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Title: Absolute Truth: The Struggle for Meaning in Today's Catholic Church by Edward Stourton ISBN: 1-57500-148-9 Publisher: TV Books Inc Pub. Date: December, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: The Absolute Truth rings very true.
Comment: I have worked in the Catholic Church for 24 years. I have been intimately involved in Church life both on a parish and archdiocesan level. Unlike the previous reviewer, I don't see the author as a "liberal" but rather the guy in the pew who is trying to get a hold, like many people, of how the Church works and why it takes the actions it does. I consider myself a centrist in the spectrum of ultra-orthodoxy to ultra-liberalism. I have seen and have personally experienced the fallout from the political life within the Church. There is as much political intrigue in the Roman Catholic Church as there was in the royal court of Louis XVI. This should come as no surprise for the Church is an institution made up of human beings, and as the Church, itself, attests in the rubrics to the Rite of Penance, it (the institutional Church), in its human dimension, is in need of conversion and penance. While Christ, as its head is sinless, we, both clergy and lay, are made up of saints and sinners on all levels of the hierarchical pyramid. I believe that the good the Catholic Church does far outweighs all its faults and sins. Yes, there is abuse within the structure of the Church and those in the Roman Curia really are in need, as the world's Catholic Bishops so recently stated, to get out of their ivory towers and spend some time in the real world. For all its faults, the Catholic Church remains for many people a beacon of hope that transcends national borders. In the end, the Holy Spirit will lead the Church wherever it needs to go, no matter how much conservatives, liberals, and centrists like myself whine. I highly recommend this book. The "Absolute Truth" really does ring "True."

Rating: 2
Summary: Whose Absolute Truth?
Comment: The jacket blurb makes the book sound interesting as "Catholics reveal how their relationship with their chruch has changed since the second Vatican Council in the 1960s". It even starts well as Mr. Stourton provides, with obvious fondness, memories of his Catholic school upbringing. But that's about it. The book thereafter is just a rehash of the usual schpiel against the traditional Church. Yeah, he talks to a lot of people. I suppose being a BBC correspondent can open doors. But what insight is gained? Anyone familiar with the usual liberal view of the Church knows the drill. Everyone connected with the Church hierarchy is suspect - cold, narrow minded, and by implication, sinister. I mean when is somebody going to give poor ol' Cardinal Ratzinger a break! On the other hand, any critic of the Church is by definition imaginative and modern. The truly noble are presented as those lucky theologians that have actually been criticized or punished by the Church. It never ceases to amaze how the tenets and beliefs of a 2000 year old church are expected to just fold up when subjected to the Yoda like logic of modern public opinion. For example, Mr. Stourton takes great issue in the preparation and presentation of the encyclical Humane Vitae. The final encyclical is presented by the author as flawed because a consultative process that included the stories of "ordinary Catholics" was ignored. Supposedly,it followed that this teaching was rejected by the majority of lay Catholics because of a lack of recognition of their modern beliefs and societal needs. What is not explained by the author is why a Church teaching that challenges a layman's convenient view on contraception and abortion is wrong and somehow should not be taught. If the purpose of the orginal consultative process was to protect anyone from being uncomfortable about the encyclical then perhaps the Crowley's and their "ordinary Catholics" were not ignored and insulted, instead they were just the wrong people to ask to participate. This book is apparently a basis for a BBC series on the Catholic Church so I suppose the author had to follow the party line as found in the BBC/New York Times/Catholic Reporter/etc. However, Mr. Stourton did not write about the most significant change in the Catholic Church since the Council. How did it come to pass that in the 40 years since Vatican II we now have a generation of Catholic youth that have no understanding of basic Catholic theology, tradition, and history?! How did the Church in it's rush to implement the teachings of the Council manage to lose the ability to proclaim and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the young in our society? I would submit that this is the true legacy of Vatican II. The great challenge of the Catholic Church in the new millenium will be to reevangilize our now mostly pagan society.