[.ca] Cardinal Mahony (ISBN 0964664291)

A Handbook For Taking Back the US Catholic Church:
Robert Blair Kaiser calls this excellent book a "novel". It is that, surely, and a thriller as well. In many ways it is both fiction and non-fiction since many of the persons and situations he mentions are "real". But above all, in my estimation, it is a handbook for how US Catholics can make their church both American and catholic. Please note the small c. This Church in the United States and elsewhere is often called "Roman Catholic" to distinguish it from the thirteen other churches that are in union with the pope, the bishop of Rome, but have their own leadership style and language, viz., the Copts, Melkites, and Chaldeans among others. It comes from the fact that for many years this church used Latin for its official liturgical language and for other purposes. I mention this because it is germane to Kaiser's argument that there is a legitimate reason for the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to become an autochthonous church, which means one whose culture is American and whose structure would be democratic. I want to mention at this point that I am a native of Philadelphia but I have lived in Canada since 1971. When I use the word American I think of North America and South America. I am not sure that what he proposes would fly in Canada although I must admit the first time I heard this word was in connection with a group of indigenous persons who wanted this for their own Catholic community in Northern Ontario. They were weary of requirements that fly in the face of their own culture, in particular celibacy for ordained priests. But other than that I have not heard of any call for it here. In the situation in the United States I can understand its possibility. For someone like myself who took seriously the ideas that came from Vatican II and indeed trained to be a lay theologian to fulfill a need that the Council had said were desperately needed to balance clerical input, the book is a massive review of what tranpired during that Council and before and after it. Kaiser also does a brilliant job on the history of Catholicism in the colonies and what became the United States of America. For those not so familiar with these things as someone like myself is, the introduction to the issues is clear and presented in a story-like fashion which provides easy but insightful reading. Without naming them specifically, Kaiser does justice to a variety of reform movements including those promoting a constitution for the church in the United States. He posits all of this happening at a Fourth Council of Baltimore. He also describes a "conversion" of one of the country's top cardinal archbishops and several of his brother bishops. Kaiser's own Jesuit formation and his ongoing commitment to that way of life is evident throughout the book. His inside knowledge of the Vatican from his many years of covering it for a variety of newspapers and magazines adds to the "non-fiction" dimensions of the book. I do not like how this book ends but I think Kaiser is right on in having ended it as he did although he is promising a sequel. What does touch me more than anything else is his hope and dreams for a church leadershp that is aggressively accountable to the people. In these days when the diminishment of accountability for anything seems to be the norm, I am encouraged to see the part that this plays in Kaiser's own agenda and that of many others who are true re-formers in my experience. I recommend this book without any qualificaton to those who wish to be good and great citizens of the United States and living the Jesus Way of Life in their Christian, especially Roman Catholic, Church. Catherine Berry Stidsen, Cayuga, Ontario, Canada