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Title: Vows of Silence : The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II by Jason Berry, Gerald Renner ISBN: 0-7432-4441-9 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 04 March, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.67 (36 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Let's cut to the chase
Comment: I recommend your close reading of this very detailed and factfilled account of the long history of homosexual clergy who
preyed on prepubescent and teenage boys. The authors have concluded that the very structure of the Roman Catholic Church is at fault and the evil we are witnessing emanates from the Popes and cardinals who control that structure. This relentless
criminal assault on the innocent is a product of a sinful leadership agenda that is more concerned with power, money and secrecy than protecting children and teenagers from being sodomized. That's basically what the authors are reporting. That's where the authors come up short in their analysis. The
root causes of this evil are hinted at in the book, but the authors are afraid to explore it out of fear of ridicule
by their progressive colleagues or friends in the media. What
Berry and Renner will not factor in to their analysis is the
deadening and corrosive influence Satan has played in all this
nightmare. Without taking into account Satan's role and simply
saying that all of this horror was created and promoted by men
is to only look at a single aspect of what's going on. Of course, if you don't believe there is a Satan around us promoting evil acts, then you convienently are ignoring what
Christ himself told us about evil. Since Vatican II, Satanic influence has all but been forgotten. Our writers would applaud
this development and do. It just doesn't fit with their view
of Christianity and salvation. Sorry gentlemem, but your premise that the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church is a collection of lowlife bloodsuckers who got that way on their own by
hoarding power and secrecy seems a little naive. It's much deeper than that. Somewhere that few of us dare to tread.
Rating: 4
Summary: Sadly, this is mostly accurate
Comment: As an orthodox (i.e., conservative, traditional) Catholic, I am naturally a skeptic of any critique on the Magisterium of the Church by known liberal ideologues. While Berry and Renner fit the progressive ideological mold, their journalism is solid because they are quick to identify their biases (i.e., abolishing mandatory clerical celibacy). As for the thrust of the book, addressing the issues surrounding the Legionaries of Christ, I have several thoughts. For one, the overall positive impact upon the universal Church on the part of the Legion and the associated lay apostolate, Regnum Christi, is very negligible. I don't see more fallen away Catholics in the US embracing orthodoxy or even ruturning to Mass, I don't see the numbers of converts to the Church that once was, or Catholics more educated about their Faith, and I don't see a reconversion of Mexico, the Legion's home, which is now being devoured by evangelical Protestants with a true zeal. Not to mention the fact that they entirely embrace the Vatican II "reforms," and are not promoters of restoring the Latin Mass. For a group that is supposedly so much in the Pope's favor, one would think that the Founder, Father Marcal Maciel Dellogado, would have been named a cardinal or at least a bishop in the honorary sense. True, Legionaries are not to "seek power," but are the Franciscan Capuchins who are named to the hierarchy, in which there are few Legionaries? Nonetheless, it is out of the desperation of the current Pontificate, who watches the authority of the Church erode due to the corruption his curia is known to tolerate, that such a cultish bunch has gained its place at all. I have personally met with Legion "brothers" to discuss what I thought was a potential priestly vocation. There was nothing but pressure, constant emails and phonecalls--not to mention regular mail, urging me in Christ's name to attend an upcoming "Test Your Call" weekend retreat at the novitiate in Cheshire, CT. At one point, I received an email message from the brother whom I had met, reminding me (in a guilt-tripping fashion) that I had missed X-amount of opportunites to "test my call," and that I owed it to them and to Christ to go. I told him to get lost, more or less, and I never hard from them again. Well, actually, if I don't count the dozens of fundraising brochures I've continued to receive for the last 4 years. The type of boys and men that the Legion generally recruits have rigid, obsessive-compulsive personalities, and are extreme mama's boys that would not fit into a conventional parish setting. This order is rigid, not intellectual, and is a bastion of clericalism that places the priest as a near-deified figure, similar to the priest of the old Catholic ghetto. I cannot figure out why supposedly affluent, educated Catholics would be supportive of this movement. On the thread of clericalism, beyond a near blasphemous reverence for their Founder, the Legionaries will go out of their way not to criticize or offend the bishop of any diocese on the basis of his clerical office, regardless of how liberal or corrupt he may be. Once a younger Legionary I spoke with, a native of Milwaukee, insisted to me that the former Archbishop, Rembert Weakland (who was ousted on a claim of sexual abuse), was such a good and holy man. This is also because the Legion, in order to set up shop anywhere, must gain episcopal approval, and they will do anything to get that. They are truly concerned only with the number of recruits to either the priesthood or the lay apostolate of the Legion, not for what is happening within the rest of the Church. Once settled within a diocese, they will do anything to continue to curry favor with the local bishop, even if it means defending the absurd tactics of a diocesan priest who helps run a liberal diocesan seminary in their weekly venue, the National Catholic Register, which has gone out of its way to defend the currupt national hierarchy throughout the scandals. I cannot speak for what goes on inside the Legion, but I can speak about its exterior, which is not positive, either. They are known to run several secondary schools around the US (always under a secular-sounding title, i.e., Overbrook Academy). One such school, located on exclusive diocesan property that is leased at a very high price to the Legion by the diocese, caters only to Spanish-speaking females. These are not young women who happen to be inner-city Hispanics that speak only Spanish, rather, the daughters of known Columbian drug lords who are phenominally wealthy. So while this "religious" order whores itself to acquire funds under its devout pretext, the host diocese will receive huge monetary kickbacks, usually in the form of a property lease. But the Legionaries have their apologists--one being the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, publisher of First Things. Neuhaus, himself an arch-clericalist, supports the Legion on the basis of the revival he believes it has introduced in the Church, not on actually refuting the merits/lack thereof of the claims promoted by the order's detractors. The Berry/Renner book, ideologies aside, is worth reading and deserves due credit for its examination of multiple, on the record sources who clearly know the Legion for what it really is.
Rating: 1
Summary: Biased and hateful
Comment: It is important to note that Jason Berry and Gerald Renner are not impartial journalists trying to tell a story. My reading of this truly awful volume is that the authors are sincere, but biased, and are attempting to smear John Paul II for what is largely a failing of local bishops. No doubt Berry and Renner would like to see the laity elect bishops, and would like to see the moral teaching of the church become accountable to the democratic process. That this is offensive to serious Catholics should go without question. In vows of silence two seriously biased reporters attempt to use the sex scandal in the church (which we now know thanks to recent reports peaked in the 70's BEFORE and EARLY in John Paul II's reign as pontif) to further an agenda that would turn the Catholic church into a demoniation ruled by democratic fiat. Strongly not recommended.
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Title: Our Fathers : The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal by DAVID FRANCE ISBN: 0767914309 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 20 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: A People Adrift : The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America by Peter Steinfels ISBN: 0684836637 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 05 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Coming Catholic Church : How the Faithful Are Shaping a New American Catholicism by David Gibson ISBN: 0060530707 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Catholic Revolution : New Wine, Old Wineskins, and the Second Vatican Council by Andrew Greeley ISBN: 0520238176 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 10 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Priests: A Calling in Crisis by Andrew M. Greeley ISBN: 0226306445 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: March, 2004 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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