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52 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Judge Gets it Right, and the Jesuits Have Much to Answer for, July 1, 2005
This review is from: God and Man at Georgetown Prep: How I Became a Catholic Despite 20 Years of Catholic Schooling (Paperback)
Anyone who sets to stepping into William F. Buckley, Jr.'s giant shoes by borrowing the title "God and Man at . . ." undertakes quite a task. I am happy to report, though, that Judge pulls it off pretty well.
Short disclaimer--I was a classmate of his at Georgetown Prep. Having said that, I was not a part of the group of friends he writes about. It is fair to say that I knew more of "Mr. Judge" during our school years than I actually knew him. Suffice it to say that he is obviously now a much different person than he was 22 years ago.
The fact that I wasn't part of his "group" serves as a jumping-off point. While he doesn't mention this in the book, Georgetown Prep is part boarding school, and about 20% of the students (at least that was the number back then) board, and I was one of them. So what he observed between 8 and 5, I lived 24 hours a day. As he writes, there was really something of a dichotomy among the Jesuits--largely based on their age.
For example, my Spanish teacher was of the old-school, WWII generation, and he tolerated no nonsense. He was, unsurprisingly, also a splendid teacher, and when I told him that I was applying for a ROTC scholarship, he cheered me on. Contrast that with "Father Macabee," about whom Judge writes. "Macabee" was no more than 10 years older than we were (and truth be told, he was still a Jesuit scholastic, i.e. not yet ordained), and he was horrified when I told him about my ROTC plans. Of course, as Judge reports, "Macabee" left the Jesuits soon thereafter.
Unfortunately, not all of the "Macabees" have left. Indeed, one reads elsewhere about the "Gallery Owners," who man most of the administrative and theology positions in Jesuit education, and comes to the sad conclusion that they are all who are apparently left in the Order--or at least that they are at the top of the hierarchy.
I can also verify the story about Bernie Ward's "sex ed" class. All that I remember of it was that we learned every imaginable form of birth control (including abortificient methods, of course) and read Betty Friedan and the like. It was sex education by Alan Guttmacher, rather than by "Humanae Vitae" or "Love and Responsibility" (by the future Pope John Paul II).
Indeed, like Judge, it was not until years later that I really began to learn the faith. In my case it was during my years at Notre Dame Law School. Perhaps that was nothing more than the teacher appearing when the student was ready, but I tend to think it was more than that. At NDLS I had professors who, rightly, challenged me into questioning whether the law's power could ultimately be separated from the question of God. And my inquiry into my faith took off from there.
In fact, a moment that I still chuckle about is when, about 4 years out of law school, Fr. Benedict Groeschel (whom Judge also mentions) was giving a multi-day mission at a local parish, and I attended several of the talks. As a result of one of his talks--encouraging us to go reel in a "big fish" back to Confession--I talked to one of our local judges, a lapsed Catholic before whom I appeared daily, about going to see the good Father. The judge didn't bite (although it seemed to amuse him). But I digress.
Let me be clear. There were good men at Georgetown Prep. I think of Steve Ochs and Bob Barry, for example, both of whom are still there. But they are not Jesuits. What Catholic schools must have are a critical mass of clerics who embrace the faith, and that is what I fear is lacking. And Judge is correct that certain works--I would add C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity" and various encyclicals to Judge's list--ought to without question be included in any young Catholic's education.
It would be quite a shame to see the academically "elite" Catholic schools, like Georgetown Prep, go the way of Harvard, Yale, Duke, etc., and completely lose their religious soul. As it stands now, with the impression of the Jesuits that I currently have, even if I could afford to I would not send my sons to Prep. And that is a shame.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book for those thinking of returning to Catholicism, February 28, 2006
This review is from: God and Man at Georgetown Prep: How I Became a Catholic Despite 20 Years of Catholic Schooling (Paperback)
Many of the author's experiences mirrored my own. If you are well-versed in Catholicism, the extensive quotes from it's great writers may irritate you. For me, they were like water in the desert. Like Judge, I have only recently become aware of the richness of the writing of Catholics throughout the ages. His book served as a valuable resource to other authors who do not spend all their time bashing Catholicism, but actually examine its doctrine within a greater spiritual context. In other words, it is a relief to find authors who examine the spiritual rationale for church doctrines, instead of advocating a change to universal truths simply because they are incovenient to modern life.
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31 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sin of Mission, June 17, 2005
This review is from: God and Man at Georgetown Prep: How I Became a Catholic Despite 20 Years of Catholic Schooling (Paperback)
Like the author of this book, I also went Georgetown Prep and Catholic University. Religious education at GP was not very memorable--which could also be said of every other Catholic school--and religious education at CU could be downright heretical.
However there was at GP, one teacher who bucked the trend and still dealt in the old Catholic wisdom. He was Fr. John Nicola who had been the consultant to the movie, "The Exorcist." In the late `70s/early `80s, Fr. Nicola taught Thomistic Philosophy and an analysis of the Ten Commandments. I'm surprised Fr. Nicola was not included as a trend-bucking teacher among the pseudonymous faculty in this book as the author should certainly have been aware of him.
Otherwise, for those who haven't yet realized there's a revolution going on, this book an OK introduction to contemporary Catholic issues, even if it is a gush of names, titles, biographies and extensive quotes from other works (about 40% of the text). If you have ready other book, article, web site about what went wrong in the Church during the misinterpretation of Vatican II, you will find nothing new here.
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