From Publishers Weekly
In A Love That Dares to Question: A Bishop Challenges His Church, retired Australian bishop John Heaps discusses some of the issues facing the Roman Catholic Church today, including celibacy, the shortage of priests, women's ordination and the role of the laity. Heaps expresses concern for what he calls a "closed fearful mentality" that has seized the Vatican, preventing honest, open discussion of such issues. Heaps's voice can be strident, but his passion is matched by rigorous thinking and a generosity of spirit. Many Catholics will appreciate this firebrand from Down Under.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Heaps, a retired Australian Catholic bishop, offers an astonishingly daring treatise on the shortcomings and the failings of the contemporary Catholic Church. Able to evaluate with an insider's perspective, he deplores the institutional rigidity that has seemed to atrophy the post-Vatican II church. Some of the more controversial issues he discusses include the archaic views on marriage and divorce, the debatable relevancy of celibacy within the priesthood, the necessity of reforming the structural framework of the church hierarchy, and the inferior position of women within the Catholic community. Rather than merely criticize, Heaps provides a vision, thoroughly grounded in both Scripture and personal experiences, of a just and loving church able to embrace and elevate its diverse membership. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
