book reviews

by wm. b. smith

The oak still stands

ONE SHEPHERD, ONE FLOCK, By Oliver Barres. (Catholic Answers, 2020 Gillespie Way, El Cajon, CA 92020, 2000), 197 pp. PB $12.95.

Conversion stories, whether well-written or not, are always of interest since they reflect the continuing search for truth. When the conversion results in a complete upheaval in one’s chosen way of life and redirects one’s family and religious history, it is especially compelling. So it is with the conversion story of Oliver Barres.

First published in 1956 this two-part record of one man’s search for the truth is indeed a compelling read for anyone interested in what prompted the author’s search for truth knowing full well the price of considerable sacrifice that search would exact. Yet pursue he did. With a Preface penned by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., a Foreword by Fr. Avery Dulles, S.J., and original Introduction by Frank J. Sheed, this up-dated book has a depth and timelessness not always present in such publications.

The first part of Oliver’s story, “Threshold Thoughts” is a detailed journal-style description of his unrelenting search for truth. An ordained Congregational minister (as was his wife Marjorie) Oliver was deeply troubled by the profound divisions within Christianity. In the early 1950s his denomination struggled with a growing level of disunity. His struggle with this disunity was the starting point of a search for the greater truth, one that led Oliver Barres to the Roman Catholic Church. Marjorie Barres later followed by her own choice, which is surely a story unto itself! Oliver, Marjorie, and their two young daughters were received into the Church on the Eve of Pentecost, 1955.

In reading this fine book the reviewer was reminded of a conversion he witnessed first hand. A young Special Education teacher, frustrated apparently by his inability to effect fundamental changes in the educational structure in which he operated, Vaughn began to search for answers to questions not yet formed. His search was not for answers to intractable educational problems but about his own personal existence. Just as Oliver Barres did, this young man approached his search with an openness to truth and an unselfish objectivity. His journey led to acceptance into the Church some ten years ago. However, as with Oliver Barres and his family, God was not through with Vaughn. He is now Brother Chaminade, a professed monk in the community at Holy Spirit Monastery in Conyers, Georgia.

In the second part of this book, titled “Catholicism or Chaos,” the author challenges readers to test all things afresh. In it he offers a brief history of the rupture of Christianity from Martin Luther to the present. Writing well, to-the-point, and sometimes bluntly, Oliver Barres describes the impact of the Reformation on Christianity with words and phrases that demand the reader’s full attention. This section begins with a quote from Martin Luther, “A twig can be cut with a bread knife, but an oak calls for an ax.” The author’s response is simple when he states, “The oak still stands.” Therein lies his apologetic for the Catholic Faith which fills the remaining pages of this most excellent book.

At the close of his story Oliver Barres expresses the hope that this “ephemeral book” has shed the light of Christ on the reader’s path. It has for this reviewer and will for all interested readers. The book points readers to the truth, that is, to Christ and his Church. As an added bonus, it reminds the Catholic reader of the immense gift that is the Catholic Church. This book admirably captures the truth of Christ and the Catholic Church through one man’s search for the truth.

Michael G. Allen Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia

A tale of contrasts

THE CLEAVING OF CHRISTENDOM. By Warren H. Carroll (Christendom Press, 134 Christendom Drive, Front Royal, VA 22630, 2000), 801 pp. PB $29.95.

This fourth volume of Warren Carroll’s history of Christendom is superb. For laser-like insight, epigrammatic style, and sheer drama there is nothing to compare with it. Words like “good” and “evil,” “constancy” and “betrayal” set the tone, and while there is a fair amount of detail, readers are not likely to miss the forest for the trees. Carroll pinpoints “the worst mistake” in Catholic mission history just as he identifies the most feckless pope of all time and introduces a bishop who accomplished more than any other in the history of the Church.

The book is big, but it deals with big events: The Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, along with missionary movements on five continents. Then, too, Carroll is scrupulous in the use of evidence. Not content to point out that Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine, was popular with the people, he shows us 7,000 angry women demonstrating on Catherine’s behalf outside the home of Anne Boleyn. We are likewise ushered into an Easter Sunday service during which Anne’s name is substituted for that of Catherine, causing most of the congregation to walk out.

Charming vignettes follow one upon another: resentful blacks drive Sir Francis Drake out of Santo Domingo when he tells them they can no longer practice Catholicism; John Calvin climbs out of a window with a rope made from his bedroom curtains; Jesuit missionary de Nobili stands trial before a jury of eight hundred Brahmins. We see Henry plotting to bribe Pope Clement VII for permission to live bigamously with Anne pending a divorce — this on the heels of an adulterous affair with Anne’s married sister. It is no secret that “Good King Hal” executed two of his wives; but typically, Carroll has something to add: the man liquidated 72,000 of his subjects, roughly 3% of the population of England.

Justifiably proud of his Church, Carroll describes the mass conversion of over a million Eastern Orthodox, a major coup. Similarly, he makes a convincing case for miracles and finds room in his scheme for the guiding hand of Providence. Yet if Carroll is Catholic, he is also fair. The Vatican’s attempt to silence Galileo comes across as a blunder of the first magnitude, and Mary Tudor is faulted for too many executions of religious revolutionaries. If France’s “Huguenot Lent,” a wave of anti-papist sacrilege and rioting, is deplored, so too is the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre that followed. A Jesuit offer of military aid to Japan for the conquest of China is roundly condemned. Gustavus Adolphus and Francis Drake are hailed as the greatest general and seaman of the age respectively, and both were Protestant. Carroll even finds words of praise for Mary Queen of Scots’ rabbidly anti-Catholic jailer, Amyas Paulet (Paulet, heeding the voice of conscience, disregarded a royal order to assassinate his charge). At the same time, readers will understand Martin Luther’s grievances without losing sight of his theological shallowness and personal grossness — he urged his followers to wash their hands in the blood of the clergy and branded all popes “whores of Babylon.”

As one might expect, this is a tale of contrasts. England’s Elizabeth dies in a spiritual torpor while her great antagonist, Philip II of Spain faces his Divine Judge supremely confident and composed. One, and only one bishop, Fisher of Rochester, backs the pope against Henry VIII while one finds the exact opposite at the accession of Elizabeth when only one bishop sides with the crown.

Finally, this is a tale well told. We meet Elector John Frederick of Saxony, “a stolid mountain of a man with all the charm of a granite cliff,” as well as Margaret Clitherow, who is crushed to death between heavy stones in the city of York for sheltering priests. Carroll writes with wonderful panache about Peter Claver, shunned by the polite society of Cartagena for ministering to black slaves; Queen Christina of Sweden, who traded her kingdom for membership in the Church; and a redoubtable Swiss abbess by the name of Charity Pirkheimer, who defended her nuns in a sea of hostile Protestantism (and won!). Of Claver, the author remarks: “The foul smell of the slave-pens always hung about him, causing the fastidious to avoid him [but he] . . . received the Protestant archdeacon of London into the Catholic Church . . . followed by the conversion of many . . . other Englishmen. He even converted several Moors.” At the end of Claver’s life, he was “avoided by almost everyone whose conscience his devoted service had troubled, tended only by a black who did not really care about him and felt no gratitude.”

There is no room here to mention all the Latin American, Indian, and Oriental elements of a truly international story. Suffice it to say that The Cleaving of Christendom is “must” reading for all who take their faith seriously; and Warren Carroll, more than ever, occupies a place among his peers that is truly unique.

Frederick W. Marks Forest Hills, N.Y.

Eleven came back

WELCOME HOME! Stories of Fallen-Away Catholics Who Came Back. By Fr. John Corapi, S.O.L.T. Jesse Romero, Rick Strom, and others; edited by Victor R. Claveau (Ignatius Press, P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522, 2000), 318 pp. PB $14.95.

There are approximately 17 million inactive Catholics in the U.S. today. This is not just evidence of an epidemic crisis of faith, it is a summons to faithful Catholics to bring these “lost sheep” back into the fold. With Welcome Home! St. Joseph Communications has answered this challenge by compiling the stories of eleven “reverts” in the hope that fallen-away Catholics will see themselves in these stories and be inspired to return home to the Church.

The writers are eleven ordinary Catholics from different walks of life, who honestly and passionately recount their spiritual journeys in their own words. Although three of the writers, Fr. Corapi, Jesse Romero, and Rick Strom, are well-known, they are not celebrities and they are as genuine and down-to-earth as the other eight. What makes these stories so powerful is that they are true and that they describe the kinds of experiences which most Catholics today have lived through or have witnessed in the lives of others.

The similarities in the lives of the writers make these stories even more compelling. Ten of the writers were born and raised as Catholics; they went to Mass on Sundays and attended either Catholic schools or parish CCD programs. Yet, they stopped attending Mass and drifted away from the Church after they reached adulthood. Most of them said that their main reason for doing so was the fact that they did not understand or even know many of the Church’s teachings, including such basic ones as the Real Presence and the meaning of the Mass. They also said that they had not interiorized their faith or made the practice of it a part of their daily lives. Therefore, when they left home for college, careers, or the military service, they were unable to defend that faith from the inevitable attacks and attractions of the world. Five of the writers, Jesse Romero, Victor Claveau, Joseph Ranalli, Scott F. Leary, and Thomas J. Pillion, were lured into fundamentalist churches by friends and co-workers who were openly fervent in their practice of a simple, biblical faith and who made arguments against the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church which these men were unable to rebut. John Corapi, Ann E. Krach, and Terese Norris stopped practicing the faith because it was not compatible with their pursuit of worldly success and pleasure. Confusion about or rejection of the Church’s teachings on sexual morality, especially birth control, led others away from the Church.

Fortunately, the writers did not end their spiritual journeys here. Some of them returned to the Church after hearing tapes or reading books by Scott Hahn, Peter Kreeft, Karl Keating, Pope John Paul II, and other contemporary Catholic apologists who were able to answer the questions and objections they had about the Catholic faith. Also, most of the authors credit other Catholics, especially parents or spouses, with helping them return to the Church through their prayers, good example, and attempts at gentle persuasion. In the end, they all believe that it was the Holy Spirit, working through other, concerned Catholics, who brought them back to the Church.

Welcome Home! is a valuable tool for evangelization which should be put into the hands of as many fallen-away Catholics as possible. However, it is also a book which the rest of us should read not only because it shows us why so many people stray from the Church, which can help us dissuade others from doing the same, but also because it reminds us that we are the ones who must assist the Good Shepherd in bringing his lost sheep home.

Mary R. Schneider Cleveland, Ohio

The journey of Mary

THEOTOKOS, WOMAN, MOTHER, DISCIPLE: A CATECHESIS ON MARY, MOTHER OF GOD. By Pope John Paul II (Pauline Books and Media, 50 St. Pauls Avenue, Boston, MA 02130, 2000), 269 pp. PB $12.95.

Theotokos, Woman, Mother, Disciple is a compilation of 70 general audience talks on Mary delivered by John Paul II from September 1995 to November 1997. In this collection, the reader might determine that the Mother of God serves the Pontiff as a kind of prism through which he examines major issues in the Church: the gift of life, rights of women, dignity of work, goal of peace and the desire for Christian unity.

As Lumen Gentium reminds us, Mary enjoys a privileged place in relationship to the Trinity. She is given the high office and dignity of being the Mother of the Son, while also the beloved daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yet this dignity given to Mary does not hinder her solidarity with us. She has been redeemed like us but in a more exalted fashion “by reason of the merits of her Son” (LG 53).

The Protogospel proclaims Mary as the first ally of Christ against the devil. Titles given to Mary by the Church show a lasting antagonism between the New Eve and the serpent. Mary’s call here as “woman” in the Protogospel extends beyond the confines of the Church for it is the vocation of every person. One may readily say that the mission of Mary sheds light on and is inseparable from every woman. While there are women in the Old Testament whose conduct recalls that of Eve, the prevailing outlook of the conduct of women (Ruth, Miriam, Esther, Deborah among others) is that set by the Protogospel, namely that she is an ally of God against evil.

In recalling the words of Luke while the Holy Family is at Nazareth, “Jesus increased in wisdom, age and grace before God and men,” (2:52), the time in Nazareth is undoubtedly a period of profound intimacy of Mary with her Son. This union between Christ and Mary who was “full of grace” goes beyond that which would naturally exist between mother and child since it is rooted in a “particular supernatural condition” and also reinforced by the particular allegiance of both to the divine will. Mary’s awareness that she was carrying out a task God had entrusted to her gave a higher meaning to her daily life. The “simple, humble chores” of everyday life therefore took on a special value in her eyes, as she performed them as a service in the carrying out of Christ’s mission. Mary’s example may enlighten and encourage the experience of many women who carry out their daily task “exclusively in the home.” One might think that it would have been easy for Mary to believe as she had daily contact with her Son. It is well to bring to mind, however, that the “unique aspects” of her Son’s personality were usually hidden. During the 30 years in Nazareth, he did not reveal his supernatural qualities or work any miracles.

It must be recalled that through her divine maternity Mary is united with the Church. As Pope John Paul II so well states, in contemplating Mary, “the Church imitates her charity, her faithful acceptance of the Word of God and her docility in fulfilling the Father’s will. By following the Blessed Virgin’s example, she achieves a fruitful spiritual motherhood.”

Theotokos, Woman, Mother, Disciple may be seen as a source text but likewise as a path toward spiritual enrichment in taking the journey of Mary.

Sr. Madeleine Grace, C.V.I. Houston, Tex.

Evangelizing Fundamentalists
THE USUAL SUSPECTS: ANSWERING ANTI-CATHOLIC FUNDAMENTALISTS. By Karl Keating (Ignatius Press, P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522, 2000), 195 pp. PB $12.95.

Karl Keating provides a very readable text for those Roman Catholics who are looking for answers to frequently asked questions from Fundamentalists. He begins his work by presenting a likely scenario in which a Roman Catholic falls prey to Fundamentalist evangelization. Keating is quick to point out that parish priests would serve the Church more efficiently if they were alert to questions from their flock flowing from Fundamentalist literature. For those Catholics who might have thought that anti-Catholicism died in the 1980s, the author informs the reader of various anti-Catholic groups and their literature.

The text illustrates Keating’s proficiency in responding to Fundamentalist queries over many years. He is quick to point out that the Catholic can defend the stance of the Church in charity. Examples of his responses to common questions follow. If one were to deal with the issue of sola scriptura, Catholics maintain that there is no place in the scriptures which states that the Bible is the sole rule of faith. Fundamentalists do not believe in the practice of genuflecting because they do not believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist. However, in the eyes of Keating, genuflecting can be seen as very sensible when one considers other practices within society: a curtsy before the Queen of England, a soldier’s salute to an officer. How much more deference does Christ deserve than these people!

Keating contrasts the Catholic sign of the cross with the altar call, pointing out that both are unscriptural. The sign of the cross is noted in the writings of the third century Latin Father, Tertullian. It signifies the death of Christ on the cross and the Trinity as the central truth of Christianity. Thus, when one begins prayer with the sign of the cross, one prays in the name of the Trinity.

While Fundamentalists might assume that incense is peculiarly Catholic, the Jews commonly used it in the Temple as testified by Luke (1:10). Likewise one sees the Magi bringing incense (Matt. 2:11). The book of Revelation conveys the belief that incense exists in heaven (8:4). It is therefore, very appropriate for Churches.

Fundamentalists believe that the rosary violates Matt. 6:7, for the King James version uses the phrase “vain repetitions.” Keating points out that Christ repeats his own prayer to his Father in the garden. Therefore, the significant term is “vain,” meaning that Jesus condemns vain prayer. The rosary is a very biblical prayer, and calls forth a meditation on each of the mysteries rather than a “rattling off” of Hail Marys.

As one might determine from the above, Keating is very practical in choosing his topics. His narrative is further written with a prudence and experience enabling the Catholic to effectively respond to the Fundamentalist and reach out to the fallen away Catholic. Keating has further constructed his chapters in such a way that readers more interested in response to Fundamentalists rather than the numerous scenarios dealing with anti-Catholic rhetoric can easily root out needed answers.

Sr. Madeleine Grace, C.V.I. Houston, Tex.

Sacrament and symbol

FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD: SACRAMENTS AND ORTHODOXY. By A. Schmemann (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 575 Scarsdale Rd., Crestwood, N.Y. 10707, 2000), 151 pp. PB $11.95.

I have but one regret in reading this book and that is not having read it twenty-five years ago when I began my priestly ministry. The late Fr. Schmemann was a professor of Liturgical Theology at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. The richness contained in this small volume is both a spiritual unveiling of a soul deeply in love with his Lord and a corrective for theology and liturgy that separates itself from life. The book is a collection of essays and talks delivered by Fr. Schmemann dating back to 1962. It would benefit the reader to begin with the appendix “Sacrament and Symbol” where crucial insights will contextualize his individual discussion of each sacrament. Schmemann shows how, as an act of worship, the “liturgy brings together in one symbol the Church, the world and the kingdom by bringing God the world for the life of which He gave His Son.” In showing the richness of the “symbol,” Fr. Schmemann helps us to rediscover a concept of sacrament which, he thinks, suffered from scholastic overintellectualism and promoted erroneous sacred-secular dichotomy.

Schmemann’ s view of Christ’s kingdom is inclusive, not in the current multicultural sense which compromises truth, but in one that sees all creation renewed in Christ. He emphatically states that Christianity is not a religion, a cult that separates, but reality itself. He therefore rejects as irreconcilable ecumenism with non-believers and terms any identification with do-goodism that relies on the human virtue of beneficence as ersatz religion. He calls this the heresy of secular humanism. Schmemann therefore condemns attempts to use liturgical ritual to speak to Modernist socio-political agenda. He deems this man’s refusal to worship God with a concomitant turning to himself as a source of power to form the world. True worship has only one theme: man’s praise and thanksgiving to God in Jesus Christ who has already sanctified all creation. How many blasphemous Masses, if they were indeed valid, could have been scuttled had priests and seminarians been introduced to this book in their studies?

Schmemann shows how Christ’s Pascha is the cosmic fulfillment of man’s purpose. The liturgy, he says, is an epiphany that reveals man’s communion in divine life due to Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension and the place where man returns all to God. Schmemann shows how divine life charges all of creation and how the Church, the presence of the kingdom, reveals life through the liturgical celebration of the sacraments which are a part of and not separate from the world. Schmemann explains each of the sacraments, their symbolic ritual, and effective purpose. He begins with the Eucharist, the source of communion that completes man and designates his identity as a worshiper of the Father through Christ. He says that all the sacraments, as well as the Liturgy of the Hours, are expressions of the fourth dimension that envelops time and all materiality. One can’t help but recall Gerard Manley Hopkins: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

Clergy would find most helpful Schmemann’s discussion of death. Many, he says, unfortunately see religion as utilitarian, a way to cope with death either as acceptance of the natural or by the denial of death. He sees this as therapeutic religion which presents an adjustment to life, something that helps people cope. He calls this a compromise with secularism. Christianity, he says, doesn’t solve problems; it ends problems. Death, therefore, is not something to cover over or to rationalize; it is not reconciliation with death because it is the revelation of life in Christ. He makes the point that the Christian vision is not eternal repose in a cosmic cemetery but life with God. How many funeral homilies miss the point that life has swallowed up death in victory through Christ?

Schmemann is not above taking the clergy as ministers of these mysteries to task. His comment on the need for a course in “pastoral pathology” is based on his frustration with those who use their office as status and security rather than a vocation to open to others the Kingdom. His teaching on Penance is particularly insightful on this point. He claims the way to protect against this is to have a true understanding of the Eucharist to which priesthood is intimately connected. He says this nexus must be brought to the forefront in preparation for priestly ordination. Liturgy, he contends, is not for dilettantes, nor is it a guarantor for the Pelagian who believes that if he gets it right, he has control over God. It is rather the celebration of Life in God through Christ. Schmemann is a man with an uncompromising vision of the “now-ness” of the Kingdom. He tolerates no excuses, compromise or political correctness. Although he speaks from an Orthodox perspective, his teachings are, for the most, applicable to Catholicism. The reader will easily identify those few areas not Catholic, e.g., the Orthodox lack of belief in the Immaculate Conception. This book belongs in the library of every priest, in the syllabus of required books for seminarians and schools of religious studies. It will make a difference.

Rev. Michael P. Orsi Ave Maria School of Law, Ann Arbor, Mich.