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Good News, Bad News: Evangelization, Conversion and the Crisis of Faith

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Drawing on his vast pastoral experience, including his time as Director of the Catholic Information Center in downtown DC from 1998 to 2004, Father McCloskey has distilled in this book (written together with Russell Shaw) some pointed reflections on how best to serve as God's instruments in the conversion of others.
The book starts from a twofold premise. Firstly, in our "age of the laity", the specific call of lay people is to be apostles to the world rather than crowd the sanctuary. (Father McCloskey's "Sermon for Our Times", on page 58 of the book, is a forceful invitation to avoid the risk of "clericalizing" the lay person, a danger against which para. 45 of the 2004 Instruction "Redemptionis sacramentum" by the Roman Congregation for Divine Worship called to a sane relationship of complementarity between the cleric and the lay person, each one with his complementary gifts.) Secondly, effective apostolate is not a light endeavor but (as Father McCloskey writes on page 91) an investment into spiritual growth by the evangelizer himself/herself: it "must flow from prayer and mortification and participation in the sacraments - from one's own ongoing ascetical struggle to put on Jesus Christ."
On the basis of these premises, Father McCloskey shares his insights, with the help of actual stories by converts, into how best we can help others to have a personal encounter with Christ.
The book is enriched by an appendix containing the "Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan", a list of solid works for Christian formation compiled by Father McCloskey while a Director of the Catholic Information Center.

Good News, Bad News is a wonderful book for anyone seeking to share the Catholic faith, for it illustrates many reasons why non-Catholics become interested in, and ultimately convert to Catholicism. Fr. McCloskey is a gifted evangelist, but more: he is a gifted listener. Story after story illustrates that Catholic evangelization is not about coercion, but about listening to God in prayer, listening to others, then pointing them in the right direction based upon what God says and what they say. Readers will be inspired and challenged by one of McCloskey's central theses: Catholicism is about the Truth, the Truth makes demands, and when those demands are adhered to, life becomes more beautiful even if more challenging. Read this book, but only if you are ready to change your life.

I liked it. Lots of ideas in few chapters on how you can help your friends find Christ. None of the pushy stuff (knocking on the doors of strangers). The book explains the hunger people have living empty lives in a busy world. It's based on real life stories -- how some Christians have the right word at the right moment. It's a primer on how to be an apostle in the middle of the world.

The good news:
-This book was a quick read (I read it in one sitting)
-There is an invaluable appendix of 'life-long learning' books
-There are some great personal examples from converts
-The summary of what is going on in the world in terms of secularization of Europe and what is happening in America is the best short summary I've ever read.

The bad news:
-The author freely admits that he doesn't have much to say about helping convert non-Christians (other than Jews). It would have been helpful to then have someone 'fill-in' in this area for him, especially in the area of the Muslim faith.
-The attitude toward the Orthodox or I guess the attitude of superiority of 'Latin-Rite' was such a turn-off.
-It would have been nice to have discussion of other, full communion rites of the Church, but again, if that's not the area of expertise, then perhaps that's why it was left out.

I would definitely recommend this book for any serious Catholic to help evangelize, unless you need to evangelize your Muslim or atheistic neighbors.