparently hostile toward Catholicism is unlikely to alleviate anti-Catholicism and may well exacerbate it. Like a badly behaving priest in the news, a priest hostile toward Catholic belief will affirm in people already uneasy with Catholicism that their uneasiness must be well grounded after all.
People who despise Catholicism and appreciate a well written and well referenced book arguing that Catholicism itself is the root of its problems will enjoy this book. The author genuinely seems to want anti-Catholicism to end. However he considers the substance of Catholicism to blame and believes that the solution is Catholicism reinventing itself so that its structure and beliefs enable it to blend better with popular secular culture.
The issue of the sexual abuse scandals is legitimately raised as a catalyst for extreme modern anti-Catholicism. The author rightly points out that "One of the many tragedies of the Boston Clergy sexual abuse case is its handy availability as proof positive for those citizens already uneasy with Catholicism that their fears were well placed after all."
Nevertheless, as has been pointed out in other literature, the scandal was exacerbated by critics of the Church who helped generate the media construct and who fanned the flames hoping to derive support for their ongoing attack on Catholicism.
Unfortunately the author leans toward continuing this exacerbation. Don't expect more than an incidental mention of the low incidence of abuse among the clergy relative to comparable groups and the mitigating reasons for inappropriate management by the Bishops. Such mention is made only passingly to rebut its mitigating implications for the moral culpability of the Bishops.
Ironically the facts adduced to condemn the Bishops almost completely exonerates them. The exception is a March 2002 psychiatrist's statement contradicting claims of Edward Cardinal Egan. Other attempts to establish moral culpability are weak and clearly establish that psychiatric and medical opinion at the time resulted in and supported Bishop's decisions. Nevertheless the author strings the proverbial long bow in second guessing a Bishop for failing to reject the medical opinion of a molestor's "family doctor and friend". Another example of an equally long bow is represented by holding up a 1985 Bishop's report as a smoking gun. The report was partly based on testimony of psychiatrists. It held that treatment could "help rehabilitate (paedophile) clerics so that they could return to active ministry" providing that a specific treatment regime was followed to avoid recidivism. The key treatment required was 6 months at a facility. The author focusses on the example of molestor Father Georghan to demonstrate non-compliance with the report recommendations. Although in that example rehabilitation at facilities clearly lasted less than 6 months per visit it is plain that Georghan attended facilities for treatment and plain that the treatment duration was based on the recommendations of the facilities. That an honest attempt was made to follow the report recommendations is palpable.
The unreasonable assumption that such facts are a smoking gun appears to be based on the author's bias toward viewing Bishops as villains presumably due to being part of institutional Catholicism. Indeed he even dismisses Catholics with the temerity to criticize media reports on the topic which included exageration or misrepresentation. He implies that such Catholics are labelling legitimate criticism as Catholic bashing. Further, he so ardently seeks condemnation of Bishops that he considers the following comment somehow self evidently relevant to the above situations: "a church culture that places the reputation of that church above the safety of children is a church culture that must be seriously reexamined." Implicit is an unestablished extrapolation that relying on then current medical opinion was somehow a coverup wilfully accepting that children would continue to be harmed and any call for fair and honest media reporting on such an inflamatory issue equates to an attempted cover up.
For the record I firmly believe that Bishops deferring all authority to mental health professionals (even if they consulted canon law to ensure the rubber stamping was implemented with correct procedures) acted extremely misguidedly and incompetently. They failed miserably to act as shepherds rather than rubber stamps for secular decision makers. This resulted in tragic consequences for some of their flock. However that does not mean that the author's weak excuses to unfairly condemn the Bishops for more damaging reasons should be countenanced.
Unfortunately the author seems more interested in changing Catholicism then analysing anti-Catholicism. Noteable is the glossing over of the statistical surge in abuse cases commencing in the 1960s and ending in the 1980s an era when liberal Catholicism dominated the Church. Indeed the author's casual use of the term "homophobic" in the final chapter when arguing that Catholics are not the only group who encounter modern prejudice speaks volumes about his level of acceptance of Catholic teachings. Likewise the uncritical and undue emphasis (compared to other Catholic views) afforded to recording explanations for anti-Catholicism derived from "Catholic commentators" who blame institutional Catholicism itself for its problems supports this view. This emphasis includes quotes from a gay Catholic and a Catholic who states "the arguments for what passes as current church doctrine are so intellectually contemptible that mere self respect forbids a man to voice them as his own." The corollary of the willingness to embrace opinions violently opposed to Catholic doctrine is presumably that the author shares the hostility.
In the final analysis the irony here is that a book from a Catholic priest and academic apparently hostile toward Catholicism is unlikely to alleviate anti-Catholicism and may well exacerbate it. Like a badly behaving priest in the news, a priest hostile toward Catholic belief will affirm in people already uneasy with Catholicism that their uneasiness must be well grounded after all.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mark S. Massa's "Anti-Catholicism in America: The Last Acceptable Prejudice" provides a broad survey and insightful analysis of a deep and virulent strain of bigotry in America that was imported from Europe, was present at America's founding and popped up throughout American history,, and has managed to make into the internet era. Anyone who believes that anti-Catholicism is a historical relic need only visit any number of websites occupied by atheists or what one would hope are fringe Protestants. What one finds there is a fairly continuous theme of ululating hatred for Catholicism and the Catholic Church. Father Massa - writing in 2003 - notes the breadth and depth of anti-Catholic hatred in the waning years of the 20th Century and beginning of the 21st, from anti-Catholic plays to anti-Catholic editorials in mainstream papers to the casual implication that Catholic Supreme Court nominees are suspect as having a potentially unhealthy "allegiance" to the Pope to over-the-top accusations by Planned Parenthood that the Catholic Church is at "war with women" (p. 42 - 45), and concludes that somehow Catholicism doesn't "fit in" to American society. Massa writes:
"The very randomness of these examples of what have termed Catholic-bashing - spanning the cultural spectrum from up-scale magazines of cultural comment and mass-market newspapers on the east coast to street theater in the Bay Area on the west coast - form a disturbing web of evidence. Some Catholic observers have argued that it is as though Catholic iconography, leadership, and sensibilities are somehow perceived by large sections of U.S. culture as fair game for attack, in ways that the beliefs and practices of other groups are not. Other Catholic commentators argue that this prejudice has been created by the problematic positions of the church itself on a number of social, sexual and political issues. But what both groups would agree on is that Catholicism somehow doesn't fit into North American cultural values and presuppositions.
But why?" (p. 45.)
Father Massa provides a fascinating account of the history of American anti-Catholicism. I knew about the Know - Nothings and Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s, but I had never heard of the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, which in 1854 was a potent political power, or the American Protective Association, which in the 1890s organized boycotts of Catholic businesses, organized anti-Catholic riots and claimed a half-million supporters. (p. 30.) Likewise, the revived Klan in the 1920s had created a three-million member strong invisible empire through slick sales techniques and had as one of its principle aims the extermination of Catholicism.
Father Massa's book came out too soon to include the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Resolution that characterized the Catholic Church as both a foreign power and inimical to the values of San Francisco in refusing to accede to a legal demand to place adopted children in the households of homosexual couples. This example fits wonderfully into the historical survey whereby Catholicism is distrusted as a foreign power and suspected for its communitarian values.
After the initial history, Massa looks at various thematic issues in recent history, including Jack Chick's anti-Catholic comic book empire, which reaches more people than any church or theologian; and Jimmy Swaggert, who until his own implosion was the most popular Evangelical preacher of his age and virulently and explicitly anti-Catholic; and Norman Vincent Peale's effort to gin up anti-Catholic hatred in order to derail John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign; and an extensive academic program that assumed deficiencies in Catholic educational culture were caused by Catholicism without bothering to check out other possible explanations; and Paul Blanshard, whose 1949 book was endorsed by John Dewey and influentially made the argument that Catholics could never be good Americans.
These vignettes are well-told. Father Massa is an excellent writer with a gift for understatement and light humor. The factual stories he recounts are fascinating and read like mini-biographies of small players in history, such as, the enigmatic Jack Chick, John Courtney Murray, Paul Blanshard, Normal Vincent Peale, or Jimmy Swaggert, the musical preacher who started his career by touting his relationship to his cousins Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley.
What ties the history and thematic elements together is the theory that Father Massa offers based on the views of a theologian named David Tracy. Tracy's theory is that even prior to doctrine and creed, a believer is raised up in a fundamental way of conceiving reality. For the Catholic that way of conceiving religion is "analogical." God is not a distant "other" who views the world as hateful sinners. Rather, for the Catholic, the world bears an analogical relationship with God. God is part of the world and particularly present in the sacraments. This worldview translates into sociology, with Catholicism tending to be more communal, defining individuals within society. An alternative worldview is "dialectical." Under this approach, God is a distant other who views the world as hateful and deserving of condemnation. Only those few individuals who individually form a personal relationship with Christ can hope to find salvation. This dialectical approach has sociological implications in loosening the sense of community and elevating the role of the individual in isolation as the basic constituent of society. [Incidentally, although he does not use the same terminology, Michael Allen Gillespie in The Theological Origins of Modernity covers much of the same territory.]
Protestantism is dialectical. America is a Protestant country, both in its origin and presently. Consequently, the cultural norms are dialectical, which means that there is a fundamental disconnect with people whose culturally "knitting" is analogical.
Father Massa ably points out the "dialectical imagination" in the context of Jimmy Swaggert and Jack Chick. Both seem to demonstrate a cultural context where religion is spirituality reduced literally to "me and Jesus," without any community, except to the limited extent that a preacher may preach the Word on television or the reader may find a 24 block comic book.
Father Massa is also very good on the minor abuse scandal that has been the recurrent subject of constant media coverage. Father Massa analyzes this issue as an example of a dysfunctional kind of analogical thinking. The scandal is an example of "mysterium iniquitatis" - the mystery of evil. The pedophiles were filthy and vile, but the bishops who re-assigned them were often very decent men and, often, on the "right side" of social issues, such as immigration and other issues. So, the mystery of evil is, "what could they have been thinking?" Father Massa cuts the bishops no slack - the bishops can be forgiven, but they cannot be excused. (p. 189.) But understanding is the first step to a reformation. Massa believes that what may have misfired was a misapplication of the analogical way of thinking whereby the Church, which to Catholics is the Body of Christ, was confused literally with the Body of Christ in the here and now. An answer, therefore, may be to become more dialectical and to realize that loyalty to the Church is not loyalty to Christ or the Gospel.
Father Massa concludes with an examination of whether modern anti-Catholicism is entirely new or a revival of the old anti-Catholicism. His conclusion is "yes and no." Anti-Catholicism is hardly the last prejudice. But anti-Catholicism does exist in modern America, and modern anti-Catholicism retains its Reformed Protestant roots with a dialectical critique of Catholicism. What is new is the coopting of these dialectical tropes by secular and anti-religious critics of Catholicism, which brings us back to the internet atheists I began this review with. Massa concludes with this sad, hopeful and realistic appraisal:
"Catholic citizens of the United States were and are, outsiders, "others" in a culture shaped and still powerfully influenced by Protestant language and presuppositions. This is neither a bad thing in itself, nor a retreat to victimization language. Religious outsiders have a revered place in North American religion, beginning with the New England Puritans themselves, then with their outsider saints like Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, right down to Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is disingenuous for Catholics to feign surprise, anger, or grief to learn that they are not in the mainstream of their culture, or that they are perceived as such by a number of their fellow citizens who shape cultural tastes. Such has always been the (blessed) lot of the saints in every age. As St. Paul was at pains t remind them, "We have here no lasting city, but seek the one that is above." This in no way lessens the urgency of Jesus' command to be both wise and blameless in our age; but perhaps it offers some peace to those who are aware that Catholicism doesn't completely fit into the lively experiment that is the United States, and probably never will.
That's the good news." (p. 198.)
With the issues defined that way, we may hope he is right.
We don't seem to have much choice in the matter.
"The very randomness of these examples of what have termed Catholic-bashing - spanning the cultural spectrum from up-scale magazines of cultural comment and mass-market newspapers on the east coast to street theater in the Bay Area on the west coast - form a disturbing web of evidence. Some Catholic observers have argued that it is as though Catholic iconography, leadership, and sensibilities are somehow perceived by large sections of U.S. culture as fair game for attack, in ways that the beliefs and practices of other groups are not. Other Catholic commentators argue that this prejudice has been created by the problematic positions of the church itself on a number of social, sexual and political issues. But what both groups would agree on is that Catholicism somehow doesn't fit into North American cultural values and presuppositions.
But why?" (p. 45.)
Father Massa provides a fascinating account of the history of American anti-Catholicism. I knew about the Know - Nothings and Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s, but I had never heard of the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, which in 1854 was a potent political power, or the American Protective Association, which in the 1890s organized boycotts of Catholic businesses, organized anti-Catholic riots and claimed a half-million supporters. (p. 30.) Likewise, the revived Klan in the 1920s had created a three-million member strong invisible empire through slick sales techniques and had as one of its principle aims the extermination of Catholicism.
Father Massa's book came out too soon to include the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Resolution that characterized the Catholic Church as both a foreign power and inimical to the values of San Francisco in refusing to accede to a legal demand to place adopted children in the households of homosexual couples. This example fits wonderfully into the historical survey whereby Catholicism is distrusted as a foreign power and suspected for its communitarian values.
After the initial history, Massa looks at various thematic issues in recent history, including Jack Chick's anti-Catholic comic book empire, which reaches more people than any church or theologian; and Jimmy Swaggert, who until his own implosion was the most popular Evangelical preacher of his age and virulently and explicitly anti-Catholic; and Norman Vincent Peale's effort to gin up anti-Catholic hatred in order to derail John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign; and an extensive academic program that assumed deficiencies in Catholic educational culture were caused by Catholicism without bothering to check out other possible explanations; and Paul Blanshard, whose 1949 book was endorsed by John Dewey and influentially made the argument that Catholics could never be good Americans.
These vignettes are well-told. Father Massa is an excellent writer with a gift for understatement and light humor. The factual stories he recounts are fascinating and read like mini-biographies of small players in history, such as, the enigmatic Jack Chick, John Courtney Murray, Paul Blanshard, Normal Vincent Peale, or Jimmy Swaggert, the musical preacher who started his career by touting his relationship to his cousins Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley.
What ties the history and thematic elements together is the theory that Father Massa offers based on the views of a theologian named David Tracy. Tracy's theory is that even prior to doctrine and creed, a believer is raised up in a fundamental way of conceiving reality. For the Catholic that way of conceiving religion is "analogical." God is not a distant "other" who views the world as hateful sinners. Rather, for the Catholic, the world bears an analogical relationship with God. God is part of the world and particularly present in the sacraments. This worldview translates into sociology, with Catholicism tending to be more communal, defining individuals within society. An alternative worldview is "dialectical." Under this approach, God is a distant other who views the world as hateful and deserving of condemnation. Only those few individuals who individually form a personal relationship with Christ can hope to find salvation. This dialectical approach has sociological implications in loosening the sense of community and elevating the role of the individual in isolation as the basic constituent of society. [Incidentally, although he does not use the same terminology, Michael Allen Gillespie in The Theological Origins of Modernity covers much of the same territory.]
Protestantism is dialectical. America is a Protestant country, both in its origin and presently. Consequently, the cultural norms are dialectical, which means that there is a fundamental disconnect with people whose culturally "knitting" is analogical.
Father Massa ably points out the "dialectical imagination" in the context of Jimmy Swaggert and Jack Chick. Both seem to demonstrate a cultural context where religion is spirituality reduced literally to "me and Jesus," without any community, except to the limited extent that a preacher may preach the Word on television or the reader may find a 24 block comic book.
Father Massa is also very good on the minor abuse scandal that has been the recurrent subject of constant media coverage. Father Massa analyzes this issue as an example of a dysfunctional kind of analogical thinking. The scandal is an example of "mysterium iniquitatis" - the mystery of evil. The pedophiles were filthy and vile, but the bishops who re-assigned them were often very decent men and, often, on the "right side" of social issues, such as immigration and other issues. So, the mystery of evil is, "what could they have been thinking?" Father Massa cuts the bishops no slack - the bishops can be forgiven, but they cannot be excused. (p. 189.) But understanding is the first step to a reformation. Massa believes that what may have misfired was a misapplication of the analogical way of thinking whereby the Church, which to Catholics is the Body of Christ, was confused literally with the Body of Christ in the here and now. An answer, therefore, may be to become more dialectical and to realize that loyalty to the Church is not loyalty to Christ or the Gospel.
Father Massa concludes with an examination of whether modern anti-Catholicism is entirely new or a revival of the old anti-Catholicism. His conclusion is "yes and no." Anti-Catholicism is hardly the last prejudice. But anti-Catholicism does exist in modern America, and modern anti-Catholicism retains its Reformed Protestant roots with a dialectical critique of Catholicism. What is new is the coopting of these dialectical tropes by secular and anti-religious critics of Catholicism, which brings us back to the internet atheists I began this review with. Massa concludes with this sad, hopeful and realistic appraisal:
"Catholic citizens of the United States were and are, outsiders, "others" in a culture shaped and still powerfully influenced by Protestant language and presuppositions. This is neither a bad thing in itself, nor a retreat to victimization language. Religious outsiders have a revered place in North American religion, beginning with the New England Puritans themselves, then with their outsider saints like Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, right down to Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is disingenuous for Catholics to feign surprise, anger, or grief to learn that they are not in the mainstream of their culture, or that they are perceived as such by a number of their fellow citizens who shape cultural tastes. Such has always been the (blessed) lot of the saints in every age. As St. Paul was at pains t remind them, "We have here no lasting city, but seek the one that is above." This in no way lessens the urgency of Jesus' command to be both wise and blameless in our age; but perhaps it offers some peace to those who are aware that Catholicism doesn't completely fit into the lively experiment that is the United States, and probably never will.
That's the good news." (p. 198.)
With the issues defined that way, we may hope he is right.
We don't seem to have much choice in the matter.
18 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As someone who grew up Catholic and who has always loved being a Catholic this book is a source of great reassurance. I spent 12 years in schools run by Benedictine nuns and priests and, though they were pretty strict, I believe I got a better education than I would have had I attended a secular school. Being a Catholic is not always easy and I am not always good at it. There are many problems within the Church but I am so tired of feeling like I have to apologize for continuing to believe in the higher purpose of Catholicism.
Father Massa's book is a great reassurance that Catholicism is more than just what one does on Sunday mornings. It is a way of life and, for the most part, it is a good way of life. I particularly appreciated his chapters on the pedophilia scandals of recent years. His precise and exacting explanation of the events leading up to it and the way it was handled is unblinkingly honest but reassuring that, while many mistakes were made, they were human mistakes that had little to do with theology and the essence of what Catholicism is.
This is a beautifully written, touching and informative book. If you are a Catholic who feels you have to apologize for that at times and yet still believe, I urge you to read Father Massa's book.
Father Massa's book is a great reassurance that Catholicism is more than just what one does on Sunday mornings. It is a way of life and, for the most part, it is a good way of life. I particularly appreciated his chapters on the pedophilia scandals of recent years. His precise and exacting explanation of the events leading up to it and the way it was handled is unblinkingly honest but reassuring that, while many mistakes were made, they were human mistakes that had little to do with theology and the essence of what Catholicism is.
This is a beautifully written, touching and informative book. If you are a Catholic who feels you have to apologize for that at times and yet still believe, I urge you to read Father Massa's book.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
We all know it's happening, and this book tells it.
Being Catholic, I've always felt the anti-catholic slant in my local newspaper. This book opens your eyes beyond what you see at your local level. Read more
Published 6 months ago by D. Krug
3.0 out of 5 stars
Anti-Catholicism in America: The Last Acceptable Prejudice
Anti-Catholicism in America: The Last Acceptable Prejudice
Mark S. Massa
New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2003; 2nd edition (October 1, 2005)
ISBN-10:... Read more
Mark S. Massa
New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2003; 2nd edition (October 1, 2005)
ISBN-10:... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Brian Van Hove
5.0 out of 5 stars
Catholicism Belittled
As a life-long practicing Catholic, this book was an eye opener. I have never experienced anti-Catholicism in my life and was surprised at the hatred for Catholics in America in... Read more
Published on August 7, 2010 by Hoppy
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