Customer Reviews

The Courage To Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, And The Future Of The Church

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

An area of common agreement, regardless of whether one is a conservative or liberal, is that the current sexual abuse scandal in the church needs immediate attention and reform. In what can best be described as an extended essay, George Weigel, theologian and columnist, analyzes the present crisis and presents a clear, cogent and concise analysis of the causes of this crisis and proposes a number of simple, yet surprisingly elusive (to many) reforms to eliminate this corrosive cancer within the church. Mr. Weigel examines the issues with a clear understanding of what the Catholic Church is, and what it is not.

The author identifies a number of reasons for the current crisis: the culture of dissent in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council; deficiencies in the episcopate where many bishops view themselves as corporate CEO's rather than apostles of Christ; lack of focus on ascetic priestly lifestyles; and the cafeteria Catholicism of many of today's Catholics.

The solution lies in the book's invitation to a deeper faith and fidelity to the teachings of the church, the courage to address the crisis within the context of Christ's essential teachings. And this courage applies to all aspects of the church: the episcopate, the clergy and indeed all members of the church, to stand firm for what is right.

Most of the author's opinions will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with his other books and his column, The Catholic Difference. However, Mr. Weigel's gift is that he explains his positions with wit and clarity, analyzing complex issues in simple understandable terms. One may not always agree with George Weigel. However, the book is thought provoking and provides much food for thought on the current affairs and future direction of the church. COURAGE TO BE CATHOLIC reminds us that the future of the Church depends upon the commitment of each of us to the fidelity of the Gospel and the teachings of the church.

All of us Catholics are disgusted by both the priests who destroyed hundreds of lives and the bishops who enabled these monsters. However, we should be equally disgusted by groups both inside and outside the Church who shamelessly exploit victims of sexual abuse to advance political causes and theological extortion. In the midst of this chaos, George Weigel provides a refreshing ray of light with his honest critique of the Church heirarchy and his committment to the truth of the Catholic faith. This book was written with intense charity and loving concern for the Catholic faithful. Mr. Weigel uses his extensive first-hand knowledge of the Church, including the papacy, to outline a cohesive, competent, and comprehensive study of the causes, effects, and solutions to the current crisis facing the Church.

In this book, Mr. Weigel plays the honest centrist, even though he usually fits more comfortably in the traditionalist camp. There is no pitiful blaming of "media hype," a claim common among traditionalists. Also, there is none of the tired "us-them" or "noble laity vs. the evil heirarchy" silliness of the Catholic left. Instead, Mr. Weigel's essential thesis of the Chruch is the same as Christ's - a family of believers, each with his or her own role in the plan of salvation, and each called through his or her own baptism to a life centered on Christ.

Mr. Weigel's assertion that seminarians must first be mature disciples of Christ seems intuitive, but is unfortuantely quite revolutionary. Similarly, his call for bishops to be apostles instead of managers should be equally obivious. The fact that Mr. Weigel is compelled to rebuke the Church leadership on these points shows the true crisis in the Church today. The book ends with a cause for hope - the culture that created this tragedy is on the wane. . .an assertion that has been proven recently in the surge of new seminarians over the past few months.

Thank you, Mr. Weigel, for giving us an excellent plan for true reform!

I read this book from start to finish in one evening.It is the best study of the current crisis in the Catholic Church and indeed the state of the Catholic church I have yet read. The author's criticisms of past handling of sexual abuse are fearless but fair. Pope John Paul II's own excellent teachings on the formation of priests were given good exposure. The link between good priestly formation and adherence to the general teaching on sexual ethics was beautifully drawn.

Best of all was George Weigel's passionate call to holiness through love of Christ and fidelity to His teaching- not just for the laity but priests and bishops alike. I finished the book with great hope and certainty that this crisis will eventually bring renewal.
I heartily recommend this book to all who are even only remotely interested in the Catholic church.

...and for that reason, I was worried that the quality of the work would not be up to par. Fortunately my concerns were ill-founded and the work being reviewed here can be given four and a half stars for content and a half a star for its timeliness. My only real criticism is that George Weigel almost seems to fall into the trap of equating "Catholic" with "Latin rite". Thus when he speaks of the celibacy of the Catholic priest - and while giving a cursory mention of the eastern tradition - he does not do full justice to the complexity of the eastern and western traditions on this subject. (He is right though that celibacy of the western clergy is not the problem that many of the contemporary ignorant portray it to be.) But I am getting a bit ahead of myself here.

George Weigel starts off by identifying the crisis under four headings:

1) The three-headed monster of pedophilia, priests having illicit sexual relations with women - including some minors, and "homosexually oriented priests, seemingly incapable of living the celibacy they had promised to God and the Church, and abusing teenagers and young men committed to their care" (cf. Weigel).

2) Crisis of Priestly Identity

3) Crisis of Episcopal Leadership

4) Crisis of Discipleship

He then goes on to highlight what the crisis is not and deals well with the red herrings of (i) Celibacy (ii) the "authoritarian Church" model (iii) a "failure to implement Vatican II" - according to its so-called "spirit" (iv) the crisis being "a pedophilia crisis" - as it is much more then that (v) the "problem" being the Catholic Sexual Ethic itself. From there he delves into the problems of dissent from magisterial teaching which started with Humanae Vitae in 1968 and continues today by both "liberals" as well as so-called "traditionalists" and how the Vatican ended up hamstringing American bishops in 1968. The fear of creating a schism was of course legitimate but the results of the policies to address the problems have created in essence an implicit schism in the American Church at many levels.

Weigel deals well with how the aforementioned dissent filtered down from not a few theologians to the faithful, influenced the seminary development of a generation of priests, problems with certain psychological attempts to fix the problem, and the Vatican's moves under the pontificate of Pope John Paul II to reverse this trend which started turning around in 1984. (And how more recent seminarians have benefitted from the changes made thus far.) Weigel also identifies well the culture of dissent that has developed and points out how it in all of its manifestations - from liberal to self-styled "traditionalist" - have played a role in the deepening of this problem. The lie of "faithful dissent" is not detailed as well as it could have been but Weigel sought to cover a lot of subjects so in that respect can be pardoned for only covering the above subject in a brief overview manner.

From there, the author goes on to examine in detail the reasons why the bishops failed in their ministry, the role of Rome in the Crisis, the beginning of reform in the Seminaries - starting with the 1985 Apostolic visitations, the elements that go into priestly reform (here he touches on the rich teaching of the Council and Pope John Paul II on the priesthood), and the selection of bishops - including an idea for some lay participation. (Hardly the "novelty" that many Catholics may presume that it is.) Weigel sums the work up with a call to renewal by being authentically Catholic and not "Catholic Lite" - the latter being what is sadly not uncommon today with the cafeteria Catholicism of picking and choosing what the individual likes and disregarding the rest: for it is that very element that was the genesis of this crisis and what has prolonged it. It therefore is a mentality that needs to be killed and buried and Weigel outlines in this book a good program for doing that that is in essence "back to basics".

In short, this is a good book that all Catholics concerned with the problems in the Church today should read. Crises after all are only cured by a renewed fidelity and that is of course what George Weigel means by "the courage to be Catholic" - and this is something that all Catholics need to take into account and strive to do.

While John Paul II was giving hope to victims of communism, helping to win the Cold War, his American flock was way off message. In public the American bishops flogged their assumed moral acuity: intoning sonorous condemnations of Ronald Reagan's policies, loudly wondering if the pontiff knew what century it was, while in private they inducted and sheltered priests who preyed upon unsuspecting parishioners' teenaged boys. This book is an account of how it happened, and how the stinking mess was exposed.

George Weigel must certainly have written this book with a very personal anger at the malfeasant clerics who allowed all this to happen. He had written a well-received biography of the current pontiff, who is one of the 20th century's indisputable heroes. Now, the post-Cold War victory glow of the Catholic church has been dispelled by the reek of the American church's sexual scandals. Weigel manfully refrains from calling the crisis a media creation, though he does score the press on a few inaccuracies here and there. He sticks to just the facts: the opinions of even the most influential commentators like Andrew Sullivan and Richard John Neuhaus are excluded. He also does not waste a lot of space replying to charges that the church's rule of celibacy caused these predators to seduce their young male victims. Nor does he dwell on the capture of the American Catholic seminaries by the gay subculture-Michael Rose's Goodbye, Good Men is the place to get an full, infuriating examination of that sad state of affairs.

Weigel provides a chronological narrative of the crisis, and by the way an explanation of the functions of various papal officers and departments. He traces the origins of the crisis to what he calls the "Truce of 1968", in which American liberals in the church flouted elements of Vatican II, and were allowed to get away with it. These people then established a "culture of dissent" in the seminaries, turning away orthodox applicants, and spreading laxness and relativism and corruption throughout the American church.

The Vatican also bungled its end of responsibility. It did not keep the Pope and his aides adequately informed, nor did it conduct crucial press conferences very competently.

Weigel insists against some American reformers that this is a crisis of fidelity, not of management or oversight. He reiterates the theological inspiration for the offices of priests, bishops and cardinals, and proposes many sharp, specific reforms. He calls for nothing less than the spiritual cauterization of the American Church.

The Americans were not completely corrupt. The U. S. church had in fact discreetly resolved many of the abuses, under prompting by Rome, by the time the story broke. But what goes on in the dark comes out in the light.

The crisis continued to rage after this book's publication. Cardinal Bernard Law was forced to resign some months later, and reformers threatened the outright ban on homosexuals in the priesthood. One gets the sense that things will get uglier before they get prettier. But no one can doubt that thoroughgoing penance and reform must come before any renewal in the American Catholic church. Let the cleaning of the whited sepulchers begin.

George Weigel's impeccable theological credentials and extraordinary ability to express his ideas in the vernacular have produced a desperately needed review of the current crisis in the US Catholic Church. It is clear enough to be understood by non-Catholics and written in a way that individual chapters on specific issues can be read and quoted independently without losing their context.
Mr. Weigel's theological and practical knowledge are partnered in a way that looks at the priesthood and the church hierarchy from many angles while remaining firmly rooted in the essentials: The teachings and example of Jesus,the first Priest, the head of the church and the architect of it's structure.
I will use this book as an essential tutorial to explain the issues of the current scandal, its origins and solutions to family, friends and anyone with a serious interest in these vital and agonizing issues that affect not just Catholics but all of us.

George Weigel has a done a great service for the Catholic Church. His cogent and eloquent evaluation of the 2002 sexual abuse crisis confronting the Catholic Church and its hierarchy in the United States (and Rome!!) is right on the money.
As a deacon of the Catholic Church ordained in 1986, I can personally attest to the accuracy of his assessment of the crisis of fidelity, which is one of the major root causal factors of the cowardice with which too many dioceses and seminaries have dealt with the issue of agenda-driven, active dissent from the received teachings of the Church. This applies also to those ordained priests who support the agenda of those who choose to be active in a homosexual lifestyle by celebrating "sub rosa" Masses for them. For too long now, we have tolerated too many who do not teach "with the Church" and who have tried to foist off on us their twisted versions of "loyal dissent" - - priests, deacons and many consecrated religious women and men included. The greatest gift we have received in the last ten years is the magnificent "Catechism of the Catholic Church" - - Unfortunately, in some dioceses, this splendid Catechism is neither recommended nor praised - - Weigel correctly identifies these inauthentic dioceses as those who sadly embrace "Catholic Lite" and tolerate "loyal dissent"!! There is no substitute for fidelity to the received teachings of the Church and the call to holiness for all its adherents.

George Weigel has performed another great service for the Church by writing "The Courage To Be Catholic." This book, which is his response to the scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church in the United States during the year 2002, not only explains what the scandal is and how it happened, but also what the scandal is NOT and what the appropriate response from all Catholics should be.

I am a priest, and I was cheered and inspired by his chapter on the priesthood. Mr. Weigel, who is not ordained, demonstrates remarkable insight into the priesthood - not only from a theological point of view, but he seems to understand the practicalities of living the priestly life. I wish every priest and bishop in the United States would read this book (or at least the chapter on the priesthood) and take it to heart.

Throughout the book, he points to Pope John Paul II as the model for all priests in the Church today, and explains this great pope's many contributions to the Church. The passages about the pope as a model for priests are some of the most inspiring passages in the book. At the same time, he does not shy from placing blame at the feet of the Vatican bureaucracy, when he believes that such blame is deserved.

Most importantly, Mr. Weigel reminds us that we cannot have "reform" in the Church unless we return to the "form" that has been lost. This is not about sweeping changes in the nature of the priesthood itself; instead, it includes a call to all Catholics to a life of fidelity and holiness; a call to every priest to see himselves as the "alter Christus" that he is; and a call to all bishops to see themselves as shepherds and as successors to the apostles, not just as CEOs.

Well done, Mr. Weigel! Thank you!

George Weigel has written a valuable book on the ongoing crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. Weigel rightly calls this crisis "the long Lent."

I'm 58, a product of 12 years of Catholic education. I was 18 when the Second Vatican Council commenced. After that, the Church entered a period of turmoil and change which still resonates today.

I liked the incense, Latin, and Gregorian Chant of my childhood. I have come to appreciate being able to more fully participate at services, but still long for the Tridentine Mass.

Weigel identifies the "culture of dissent" as the principal culprit. This culture along with poor formation of priest and woefully inept guidance by American bishops have led the Catholic church astray. The Bishops unwillingness to confront incidents of Sexual misconduct by priests catapulted serious problems into fullblown crisis.

The author also corrects the common impression that the public has of the sexual abuses as pedophelia. The vast majority of cases involve priests relationships with teenage boys---in other words homosexuality.

Weigel's suggestions for true reform in the Catholic Church:

1. A Return to true Catholic teaching and a rejection of what he calls Catholic Lite.

2. Better training and selection of priests along with closer pastoral care and guidance from bishops.

3. A more personal and less managerial style from the Bishops themselves.

The book ends on a hopeful note describing the many young priests who have rededicated themselves to the church and its mission.

This book manages to take a critical look at the modern Catholic Church and be pro Catholic at the same time. This book will benefit any catholic that wants to know why we are in the mess we are in and how to get out of it. Although not a member of the clergy he offers a few suggestions to the catholic in the pew, as well as quite a few to the US Bishops. I found myself not wanting to read the last few pages as he tries to tell the Vatican/Curia what they need to change to accomodate the Catholic Church in the US. other than that it is a fine book.

My hat is off to George Weigel!