More Catholic Than the Pope: An Inside Look at Extreme Traditionalism [Paperback]

Patrick Madrid (Author), Pete Vere (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2004

More Catholic Than The Pope - An Inside Look At Extreme TraditionalismPatrick MadridPeter Vere Faithful remnant, or fanatic schismatics? It can be difficult to distinguish defenders from defectors. Many traditionalist schisms that have sprung up since the Second Vatican Council are filled with devotion to the Blessed Mother; they remain extremely conservative with regard to most moral issues afflicting the western world today; and they practice a strict reverence before the Blessed Sacrament during their traditional Latin liturgies. It can be easy to sympathize with such seemingly devout but truly disaffected Catholics. Now More Catholic Than The Pope examines one such group - the Society of St. Pius X - and explains how its prime architect and figurehead, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, and his followers chose to cut themselves off from the Church. Here is the history of the Society, from its beginning in France, to its rise and fall within the Catholic Church, to Pope John Paul II's fraternal but ultimately fruitless efforts at reconciliation. Here, too, carefully laid out, are the clear, concise, canonical answers to the issues the Society's members continue to raise and the arguments they still offer. Patrick Madrid is a noted apologist, EWTN television host, and the author of Answer Me This!. Pete Vere, JCL, is a canon lawyer, an author, and a former adherent to the SSPX schism.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Patrick Madrid is a noted apologist, EWTN television host, and author of Answer Me This! (Our Sunday Visitor). Pete Vere, JCL, is a canon lawyer, an author, and a former adherent to the SSPX schism.

Product Details

• Paperback: 186 pages
• Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor (IN) (September 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931709262
• ISBN-13: 978-1931709262
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #856,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dry, Though Informative, July 9, 2005

By 

JustinK (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: More Catholic Than the Pope: An Inside Look at Extreme Traditionalism (Paperback)

"Faithful remnant, or fanatic schismatics?" That is a question posed in a large font at the top of the back cover. The conclusions that the author's of the book come to can be inferred from the title: "More Catholic Than the Pope: An Inside Look at Extreme Traditionalism". Extreme! That means bad, bad, bad in our modern ecumenically-toned, ever-so-moderate, religious language. Extreme equates to fanatic, fringe, and zealot. Obviously the authors are not going to come out defending these traditionalists that (?) think they are "More Catholic Than the Pope".

So far this seems like it will be a pretty entertaining, if one-sided, book. It even says "inside look," and tells us on the back flap that one of the authors was "a former adherent to the SSPX schism". Most people are probably preparing themselves for an expose' of the heretofore unrevealed facts and motivations and whatnot of these extremists.

However, If one will read the rest of the back cover, one will quickly realise that this is not what the book is about. This book is intended to be two things: history and canonical argument. It is also a third thing: dry as saw dust. I would not call it apologetic, as apologetical literature should be persuasive, and it's hard to persuade someone when your material is so boring that the reader is falling asleep.

On the other hand, I don't mean to be attacking the authors personally. I would guess that there really isn't a way of making this material enjoyable reading. But when I say "entertain" and "enjoyable," I don't mean in a simply profane sense. I mean that my attention constantly strayed, that while I could see the relevance of
each point made, I really didn't care a whit. The authors have shown that their subject is indeed the guilty party, but they've given us no reason to care whether they are guilty or not. They make a good (if dry and lawyerly) case, but it has no personal meaning to the average reader.

As an Orthodox Christian I felt especially distanced (in spite of my wife being formerly in the SSPX). This book came off as much more one-sided than the other things I've heard about them, though I guess that's the nature of such books. The most intersting thing I got out of the book was in the similarities I saw between the SSPX and our own Orthodox traditionalist groups. Some of the quotes and arguments from Lefevre could have come straight from the mouths of various Orthodox traditionalist Bishops and priests. The resemblance was quite frightening.

As far as enjoyability, I'd give this book 2 stars, but I think that's unfair given the material, and the fact that the authors did, in the end, provide a very thorough case (canonically anyway; their defense of Vatican 2 was very short). So, I'm giving the book 3 stars. If you are a Catholic and interested in the history of Catholic traditionalist groups, this book may be more to your liking than it was to mine.

33 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you're expecting history or even journalism . . ., March 28, 2005

By 

Casey R. Law (McPherson, Kansas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: More Catholic Than the Pope: An Inside Look at Extreme Traditionalism (Paperback)

you'll be disappointed. Essentially, this is a canon law brief against the Lefebvrist movement. As a lawyer and former medieval history graduate student, I found this mildly interesting, but no more than that. (Mr. Vere, one of the authors, is a canon lawyer, and one wonders whether this book is a slightly modified version of the equivalent of a master's thesis.) The book is typical of the "We're right, you're wrong" approach taken before by Mr. Madrid in his EWTN appearances.

For a short book, this volume contains too many grammatical and typographical errors.

Our Sunday Visitor Press, which has produced good work, markets the book misleadingly by using Mr. Vere's former attraction to "extreme traditionalism" to imply that this is an "inside look" at the movement. In fact, the book gives only the skimpiest outline, full of lacunae, of the history of Lefebvre's movement, and only hints at what attracts intelligent believers to it. One sighs with nostalgia for the author of ENTHUSIASM, Msgr. Ronald Knox, who, while expressing his disagreements cogently, treats earlier forms of "extreme traditionalism" with an insight, sympathy, and literary grace wholly absent from the current book.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Great and Important Topic, but poorly delivered, January 3, 2006

By 

CDS "C" (Boston,MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: More Catholic Than the Pope: An Inside Look at Extreme Traditionalism (Paperback)

I ocassionally enjoy e-mailing people like "pope" Michael (aka David Bawden), just to pick their brains and see what makes them tick. It's fun only in small doses and stops being fun when he starts spamming you with his rants. So knowing that there are people like him out there, people who consider themselves "true" Catholics and that who believe that the rest of the Catholic Church has gone serviously astray, I was eager to pick up this book to see what light it sheds on such folk.

The first half of the book was only decently written, It dwelt, I felt, far too much on Archbishop Lefebrve and his schism, and it didn't cover those that split off before him or after him, that still call themselves catholic. It treated the case in fact as if Lefebvre's people were the only ones that had split off. It quoted liberally from cannon law, but I felt that it was a circular argument, with valid points to make that were never really arrived at.

The second half of the book I felt was far more important, but sadly they spent less time developing it. In it they counter those arguments posed by "traditionalist" Catholics, but each argument only gets a very superficial treatment, maybe a quote or two to back up authentic Catholic teaching, and knowing the quality of Patrcik Madrid, I felt he could have developed each of these more in depth.

Lastly, I was a little sad that none of the anti-popes running around these days got any coverage at all. It could have added some humor to the situation, but perhaps someone elected by his parents and two other people is not worthy of much attention, sorry David.