Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth.

Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth WRITTEN BY Richard John Neuhaus PUBLISHED BY Basic Books, New York, 2006, ISBN: 978-0-465-04935-6, Hardcover, pp. 260, $36.95 CND 

Richard John Neuhaus, the author of thirteen books and the editor of First Things, is one of the best Catholic writers in the English-speaking world. This present book is a refutation of Xavier Rynne's, and others' interpretation of Vatican Council II as creating a liberal church and leaving an excessively conservative one behind as testimony to pre-Vatican days. Catholic Matters shows that the Council aimed rather at one, purified Catholic Church. Neuhaus credits Pope John Paul II with this reading of the Council and a rejection of liberalism and excessive conservatism, both of which, Neuhaus says, are now aging and showing clear signs of defeat.

Fr. Neuhaus grew up in Pembroke, Ontario. His father was a Lutheran Pastor. Richard himself became a Lutheran Pastor in New York City, but in 1990 was received into the Catholic Church. He had intended for some time, with fellow "evangelical catholic Lutherans," to heal the Lutheran-Catholic split of the sixteenth century, but then discovered that the Lutherans as a whole were not concerned with the unity of Christendom. Besides, it is one thing to discuss endlessly, and another--the only really important thing--to actually be united with Jesus, to be a member of the community Jesus founded, and to accept the infallible truths he taught. So Neuhaus became a Catholic, and in 2000 he was ordained a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

In this book, without hiding names, Neuhaus shows what he thinks of some changes in the Church which were fostered following the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965: church music changing from Gregorian Chant into less worthy forms of praise; the language of the Mass being demeaned into "banality and sentimentality" in the English vernacular; the neglect of the Sacrament of Confession; the unheard-of practice of everyone at Mass receiving Holy Communion even though many communicants do not know or accept St. Paul's word that personal spiritual purification is necessary to receive worthily the Body and Blood of Christ; sermons which avoid dealing with basic moral truths, or do not state them clearly; widespread doctrinal dissent among American and Canadian professors and teachers; less recourse to old popular devotions; throwing away, as it were, the laws on fasting and abstinence, which advertised Catholicism and also brought home the need for penitence and the awareness of the meaning of Friday, and, perhaps the most serious of all, the changes in our churches, the removal of the Blessed Sacrament from pre-eminence in the church, and the hiding of it in niches or small rooms.

Because of these changes, tremendous damage has been done to the faith of Catholics; the knowledge and appreciation of the teaching of the Church's Magisterium has been lessened or the clarity of its message has been dimmed. The most serious result has been in the area of morality, which is now often considered as dealing with feelings and preferences, not with eternal truths. Some Catholics have been misled into thinking that, since many of these matters were introduced after the Vatican Council, they were legitimate fruits of the Council.

Father Neuhaus is convinced that in the modern misshaping of the Church, the worst is now over, and he gives facts to show that the new young Catholics show great evidence of this. He does not think that all will be well in a short time; some corrections will require decades. But this book is what is needed at the present time, a powerful argument for the acceptance of truth. Many people change religious denominations easily; they see what they like, what is comfortable, what is convenient. Many Catholics seem to deal with the Catholic Church the same way, not realizing it is a matter of historical and revealed truth. They do not admit that the true religion has been decided by God, and that we are not to construct our own beliefs and practices. In other words, as Pope Benedict pointed out, they no longer understand the Catholic meaning of Church.

It would be hard to find a better recommendation of this book than that given on its jacket, from the well-known American journalist Peggy Noonan, the author of John Paul the Great. "If you're a serious Catholic, if you want to be a serious Catholic, if you want to know what it means to be a serious Catholic, read this book."

REVIEWED BY FR. LEONARD KENNEDY, C.S.B.