The Great Facade - BOOK REVIEW (28 Aug 2002)

For several decades now, the depressing state of the Catholic Church has been not only observable anecdotally but also easily demonstrated statistically in virtually every measurable category — vocations, conversions, Mass attendance, belief in basic doctrine, etc.

Even such, the current crisis has long been denied or minimized by many of the neo-Catholic persuasion.

Adopting the undying optimism that the Catholic Church is not in a crisis, but just the opposite — experiencing a "renewal" amidst the "Springtime of Vatican II" — the decrepit state of the Church would be downplayed as a localized, minor or temporary problem.

Some would even echo the respective sentiments of Cardinals Ratzinger and Mahony that the striking decrease in Catholic influence and priestly vocations was either an inevitability or a positive good.

Even now that the enormous scale of rot has been exposed in the secular press, neo-Catholic apologists who had never admitted to a crisis in the past are working on the newest manifestation of denial which claims all problems worthy of concern are well behind us.

Books like Michael Rose's Goodbye, Good Men are dismissed as interesting but severely outdated stories of problems the Church had once upon a time when those slightly more liberal had their way.

Despite the historical volume and persistence of such denial, most Catholics across the spectrum are now admitting what even the late Fr. John Hardon saw as undeniable — that the Catholic Church is currently experiencing its worst crisis in history.

Given that such a serious claim is now beyond reasonable debate, what could possibly have happened to bring it all about? Was it a 1960's revolution against authority? An American problem attributable to cultural decline? A "failure to embrace the true spiritual promise of Vatican II"?

Read full review here.