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book reviews
No freedom without truth
Jacques Maritain: The Philosopher In Society.
By James V. Schall (Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD
20706), 241 pp. PB $19.95.
In his second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln, the one U.S. president who best combined philosophy, theology, and politics, advised his fellow American citizens to harbor “malice toward none,” have “charity for all,” and possess “firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.” These few words acknowledge the existence of evil, the critical roles of love and friendship, the need to know and defend what is right, and the importance of grace. They represent a spacious political vision that Jacques Maritain, who admired Lincoln, would heartily have endorsed. Yet this vision—broad, liberal, realistic, and humanitarian as it is—no longer enjoys a commanding position in American politics. Rather, a more immanent, self-centered, and expedient view is currently in vogue.
Fr. Schall’s book on the political philosophy of Jacques Maritain is part of a series on twentieth century political philosophers published by Rowman and Littlefield. The series underscores the need in our time for a reflective knowledge of the nature of man and his place in society. In this regard, the choice to include Jacques Maritain could not be surpassed. In addition, it would be hard to improve upon the choice of Fr. Schall, professor of government at Georgetown University, and a philosopher, theologian, and political scientist of considerable distinction, to escort us through the rich and often challenging political writings of this great Catholic thinker.
Fr. Schall has given us eleven essays that approach Maritain’s political thought from as many angles. One theme dominates and lends unity to the study, namely, that in order to know political things, it is not sufficient to know only political things. Maritain’s mind is broad, insightful, and systematic. He has no illusions about politics conquering evil or establishing a utopia. He knows that reason alone is not enough for men to behave reasonably. Yet he is an unswervingly faithful disciple of philosophy and the supreme dignity of thought which affords to human beings the opportunity to conceive rightly how they should live rightly. His passionate pursuit of truth, rather than fame, trendiness, or novelty explains why he remains worthy of being studied.
There is much in these essays that will be of invaluable help to anyone who wants to understand more clearly why what is wrong with present-day society is wrong. Authority and freedom are not antagonistic to each other. The true ideal of society is not justice but friendship. There is no freedom without truth and vice versa. The Church, as a legitimate authority, has the right to be listened to, especially because she is in bondage to God and to her mission. There is no “external” cure to the problem of evil. Choice itself is not an object of the will, its object is always something besides the will itself.
Professor Schall does an admirable job in taking the complex thought of Maritain and rendering it not only easy to follow, but, at times, almost inevitable. His treatment of Maritain’s thought concerning Machiavellianism, Natural Law, friendship and love, democracy, evil, the “mystery” of Israel are instructive and captivating.
Jacques Maritain is one of the truly great Catholic figures of our century. It is well known that his intellectual brilliance was perfectly balanced by a genuine humility. As a philosopher, he was a witness to truth. As a Christian, it broke his heart to know how truth was so widely disregarded. The strength he drew from his Christian faith allowed him to bear his intellectual disappointments. If God himself suffers, why should the individual human being not suffer? Maritain’s political philosophy, which is open to revelation, is hardly a blueprint for the ideal society. It is dramatic at its core, for it delineates how man, created to be fallibly free, may choose evil, and for no other reason than the simple fact that he prefers it to what is truly good.
We can be grateful that Fr. Schall has provided us with this readable and instructive introduction to Maritain’s political philosophy. It is a philosophy that is sufficiently rich that it provides considerable benefits for its students, quite apart from the issue of whether or not it can be implemented politically.
Donald DeMarco
St. Jerome’s University
Waterloo, Ontario
Keep it next to your Bible
Iinside The Bible. An Introduction to Each Book of the Bible. By Kenneth Baker, S.J. (Ignatius Press, P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, Colo. 80522, 1998), 373 pp. PB $14.95.
I have a beautiful little picture of Jesus on the road to Emmaus with his two disciples. He is pointing to the sky as he explains the message of the prophets about himself. He shows them that it was ordained that he be the suffering servant of Yahweh, and he says: “Ought not Christ to have suffered those things and so to have entered into his glory.” Whoever drew that little picture must have read the Scriptures as Fr. Baker would have us read them. How disappointing are the cold commentaries of many of our rationalistic critics of today. They seem more interested in questions than they are interested in Jesus as the answer to the basic questions of life.
Father Kenneth Baker, S.J., editor of the Homiletic and Pastoral Review, has written a book called: Inside the Bible, an introduction to each book of the Bible. Fr. Baker tells us: “My main reason for producing the present book is to make available to those who want to understand the Bible simple, clear and short introductions to each book of the Bible. . . . I have tried to include in a few pages enough information about each book so that the daily or occasional reader can quickly find the essential information on the book he is reading or wants to read. The goal is to have a bird’s-eye view of any book in the Bible.”
Consider the Book of Ruth. His treatment of it is as his treatment of each book of the Bible. I give a summary of his treatment. Place in the Bible: Eighth book of the Old Testament. Date and Author: No later than 1025 B.C., author unknown. Theme: Ruth of the Moabites goes to Bethlehem and embraces Yahweh as the only God. Summary: Ruth, daughter-in-law of Naomi, is faithful to her widowed mother-in-law, and goes with her to Bethlehem to worship Yahweh with Naomi. Theology: It has been called an historical novel. Fr. Baker says: “Therefore a key theological notion of the book is the universal love of the Lord God for all peoples. . . . Another idea is fidelity. Ruth remains faithful to her mother-in-law in good times and in bad.”
A feature of the treatment of each book is a quotation at the beginning. For example in Ruth: “Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (1:16). Then, after the outline of the book we have a reflection: “The Lord recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (2:12).
It would appear that many people were looking for a book of this sort. The first printing was just about sold out in three months. A second printing of 5000 copies was completed in early 1999. I have to produce a homily each morning. I find this book useful in locating a story to illustrate a point I’m making in my homily. Also the Bible is an awesome collection of books. It helps greatly to have a brief outline of each book of the Bible. Fr. Baker has produced a practical guide to rest beside your Bible.
Fr. Matthew V. Reilly, O.P.
Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary
Summit, N.J.
The case for celibacy
priestly celibacy today. By Thomas McGovern (Midwest Theological Forum, 712 Loomis St., Chicago, Ill. 60607, 1998), 248 pp. Price not given.
The present-day attacks on priestly celibacy are not new in the long history of the Church. Today we often hear impassioned calls for “optional celibacy,” that is, the Church should retain the discipline of celibacy as a noble ideal, but at the same time should allow some men to marry and have families. Some of the reasons adduced in support of a married clergy are: celibacy is not required by revelation, full development as a human person requires sexual fulfillment in marriage, the shortage of priests. The assumption behind the last reason is that, allowing priests to marry would solve the problem of not having enough priests to staff all the parishes. It has also been claimed that married priests could understand the problems of married people better than celibate priests and so would be better able to counsel them.
These are just a few of the questions treated by Fr. Thomas McGovern in his excellent book on priestly celibacy. By “celibacy” he means the practice of perfect continence for one’s whole life on the part of priests and bishops in the Catholic Church. This has been a requirement for ordination to the priesthood in the Latin Church since about the 12th century.
The author begins his book with an overview of the present situation and problems. Then he presents a history of celibacy in the Latin Church which is followed by the scriptural foundations and the theology of the celibacy. Next come chapters on Christian anthropology, formation for celibacy in seminaries, celibacy as a way to holiness, objections to celibacy and individual witnesses to the high value of celibacy, such as Cardinal Newman and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
In his presentation of the theology the author relies heavily on the writings and talks of Pope John Paul II; there is emphasis on the “spousal” meaning of the body and identification with Christ as the Spouse or Bridegroom of the Church. Since the priest acts in persona Christi in the sacraments, the argument is that he should be as much like Christ, who was celibate, as possible. So the main arguments offered by Fr. McGovern are theological rather than practical, that is, the obvious advantage that the unmarried priest is more available to the people than is the married priest.
The historical presentation is very important, for there the author shows, relying on the studies of Roman Cholij, Christian Cochini and Cardinal Alfons Stickler, that continence on the part of priests and bishops can be traced back to the Apostles, that is, those who received ordination in the Church, if they were married, had to cease having marital relations with their wives; if they violated that, as some did, they were then deposed and removed from office.
The first written codification of the requirement of celibacy can be traced back to the Council of Elvira (Spain) about 305. But the authors mentioned above offer evidence that the unwritten custom of continent priests and bishops can be traced back to the Apostles. This makes for very interesting reading and seems to imply that continence for married men and celibacy for single men can be traced back to Jesus himself. So the real innovation was the ruling of the Council of Trullo in 691 which allowed married priests to use their marital rights and have children. The conclusion of this is that the Latin requirement of celibacy is more ancient than the Eastern custom of ordaining married men. And the fact that only celibates can be bishops in the Eastern Church indicates a preference going back to the Apostles.
The chapters of this book are logically broken up into smaller sections which are easy to read. It is not difficult to follow the train of thought. Statements are well documented, but the text is not overburdened with too much scholarly apparatus.
The book is highly recommended for bishops, priests, seminarians, and especially for priests who are spiritual directors of seminarians.
Kenneth Baker, S.J.
Fairfield, N.J.
A Christian philosopher
of medicine
nature, the physician, and the family. The Collected Works of Herbert Ratner, M.D. (Catholic Physicians’ Guild of Chicago, 8700 West 121st Street, Palos Park, Ill. 60464, 1998), $15.00 postpaid.
On the occasion of Dr. Herbert Ratner’s 90th birthday in May 1997, the conversation among his many assembled friends and admirers inevitably moved to the necessity of preserving the legacy of this remarkable man. Although Dr. Ratner was an inveterate writer and an acclaimed and sought-after speaker, his versatility had been the undoing of several attempts to collect his works into a single volume. Although Herb Ratner’s disciples were legion and most were characterized by an adoption of his world view in whole or part, there was no one truly duplicating the uniqueness of his literary achievement. There followed from that festive evening a resolve on the part of his medical colleagues in the Chicago Catholic Physicians’ Guild to undertake the assembling and publication of the collected works of Dr. Herbert Ratner as Nature, The Physician, and The Family.
In these 235 pages there is a timeless resource aimed primarily at the medical profession but a wisdom and a sensibility to nature as God’s handmaiden which bridges many professions and cultures.
Herb Ratner’s personal odyssey is a fascinating progression from a liberal New York Jewish background (his family’s position on the political spectrum can best be discerned by Herb’s boast that his mother had dated Trotsky before marrying). In medical school, he met and married Dorothy Smith, his classmate who eventually led him to the Church. At the University of Chicago, he was part of a group including the charismatic philosopher Herbert Schwartz, psychiatrist Kenneth Simon (now Father Raphael, a Trappist Monk) and Winston Ashley (now Father Benedict Ashley, O.P.) who made giant leaps of faith to be converted to the Catholic Church. His biological-philosophical writings attracted the attention of Robert Maynard Hutchins the esteemed president of the University of Chicago who appointed him a senior member of the Committee on Liberal Arts which prepared the original Great Books curriculum.
It was as student health director and a member of the Public Health faculty at Loyola Medical School that his radical and challenging and totally Christian approach to the profession of medicine began to be formulated and passed on to succeeding generations of medical students. The two models held up to the students were the revered founder of the art of medicine Hippocrates and St. Luke the beloved physician who completed Hippocrates with the Christian vision in the way that grace perfects nature.
Ratner’s esteem for Hippocrates not only in the Oath but the wisdom of the entire corpus of his work forms a large part of the writings included in Nature, The Physician, and The Family. Some of the medical power structure is now reluctantly rediscovering the principles of Hippocrates which remain timely 2500 years after they were written. Dr. Ratner’s approach to the practice of medicine as an art and not a science is likewise timely in the current depersonalized and technology-driven medical scene. In the Ratnerian view, it is nature who heals, not the physician and it is the primary role of the physician “to do for nature what she would do if she were able.”
The lead article in this book is the famous interview of Ratner by Donald McDonald. This interview, a question and answer format, is one of the most provocative and insightful global views of the place and purpose of medical care ever published. It is a classic which demonstrates the brilliant and unique approach of Dr. Herbert Ratner to the philosophy of medicine.
Ratner was not merely an arm chair philosopher, however, and his numerous scientific achievements as the Public Health Director of Oak Park, Illinois are also substantiated in his writings. His courageous stands against the conventional wisdom of the medical establishment are legendary. As public health director, he declined to allow the new highly publicized Salk vaccine to be administered in Oak Park. He was dramatically vindicated by the subsequent occurrence of multiple vaccine-induced cases of polio which led to sweeping changes in the preparation and subsequent safety of the vaccine. He was also one of the first to recognize the dangers of the contamination of the vaccine by Simian virus 40, a virus now being linked to the occurrence of certain neoplasms in later life.
He was also an early and persistent critic of the safety of the contraceptive pill. The thromboembolic complications of the pill have led to sharp reductions in the estrogen component of the pill which tacitly recognize the legitimacy of his critique. He also confronted the numerous theologian apologists for the pill who led the dissent from Humanae Vitae.
He was an early and eloquent defender of the sanctity of human life and provided much of the early impetus to the pro-life movement particularly in articulating the resistance to converting medicine to a killing profession. His articles entitled “Condoms and Aids” and “Semen and Aids” show that he remained au courant and influential in his approaches to the huge public health challenge posed by the epidemiology of HIV infection.
Even those of us who have been familiar with the writings of Herb Ratner and who chose him as our mentor, are nevertheless overwhelmed by the impact of the diversity of this book and the probity and clarity of his style. Those meeting the Ratner philosophy for the first time will be convinced that this was truly a Renaissance Man, both as a Christian and a scientist.
Dr. Ratner worked with me as the editor of Nature, The Physician, and The Family and approved and selected every article included in the volume. On December 4, 1997, he submitted the dedication of the book and it was forwarded to the publisher. On December 6, 1997, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died suddenly. It was extremely fortuitous that we are able to preserve the wisdom of this truly remarkable man in a format of his choosing. Nature, The Physician, and The Family deserves a place on every short shelf of modern medical classics.
Eugene F. Diamond, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics
Chicago, Ill.
A saint for hard times
jude, a pilgrimage to the saint of last resort. By Liz Trotta (HarperSanFrancisco; for information write to HarperCollins, 10 East 53rd St., New York, N.Y. 10022, 1998), 270 pp. HB $24.00.
Liz Trotta is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and the New York Bureau Chief for the Washington Times. Yet she has found time to write, and she is a gifted writer, about St. Jude. She tells many stories about people who believe they have received special favors from this Apostle. There is a widespread devotion to him among the people in the pews in this country. She also made journeys to Italy, Turkey, and Armenia looking for how the devotion to St. Jude began and for shrines to him. In the United States she interviewed individuals in Baltimore, New York and San Francisco. Her story is always interesting, insightful and with poignant anecdotes and personal reflections. What emerges is a lovely and colorful mosaic of the saint for the forgotten who has brought miracles to impossible problems.
She writes, “Jude is on call, right down to the softest prayer, the smallest hope. His message of hope vibrates in the hollow reaches of the unanchored modern world.” One will find few religious books written better than this one. It also seems an answer to those who have been saying that the Church does not need more scholarly research but more devotion. The ordinary parishioner is not interested in theological, scriptural or liturgical disputes; he has problems here and now at home and at work and he wishes blessings and help and understanding in his life.
This book is the quest of a woman who sought to find out more concerning a saint about whom little is known except that thousands of people, especially in America, are thanking him for wondrous answers in their confused lives.
Cardinal John O’Connor says of this book, “If every saint were given the extraordinary journalistic effort given St. Jude by Liz Trotta, we would have to build special hagiographic libraries. She brings to the task the same energy and relentless search for truth that have made her name famous.”
Fr. Rawley Myers
Colorado Springs, Colo.
The Christian journey
the last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell. By Regis Martin (Ignatius Press, P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522, 1998), 167 pp. PB $12.95.
The Four Last Things have been a frequent topic within theological writing over the centuries yet an avoided issue within daily conversation and even sermons. As Regis Martin points out, it is a topic that most wish to avoid yet it is part of the Christian journey. This treatment delves far beyond the world of theological writing for its content in drawing from the richness of classical and contemporary writers within a philosophical, literary, in addition to theological arena.
The theological virtue of hope is the defining experience when facing the end of one’s life. Nothing is more necessary to understand and draw upon than the deepest possible reserves of hope. This hope is finally anchored in Christ and it is the sacrament of the Eucharist which provides the foretaste of the heavenly banquet. In a certain sense, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke in his work “Autumn” describes that experience of being anchored and having trust in Christ:
We all are falling. This hand falls.
And look at others: it is in them all.
And yet there is one who holds this falling
Endlessly gently in His hands.
Death is not the end of life but closure of a journey. It can only be understood in the light of faith which is trained in the deposit of God’s Revelation. It is as T. S. Eliot states in his Four Quartets: “moving into another intensity for a further union, a deeper communion.”
Charles Peguy in approaching the topic of judgment reminds his readers that “You must have confidence in God [for] He certainly has had confidence in us. He had enough confidence in us to give us, to entrust us with His only Son.”
When Walker Percy was asked in 1962 after winning the National Book Award why so many fine southern writers, including himself, dominated the field, he responded “Because we lost the war.” Very simply, the South had lost its innocence, its imagined self-sufficiency. It had stood in judgment before the Lord. Flannery O’Connor frames the answer somewhat differently: “In the South we have, in however attenuated a form, a vision of the face of Moses as he pulverized our idols.” This same author further comments that in every great story there is a moment “in which the presence of grace can be felt as it waits to be accepted or rejected.” Judgment is therefore the encounter with the living God in which one accepts responsibility for the life and liberty so freely given.
As Joseph Ratzinger has recently remarked, “the idea of eternal damnation, which had taken ever clearer shape in the Judaism of the century or two before Christ, has a firm place in the teaching of Jesus as well as in the apostolic writings.” G. K. Chesterton has stated that the only sin is to call green grass gray. Within this context, it is to accept the ruse of the devil and deny the existence of hell.
One on the Christian journey may succumb to some form of hopelessness. Whether speaking of presumption or despair, both inflict a devastating blow on a prayer life. Josef Pieper writes that “one who despairs does not petition because he assumes that his prayer will not be granted.” On the other hand, the person who is presumptuous petitions “but his petition is not genuine because he fully anticipates its fulfillment.”
No one really knows much about heaven. As John Donne preached, heaven, like God himself, “surpasseth all understanding.” The scriptures and writings of saints give us some inkling as to this next life. One may savor the taste of truth. Heaven is an eternity of repose and vision, love and worship in the company of God himself. It is the fulfillment of the wish of Moses: “I shall know the fullness of joy, when I see your face, O Lord.”
Heaven is a nice place but nobody seems in a great rush to get there. The human race seems to have lost a relish for eternity. Worldly preoccupation has created a kind of amnesia concerning the Last Things.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church points out, “Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ.” Our capacity to enter depends on the extent of our willingness to receive and give love.
Regis Martin’s treatment of The Last Things is a very worthwhile addition to that topic, as a clarification of Church teaching through a wide variety of rich resources. His narrative flows quite smoothly and provides a tempting invitation to further explore the authors cited.
Sr. Madeleine Grace, C.V.I.
University of St. Thomas
Houston, Texas
The article upon which
the Church stands or falls
not by faith alone: the biblical evidence
for the catholic doctrine of justification. By Robert A. Sungenis
(Queenship Publishing Co., P.O. Box 42028, Santa Barbara, Calif. 93140-2028, 1997), 774
pp. PB $24.95.
Outside of purely academic circles, the theme of “justification” has excited little interest for some time now. Rare is the preacher, Catholic or Protestant, who has taken it on systematically. Rarer still is the congregation which would indulge such a preacher. Nonetheless, it is a theme which deserves some consideration, not the least because of three different motivations for examining it anew.
First, it is an issue of great biblical importance. In the Pauline corpus, especially in the Letters to the Romans and to the Galatians, justification occupies a prominent, if not central, place.
Second, there is an ecumenical motive. In the 16th century, the unity of Western Christendom was shattered over this very question. Lutherans and, to a greater or lesser extent, Calvinists and Anglicans, broke communion with the Catholic Church over the very issue of justification. Despite irenic attempts to paper over differences on this issue in recent years, an irreconcilable chasm remains between the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church and the prises de position of the various Protestant bodies. As the distinguished Lutheran scholar Carl E. Braaten has noted: “The assumption seems to have prevailed that there is no church-dividing difference on justification, and that the cause of our separation lies elsewhere. . . . Many people want to believe this bit of wishful thinking, and seemed to proceed in ecumenical dialogue on its precarious assumption.”
Third, the doctrine of justification is tied up with concern for its spiritual implications. If God lives in man, sanctifying him and elevating him to the dignity of the sons of God, man must recognize his need for healing, for God’s grace for the remission of sins.
For Catholics, there is a further fourth motive for revisiting the doctrine of justification. Rare is the Catholic who has not, at one point or another of his life, been challenged with the inquiry: “Have you been saved?” The resurgence in recent decades of vibrant, evangelical denominations preaching an apparently attractive “faith alone” credo of salvation—and drawing increasing numbers of un- or poorly-catechized Catholics into their fold—makes it an imperative that Catholics, both pastors and laity, familiarize themselves with Church teaching on the workings of salvation.
Consequently, Robert Sungenis has rendered a signal service to the contemporary apologetical theology with the recent publication of his massive volume, Not By Faith Alone: The Biblical Evidence for the Catholic Doctrine of Salvation. Although born into a Catholic family, Sungenis fell away from the Church in his late teens, eventually acquiring a divinity degree from Westminster Theological seminary and becoming a Protestant elder, itinerant preacher, and radio bible teacher. Since his return to the Church in 1992, he has devoted himself to Catholic Apologetics International, a lay apostolate dedicated to teaching and defending Catholic faith and practice. Thus he brings a rich experience to the writing of the present tome.
Not By Faith Alone is designed to be read by both the layman and the scholar. The layman will find the prose of the book simple and the end-of-the-chapter summaries helpful. The scholar will find all the technical theological questions of sources, language, exegesis, and history, dealt with in detailed footnotes and twenty-one appendices.
The book opens, appropriately enough, with a lengthy chapter on the Pauline doctrine on justification. Appropriate because it seems to be an article of faith—since it certainly cannot be proven by careful examination of the scriptural texts—of many “Bible Christians” that Paul taught a doctrine of “justification by faith alone.” Yet a haunting question remains: Why didn’t Paul use the specific phrase “faith alone” anywhere in his writings? A thorough study of his epistles reveals that Paul used the word faith (Greek, pistiV) and its cognates over two hundred times in the New Testament, more than all the other New Testament writers combined. But not once did he couple the word with the adjectival qualifiers alone or only (Greek, po¢uoV). In fact, the only time in the Bible where the word “faith” is used with the word “alone” is in the Epistle of James (Jas. 2:24), where it is specified that one is not justified by “faith alone.” Chapters two and three deal with the doctrine of justification in James and in the Gospels, respectively. The following five chapters then treat specific questions concerning the doctrine: Is justification a one-time event or an ongoing process? Is it imputed or infused? Is it a juridical decree or a familial restoration? What about predestination, free will, and final justification? Chapter nine concludes with a brief, but penetrating, critique of classical and contemporary Protestant doctrines of justification.
Only two of this reviewer’s criticisms of this nearly 800-page volume are significant enough to be worth noting. First, given the lack of knowledge of, much less appreciation for, the Catholic doctrine of justification in recent years, it would have been most helpful to have an introductory chapter outlining doctrine, dogmatically defined by the Fathers of the Council of Trent and neatly summarized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The lay reader, in particular, is at a disadvantage when he is plunged into the crucible of controversy without necessarily an adequate preparation as to what his faith holds. Second, and perhaps more seriously, Sungenis adopts the position that Paul was the author of the Letter to the Hebrews and bases a not inconsiderable amount of his exegesis on this premise, which is not necessarily solid. Even the Roman liturgy does not explicitly attribute Hebrews to the Apostle of the Gentiles. Thus, the argument of Sungenis’s magisterial first chapter on Pauline theology collapses if the reader elects not to accept his attribution.
In any event, returning to this old controversy is a worthwhile endeavor as Christians prepare to enter the third millennium. Pope John Paul II has made it clear that the preparation for the Great Jubilee must include a renewed appreciation of the mystery of salvation and redemption itself. Sungenis’s book is a response to that call and will pave the way for others to follow.
Fr. John-Peter Pham
Champaign, Illinois
The American priest today
enormous prayers. A Journey into the Priesthood. By Thomas Kunkel (Westview Press, 5500 Central Ave., Boulder, Colo. 80301, 1998), 202 pp. PB $25.00.
Our Catholic priests have been under intense public scrutiny during the past several decades and, as their numbers diminish, it is hard to imagine that they will no longer be objects of curiosity, admiration, and concern.
Outside of our parents, few persons exercise as much influence on our spiritual lives or affect our thinking in other matters as our clerics. They officiate at our christenings, administer the other sacraments during our active years, and preside at our final departure.
Thomas Kunkel, a journalist and author who is now heading up a study on the state of the American newspaper, interviewed 28 working priests across the country in an effort to learn more about their daily lives and how they manage to cope with the manifold problems of the post-Vatican II era and an increasingly fractured American Church.
“Priests aren’t gods, or even saints,” he writes, “but human beings. Some are brilliant, some are dullards, and a few, as we now know, are dangerous. In this regard they are not unlike every other segment of society. But in most other regards, they remain apart literally and imaginatively, objects of our enduring curiosity.
“In an age without mystery they are mystery men.”
Kunkel, who has written for the New York Times, the Miami Herald, and the San Jose Mercury News, and authored a book on Harold Ross of the New Yorker, feels that few people, including Catholics, really know what goes on behind rectory doors.
To learn more about the men who give themselves to the service of God, he interviewed priests in such places as Phoenix, Boston, Plymouth, Michigan, and St. Henry, Indiana. These included men in monastic communities to pastors in small, impoverished areas in eastern Kentucky.
Because of the continuing shortage of vocations, many, if not most, priests, are seriously overworked and burdened by endless administrative duties that often have little to do with the saving of souls. Many have embraced the changes or perceived changes, brought about since the sixties while others cling to the Baltimore Catechism and the Latin Mass.
Kunkel has written a very readable and informative book which affords us a much better understanding of the joys and hardships of the modern American priest.
Arthur J. Brew
Mountain View, Calif.
Silent Witness to the truth
the mystery of the shroud of turin.
(New Scientific Evidence). By John C. Iannone (Alba House, 2187 Victory Blvd, Staten
Island, N.Y. 10314, 1998), 228 pp. PB $14.95.
Mr. Iannone has been a student of the Holy Shroud for nearly ten years. It began when he attended a symposium of scientists and historians at St. Louis University on the Shroud of Turin. Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini, Archbishop of Turin, Italy and Papal Custodian of the Holy Shroud appeared on television on September 5, 1995 to state that the image on the Shroud is that of Jesus Christ and “no one else.”
In 1357 the Shroud was exhibited in Lirey, France by Geoffery II de Charny. Pope Clement VII seemed to accept it as a true relic. In 1506 Pope Julius II approved a special Office and Mass in honor of the Shroud, and allowed public veneration of it. In 1978 a team of scientists was permitted a brief five-day, 120-hour nonstop period to examine the Shroud with sophisticated scientific equipment. They determined the Shroud is certainly no painting. The image is a sort of scorch, caused by an unidentified process, most likely involving heat or light. Internationally renowned artist Isabel Piczek says that the Shroud of Turin shows no affinity whatsoever with any of the styles which were practiced through the cultured world in the Middle Ages. She says: “Whatever happened before, during or after the Carbon 14 testing of the Shroud, the test results are at great odds with the conclusive results drawn by the practiced arts—namely that the Shroud is definitely not a painting or the result of manipulation of a medieval artist.”
The carbon testing of 1988 has been severely criticized by scientists. It placed the Shroud as a product of the middle ages. It did not take into account various contaminating factors with respect to the linen Shroud, especially the fire which affected it in 1532. Dr. Dimitri Kouznetsov of the Biopolymer Laboratory in Moscow in 1994 developed a laboratory model to simulate the physical/chemical conditions of the 1532 Chambery fire that damaged the Shroud. He says rejuvenation of the linen was caused when the intense heat generated by that fire, and the super steam vapor caused from dousing with water created a chemical action of the melting silver from the reliquary and the silk backing of the Shroud with cellulose of the linen fibers, thereby suggesting a younger rejuvenated cloth. He concludes that the actual calendar age of the Shroud would be closer to the first or second century, A.D.
The author describes the Shroud: “It is a linen cloth, containing ancient pollen, mites and floral images from the Dead Sea around Jerusalem with a weave consistent with the loom technology of Palestine at the time of Jesus. The cloth followed a unique historical path as identified by its pollen spread.” The pollen spread indicated the Shroud had been in the Jerusalem area, in Eastern Turkey and in Europe. Incidentally a medieval or renaissance forger would know nothing of pollen or mites. How could such a person arrange for a cloth that contained such things, things that today tell us where the cloth has been?
The cloth covered a Semitic person. Was it somebody crucified as was Jesus? If so where was the body procured? Why would a simulation of the crucifixion of Jesus be done? Asking such questions shows how absurd is the theory that someone other than Jesus is depicted on the Shroud. Look at the gospel accounts and look at the figure on the Shroud and you recognize Jesus.
Barrie Schwartz, a photographer, has said: “The image on the Shroud matches the account of the crucifixion to the nth degree. Evidence is mounting that the gospels are quite accurate. This may cause consternation among my family and other Jewish people, but in my own mind, the Shroud is the piece of cloth which wrapped Jesus after He was crucified.” Jesuit historian, Herbert Thurston, originally convinced of the Shroud’s fraudulence, said in 1903: “As to the identity of the body whose image is seen on the Shroud, no question is possible. The five wounds, the cruel flagellation, the punctures encircling the head, can still be clearly distinguished.” It is Jesus on whose closed eyes are coins from the time of Pontius Pilate. Only the spiritually blind will not see that the Shroud gives us a picture of Jesus in death. Perhaps the brilliant light or heat necessary to put the image on the cloth, even suggests the Resurrection of Christ whose face shone as the sun at the Transfiguration.
John Iannone has done a great work in this book. The Shroud is a silent witness to the truth, and Jesus is the Truth. Our Dominican cloistered nuns here at Summit venerate a three hundred-year-old true copy of the Shroud. Pilgrims may view the image by scheduling an appointment with the nuns in advance. I would hope that many would procure this book on the Shroud, and realize as they read it: “Greater love than this no man has that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Fr. Matthew V. Reilly, O.P.
Dominican Monastery
Summit, N.J.
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