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| BOOK | REVIEW |
Basic Catholicism
by Martin K. Barrack
The Missionary’s Catechism
by Russell L. Ford
Magnificat Institute Press
330 pp. $12.95
(800) 370-8201
As a close friend of Russ Ford and contributor of a foreword, this review of The Missionary’s Catechism necessarily reflects my excitement about an extraordinary man and his extraordinary book. Caveat lector.
By now, Russ Ford’s stunning completion and evangelical work in the Alabama prison system are well known. During the first year of his 25 year sentence in an Alabama prison, Russ met a prisoner who had become Catholic. Mike Mayola drilled straight down into Russ’s heart. As Russ describes it, “God stripped [me] down to nothing, and rebuilt a whole man where only the shell of a man had been.” Any inquirer into the Catholic faith who thinks his pilgrim journey to the Cross is too hard will be instantly shaken awake by Russ’s story.
An Alabama prison populated entirely by hardened criminals who have committed murder, rape, armed robbery and other felonies would not appear the best place to interest men in the Catholic faith. In that hostile environment Russ has been responsible for hundreds of conversions, 60 of whom are now his godsons. About half of Russ’s converts have been released from prison and only one has returned, a recidivism rate of less than one percent. Several still in prison are teaching their own catechism classes. One, a legend throughout Alabama’s eighteen prisons for the ferocity of his crime and for more than two decades of brutally intimidating other prisoners, is now a catechist who teaches church history like a college professor.
Russ describes his book this way: “The Missionary’s Catechism is, to my knowledge, the only one of its kind. It is written in the tenor and method I have used to teach many people. The style is question and answer and the posture is assertively evangelistic . . . . Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this text provides answers from the writings of early Church Fathers, classical Christian literary works, numerous scriptural references, and an abundance of ecclesiastical and papal documents.”
The Missionary’s Catechism is a complete text for teaching the Catholic faith in CCD, RCIA, or adult education classes. It contains 628 questions and answers covering the twelve articles of the Apostles’ Creed, divine grace and the sacraments, and Christian morality, with shorter sections on the precepts of the Church, the life of virtue, and the life of prayer. It has ten pages of common Catholic prayers, a Decalogue-based examination of conscience, lists of additional Catholic resources, a series of examination questions and answers, and an index. It has an imprimatur from the Bishop of Galveston-Houston.
Most catechisms, presenting pure catechesis, lack “personality.” This one has lots of personality. It provides catechesis, evangelism and apologetics. It has the form of a catechism but the substance of a soldier’s field manual for the spiritual war.
It also has a sense of being hand crafted. As an Alabama prisoner, Russ had no access to a computer or even a typewriter for his writing. The Missionary’s Catechism was entirely handwritten. Russ’s hands have become arthritic during the years of his incarceration; every word was wrought from pain.
Russ speaks plainly, with little academic sheen. For instance, #38 asks: “If Jesus possesses a human nature, how is it that we can call Mary the Mother of God?” The answer: “Did your mother give birth to a person or a nature? She gave birth to a person, of course. (A nature is merely something possessed by a person.) Since Jesus is a divine Person, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, she conceived and gave birth to the second Person of God. This makes her the mother of God.”
This plain clarity is responsible for Russ’s extraordinary success at evangelizing and catechizing men. Traditional Catholic teaching methods require both faith and intellect to succeed. Government schools during the past half century have attenuated faith and intellect in perhaps a hundred million of their graduates. Some have survived intact, but tens of millions who believe themselves to be Catholic are as far removed from the Catholic faith as the Augustinian friar who nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door. Russ teaches the true Catholic faith in a colorful style that anyone can understand.
Karl Keating calls The Missionary’s Catechism “. . . a question-and-answer column with an attitude.” The attitude is militant orthodoxy. Russ guides the reader into practices most often accepted by devout Catholics. For instance, #252 asks whether we should receive standing or kneeling. Russ carefully answers that we may licitly receive either way, but encourages kneeling for those physically able. Similarly, #253 asks whether we should receive the Eucharist on the tongue or in the hand. Russ answers that we may licitly receive either way, but encourages reception on the tongue.
People who see that The Missionary’s Catechism follows the tenor and method of Russ’s teaching for convicted felons assume that it is a catechism for prisoners. It certainly is that; Russ takes extra effort with such questions as: #499 “How serious a sin is theft?”, #500 “Must a thief return stolen goods?”, #501 “If we know or find out we have purchased stolen goods, may we keep them?”, etc.
But it is first and foremost a catechism for the ordinary man. The disappearance during the past half century of Catholic faith from public life and the concomitant rise in persecution of Catholics suggest that we are living in an extraordinary time in salvation history. Many Catholics see a worldwide choosing of sides, with each of us either “for God” or “for the world.” Every soul reaching out to the Catholic Church is surrounded by today’s darkening world with its severe temptations to sin. Russ’s street-savvy catechism covers the major temptations and always provides genuine Catholic answers that go straight to the point.
In an Alabama prison, Russ mostly encounters Protestant fundamentalists, and so he naturally focuses his apologetics section, in Appendix One, in that direction. There he makes a point that needs to be more widely understood: “Despite the vehement, and often uncharitable and objectively sinful attacks Fundamentalists launch against the Church, we must recognize that they are acting in clear conscience. They believe they are bringing God’s scourge on what they have been taught is the ‘Whore of Babylon.’ Because Fundamentalists try to live the limited divine truths they possess, believe it or not, God actually counts to their credit their attacks against His own Church, simply because they attack the Church out of love for Him!” Russ points out that we should respond to Fundamentalists with love, but cautions against pollyanna or milquetoast defenses. “They are taught a very conservative and aggressive form of Protestantism. We must be equally aggressive in defending the Catholic Faith, but do so with charity, or Fundamentalists will perceive us as weak and uncertain. Due to their own training and mind set, an aggressive but charitable defense is the only way we can get Fundamentalists to hear what we say.”
Perhaps the only area that needs improvement is the list of additional recommended books. There are too many; I cannot imagine a reader going to a Catholic bookshop to buy all 46, and the reader is given no guidance as to which would best suit his interests. In particular, I would not lead a novice Catholic directly into St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica or Ludwig Ott’s Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. It would have been better had Russ recommended perhaps ten carefully selected books and provided a brief introduction to each.
Overall, The Missionary’s Catechism is an excellent primary text for Catholic parish CCD, RCIA, or adult-ed classes. Far too many texts approved for parish use are boring; this one will keep the reader’s attention. Far too many texts subtly undermine true Catholic faith; this one points straight to the Vicar of Christ.
The Missionary’s Catechism is also an excellent book to give a friend who would like to know more about the Catholic faith. Most people today are relatively informal, and Russ’s informal catechism will make them comfortable as they encounter true Catholic teaching.
Catholics evangelists already using my own Second Exodus as a complete-in-one-book introduction to the Catholic faith and reading this review may ask whether The Missionary’s Catechism or Second Exodus would best serve their inquirers. The Missionary’s Catechism’s highly concentrated questions and answers would better serve an inquirer who needs Catholic basics in the shortest possible time. Second Exodus’ wider range would better serve a more reflective or probing inquirer.
In the end, The Missionary’s Catechism is a superb book because it is the mirror image of a superb catechist. Russ Ford has been extremely effective, and his book is extremely effective. Every Catholic evangelist should have a copy of The Missionary’s Catechism that he can give to an interested inquirer. So many starving souls, so little time!
Marty Barrack, a Jew who has become complete as a Catholic evangelist, is the author of Second Exodus, which illuminates the Jewish heritage of the Catholic Church, published by Magnificat Institute Press in Houston, Texas. The book is the centerpiece of Marty’s Second Exodus apostolate (http://www.secondexodus.com) which helps Catholics serve Jews interested in learning more about the Church.
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