What Makes Us Catholic: Eight Gifts for Life [Hardcover]

Thomas H. Groome (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2002

What is it that makes a Catholic a Catholic? In this spirited volume, Thomas Groome, a leading expert on Catholic religious education, argues that even though Catholics span a spectrum of faith - from the devout to the lapsed - they all share eight distinctive qualities: sacramentality - finding the infinite in the finite;a sense of ultimate meaning; a feeling of community; an appreciation of human potential and fallibility; a concern for justice and the unfortunate; a reverance for tradition; faith vs despair; and all-inclusiveness. Even the millions of non-practicing Catholics possess a distinct Catholic sensibility that forever shapes their view of reality. WHAT MAKES US CATHOLIC proves that character and invites Catholics of all kinds to connect more deeply and wholeheartedly with their own culture and spirituality.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lawrence Welk, Babe Ruth, and Madonna have at least one thing in common. They're Catholic. But what does it mean to be Catholic? Thomas Groome, in What Makes Us Catholic, offers some answers. An expert on Catholic religious education, Groome says that all Catholics, regardless of their religious involvement in the Church, share a common sense of spirituality. Inviting readers "to critically consider and deliberately choose what could be life-giving from their faith tradition," Groome describes eight spiritual qualities that he believes are distinctively Catholic. These include sacramentality ("finding the infinite in the finite"), a sense of community, a commitment to work for justice, a reverence for tradition, and a disposition toward faith and not despair.

Short essays--blending personal reflection, stories from Scripture and Church history, and exercises for prayer and reflection--define each ingredient of Catholic spiritual identity. The book's tone is accessible and nonjudgmental, and will likely help many readers eager to find a way of believing that "religion and spirituality are two sides of the same coin, and they badly need each other." --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly

Groome, a theology professor at Boston College, has written this book at a time when his church is reasserting its beliefs through publication of the catechism and pronouncements on such polarizing issues as the ordination of women. He appears to be trying to assure Catholics who are disappointed with the state of their church in the wake of the reforming Second Vatican Council of the 1960s that it's still okay to be Catholic, even if they don't like the present pope and his vision for Catholic Christianity. What really makes people Catholic, he argues, are such thematic elements as sacramentality and the Catholic view of "society's function as serving the common good." Groome's vision of Catholicism seeks to reveal a more palatable side of the church as an advocate of such social values as inclusiveness and concern for the poor. He also downplays the hierarchy's teaching role by saying this function requires the participation of everyone, "not a small group doing all the teaching." Groome's reputation as an author of several Catholic school texts could make his latest book a popular resource for adult educational programs, since each chapter includes questions suitable for group discussion. However, despite the author's claim that he writes for Catholics "who span the spectrum," his views may alienate more conservative members.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1st edition (February 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060633980
• ISBN-13: 978-0060633981
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How Do We Live As Catholics?, November 4, 2004

By 

Timothy Kearney (Haverhill, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Makes Us Catholic: Eight Gifts for Life (Paperback)

I was recently talking with someone who had read Thomas Groome's WHAT MAKES US CATHOLIC. She said "I did not recognize the Church in this book." While this may sound like a good reason not to purchase the book, it was actually a ringing endorsement. This woman was recently returning to the Church and it helped her realize the richness of her faith, a faith that has been tested, and in recent years marred by scandal, but none the less a faith that at its best mirrors Jesus Christ.

While Groome himself is a professor of theology and religious education at Boston College, the work is not a catechism of sorts. It does not explicitly talk about what the Church teaches, but how the Catholic faith can shape a person. Groome focuses on eight areas that affect the lives of Catholics: grace, the sacramental way of life, community, scripture and tradition, social justice, reaching out to others, and spirituality. In each are he focuses on hat it means to live each of these areas, which for a Catholic is essential, since the Catholic faith is one that is based on lived experience (contrary to what some may think). Her also uses the gift of Catholic imagination, so much a part of Catholicism, but often neglected. The end result may be a Catholic faith that is not instantly recognizable, but if one looks through history and the way in which many Catholics live today, it is a Catholicism that is real and very much a part of human life.

The book was first published in 2002, just as the current scandal in the Church was making the headlines in newspapers across the country, and throughout the world for that matter. For many who read Groome's book at that time, it was a reminder of what the Church has to offer and why it needs to be saved. This alone makes the book a gift to the Church. From a spiritual point of view, it is a great book to re-infuse a person's faith and give it a fresh perspective. Catachetically it is a great book to be used in RCIA programs. It is a readable book that will be an important resource for years to come.

25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful articulation of the Catholic faith, June 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: What Makes Us Catholic: Eight Gifts for Life (Paperback)

This book was a joy to read. Groome "unpacks" several key defining characteristics of the Catholic faith, including the sacramental view of God as present in the world around us, the thirst for social justice, the need to recognize and include people of all cultures. This book is a wonderful synthesis of what makes Catholics Catholic, and even though I was familiar with these ideas before reading the book, I found Groome's thoughtful explanation of each characteristic in its Scriptural and historical context to be particularly enlightening. Very refreshing was his empowerment of the laity to actively live their faith,and he offers many practical ideas on how to do so. Groome is also very honest about times when the Catholic church has fallen short of its own ideals, both in the past and in the present day, but the overall message is one of hope: the Holy Spirit is continuing to move throughout the Church and, as was stated at Vatican II, "as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth." This book is truly a refreshing drink for a thirsty soul.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Okay, if you agree with the author's political choices!, June 4, 2009

By 

klb (Toledo, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Makes Us Catholic: Eight Gifts for Life (Paperback)

I picked up this book and initially LOVED the preface about a young man who had grown up in a traditional, Boston-Irish-Catholic family. He "automatically put down Catholic" when asked his religious preference on a hospital form but questioned whether that really held any meaning for him. When questioned why he didn't just put "no preference" or skip the question, the young man answered, "Aw gawd, I could never do that. And what if something went wrong during the operation? ... Yeh never know, yeh never know."
This rang so familiar to my own story:
I grew up in a Boston-Italian-Irish-Catholic family. (Redundancy?) My parents were non-practicing, so I never had a very good sense of what it really meant to be Catholic. I attended CCD and sometimes went to mass with my girlfriend in high school (who had to get a bulletin to prove to her mom she had been there!. Then I attended Catholic universities for undergrad and grad school, studying art history. Through art history, I was introduced to many of the saints, stories, and rites celebrated in the Churhc. Later on, I married a German-Catholic man from Ohio, who went to Catholic schools his whole life. We now have 2 sons, who attend Catholic elementary schools. Through them I have gained not only the saints and stories, as before, but also a genuine joy of the spirit of the mass of thanksgiving.
Now, my friends and family back in Massachusetts think of me as the "religious one" in the family. They have recently begun to come to me to ask questions that are very difficult for the average lay person to answer. They seek answers because they have lived, for the past 20 years in a culture which informs them that they "don't need to go to church to be Catholic," they "don't need to go through a priest to confess to God," they "don't need to" be Sunday mass-goers to be good people," and they are "more spiritual than when they attended mass." Now they ask me about the significance of Confirmation, about Annulment, and about the Church's stance on many issues. They are conduits of years of prevalent anti-Catholic misconceptions such as that which supposes our statues and rosaries are superstitious symbols. The old Boston-Italian-Catholic or Boston-Irish Catholic families have wandered so far from the Church, they ask what it REALLY means to be Catholic? In fact, 14% of people living in the North East list "no religious preference" when asked their religion.
Thomas H. Groome seems to have his finger on the pulse of the spirituality that lapsed New England Catholic seek. I loved the examination of the roots of "Catholic" to "katha holos," meaning "gathering in the whole," or "all are welcome," conferring an inclusion (rather than a universality) of the Church. I appreciated some of the chapters on Living as Graceful People, Taking a Sacramental View, Getting Together for Good, Mining the Treasury of Scripture and Tradition, Loving Beyond Borders, and (most appropriately for my purpose) Growing a Spirituality for Life.
On the negative side, I agree with other reviewers that the author tends to insert his very untraditional opinions in places. He not only mentions the future possibility for women to become priests but makes a serious plug for the income tax! Personally, I found the whole CHAPTER on "our" politics completely inappropriate for a book about "what makes us Catholic" and was disturbed that he used this outlet to further his own political agenda.
In all, I would consider the below book, Rediscovering Catholicism, a better read.Rediscovering Catholicism: Journeying Toward Our Spiritual North Star