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R e v i e w s
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This Rock
Volume 13, Number 7
 September 2002 
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Unabashed Catholic History
The trials of graduate school years were lightened by my good friend Tim, an English classmate who, among other things, introduced me to double-malt scotch. My first sip discovered a drink that was at once strong and smooth and thus seductive; here for the first time was a beverage I simply could not put down. I knew that if I purchased a bottle I would place myself in at least a remote occasion of sin of falling into drunkenness, or worse, alcoholism. So I continued to mooch the beverage from Tim, and in moderation.
H. W. Crocker, a convert from Anglicanism, has written the double-malt scotch of ecclesiastical histories. Triumph is strong, for it imparts an unabashedly Catholic view of the past two millennia; yet it is smooth, not merely readable but eloquent, the work of a master craftsman of English prose. With the vigor of Esau and the culture of Jacob, with the verve of Belloc and the wit of Chesterton, Triumph is so seductive that it tempts the reader to put the rest of his day on hold and call in sick, just to finish the book in one sitting.
Triumph is a popular history, but popular in this case does not mean poorly researched. Crocker cites or refers to over two hundred works, from venerable secular histories (like Will and Ariel Durant's series), to popular Catholic histories of the last century, to various literary and biographical monographs, principally English. Though Crocker's love for the Church is manifest, he neither fears to draw upon the work of anti-Catholic scholars nor avoids checkered events like the Inquisition and the suppression of the Knights Templar and the Jesuits. Instead, he faces the facts honestly and strives to put them in proper perspective.
Triumph is not a history of the Church in her development of doctrine nor in the lives of her saints. It is the history of the Church as an institution, primarily in Europe, vis-à-vis other institutions and powers-the Roman Empire, the Turks, Elizabethan England. Thus Triumph's treatment of the twentieth century does not concern itself so much with the Second Vatican Council's rousing restatement of the universal call to sanctity as it does with the Church's opposition to totalitarian regimes. As an institutional history, Triumph is principally concerned with great pontiffs, bishops, and political and military leaders.
In an era when analysis is too often tempered by the fear of seeming dogmatic, Triumph's boldness is refreshing. Crocker's assessment of the history of Eastern Christianity, though, seems a shade too negative. While he rightly deplores Eastern Caesaropapism and heresies, one wishes he might have noted more frequently the positive contributions of Eastern Christianity.
Evangelical Protestants might come away from the book with an incomplete view of Catholic teaching on sacred Scripture. As evangelicals read Crocker's assessment of the Catholic exegesis of the Catholic Reformation as a regrettable "Biblical literalism," they might be surprised to learn how highly the Church values the literal interpretation of the Bible (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 115 ff.). But this drawback is more than made up for by the important service Crocker renders to Protestants in his masterful treatment of Luther, which alone is worth the price of the book.
These minor criticisms touch upon no more than a few pages of Crocker's five-hundred-page Triumph. Even the twenty-six pages of footnotes are worth reading; some notes are so witty, so understated and ironic, that they are nothing less than laugh-out-loud funny. Triumph's twenty-seven-page critical bibliography joins the likes of Father John Hardon's Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan, Father C. John McCloskey's lifetime reading plan (see www.cicdc.org), and the bibliography in Russell Kirk's Conservative Mind as an important, intellectually formative book list from which one can draw many times in ensuing years.
For all these and other reasons, Triumph deserves to purchased, and purchased soon. But be forewarned: It will be difficult to imbibe in moderation.
-- Jeff Ziegler
Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church
By H.W. Crocker III
Prima Publishing
500pages
$29.95
ISBN: 0-7615-2924-1
An Extraordinary Dignity
In contrast to modern feminism's frequently distorted views of a woman's place in the world, Alice von Hildebrand offers an exhilarating alternative: that afforded by the supernatural perspective of Christianity.
Von Hildebrand, who is professor emeritus of philosophy at Hunter College in New York City, begins by laying out the misogynistic attitudes that creep periodically into societies and the backlash they have spawned. "According to feminists, under societal pressure women have for centuries accepted their 'inferiority' and in many countries they still do. But now, in 'developed nations,' the kairos [time] is ripe for a reassessment of this humiliating situation" (page 7). This reassessment has led to a "war between the sexes," in which the Bible has been rewritten and a feminist god created. It has led also to a "deeply rooted prejudice which foolishly asserts that the whole of Judeo-Christian tradition-and very particularly the Catholic Church-has discriminated against women." (pp. 87-88).
Von Hildebrand turns to the genuine insights of Scripture and Christianity. Man and woman are created with perfectly equal dignity, "both being made to God's image and likeness" (p. 15). Despite the responsibility Eve carries for the tragedy of original sin, "the new Eve will play a cardinal role in the work of redemption" (p. 16). This new Eve, Mary, is given an extraordinary place of honor in the Church. The holy women were permitted to share in the crucified Savior's suffering, and it is a woman-Mary Magdalene-who was the first to witness his Resurrection. "From a supernatural point of view," von Hildebrand observes, "women are actually granted a privileged position in the economy of redemption" (p.19).
While in no way denying the historicity of instances when women have been "denigrated, humiliated, and look down upon," von Hildebrand points out that "the culprits are always individual men, tainted by original sin." The Catholic Church by contrast "has elevated women to an extraordinary dignity" (p. 20).
In fact, the very vulnerabilities of womanhood are, seen through a supernatural lens, sources of tremendous wisdom and strength. "The 'weakness' of the female sex, as far as accomplishments and productivity are concerned, can be more than compensated by her moral strength when she lives up to her calling" (pp. 28-29). In a meditation at the end of the book, von Hildebrand explains how Mary, uniquely positioned in creation, contributes to the apocalyptic victory over Satan, sin, and heresy by means of her humble fiat (pp. 99-108).
"Christianity teaches that exterior feats are dust and ashes in God's sight," says the author. "We shall be judged not according to our performance in the secular world but according to our humility and charity. When the time has come, nothing which is man-made will subsist. But every single child to whom a woman has given birth will live forever, for he has been given an immortal soul made to God's image and likeness" (p. 33).
Von Hildebrand describes with great delicacy the psychological troughs and peaks of feminine nature: "A woman's way to holiness is clearly to purify her God-given sensitivity and to direct it into the proper channels." Using the examples of women saints, she demonstrates the remarkable way in which holy women have used their natural gifts to draw others onto deeper moral and spiritual ground. The Story of a Soul by Thèrése of Lisieux, for example, "is a magnificent praise of weakness joyfully accepted and transformed by grace into supernatural victory."
Drawing on the work of Edith Stein, von Hildebrand shows that many of the characteristics typically understood as "feminine" are not only metaphysically higher than "masculine" traits but are necessary to the work of the soul. To disregard feminine qualities in favor of the masculine, as secular feminism encourages, is to deprive the soul of many of its most critical functions and certainly of its ability to achieve a sanctified wholeness. "Saints, masterpieces of God's grace, combine all great male virtues with female gentleness," von Hildebrand writes. "Great female saints, while keeping the perfume of female gentleness, can show a strength and courage that sociology usually reserves to the male sex. It is typical of the supernatural that such apparently contradictory features can be harmoniously united" (pp. 75-76).
Poetic yet readable, scholarly yet unintimidating, this slim volume would make an excellent resource for youth groups (and their elders) interested in studying a contemporary issue illuminated by clear Catholic thinking.
-- Stephanie Block
The Privilege of Being a Woman
By Alice Von Hildebrand
Ave Maria Communications
118pages
$7.00
ISBN: 0-9706-1067-X
Distorted Mirror Image
You're browsing in the children's section of your local Catholic bookstore when you see a colorful illustration of a priest elevating a host. What Does a Priest Do? says the book's title. Hmm-you pick it up and thumb through it. Illustrated with simple and appealing pictures, the book explains quotidian clerical responsibilities the way a small child could understand. A nice gift for your four- or five-year-old niece or nephew, right? Wrong. PUT THE BOOK DOWN AND STEP AWAY FROM THE DISPLAY.
Here is What Does a Priest Do? in its entirety, with a description of the accompanying pictures of priests:
"A priest does all sorts of interesting things" (in vestments with his arms extended).
"He prays" (on his knees praying the rosary).
"He helps the poor and the sick" (sans clerics in a soup kitchen pouring soup for an old, bearded man).
"He teaches" (conducting what could be a Bible study).
"He listens to people's problems" (seated listening to a man kneeling on the other side of a confessional screen).
"He laughs a lot" (playing with a boy and girl blowing bubbles), "and sometimes he cries" (seated with his arm around a boy, tears on the cheeks of both).
"He travels to far away places" (in a pith helmet driving a Jeep through an empty countryside) "and he lives right next door" (outside a house with a broom in hand, waving to passersby on the sidewalk).
"Some days his job his hard" (in workman's clothes nailing a roof onto a small church).
"Other days his job is easy" (in T-shirt and sweats playing baseball with older kids).
"But every day his job is full of love, because he shares Jesus with the world" (elevating a host before a congregation of smiling people).
But here's the catch-What Does a Priest Do? is actually two books in one. Turn it over and you'll find a parallel book titled What Does a Nun Do? the pages of which turn the opposite direction:
"A nun does all sorts of interesting things" (an illustration of a nun with her arms extended as if in welcome).
"She prays" (kneeling on a prie-dieu).
"She helps the poor and sick" (in a nurse's outfit ministering to a sick boy).
"She teaches" (with children playing recorders).
"She listens to people's problems" (sitting with her arm around a sad young woman).
"She laughs a lot" (reading a book titled Jokes) "and sometimes she cries" (kneeling beside a girl in a cemetery, tears on the cheeks of both).
"She travels to faraway places" (looking out the window of an airplane) "and she lives right next door" (in front of an apartment building, waving to children playing next door).
"Some days her job is hard" (in a sun hat hoeing a garden).
"Other days her job is easy" (playing jump rope with two girls in plaid uniforms).
"But every day her job is full of love, because she shares Jesus with the world" (reading the Bible to a group of adults and children).
In the center spread of the book, where the narratives meet, are identical pictures of a priest and a nun with arms outstretched; around each is an identical circle of words: "prays helps teaches listens laughs cries shares loves."
This little book seems harmless, but the kernel of the idea it plants in the mind of a small child is noxious: Priests and nuns are no different. In their roles as representatives of the Church they do the exact same things.
Of course, they don't. This is patently obvious to an adult. But it is not obvious to a five-year-old child (anyone much older won't be interested in this book) whose awareness of sacramentality is at best in its early stages.
To give it credit, the book is not inaccurate. Priests are shown praying the rosary and in a traditional confessional setting. Many of the nuns appear in habits. Ethnic diversity is depicted, and several people appear in wheelchairs. But the people in the pews at the elevation of the host are sitting rather than kneeling (or even standing). It's the mirror-image way this book is set up that hammers home a distorted message.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains how a priest acts in persona Christi: "It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred person his minister [i.e., priest] truly represents. Now the minister, by reason of the sacerdotal consecration he has received, is truly made like to the high priest and possesses the authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself" (CCC 1548, quoting Pius XII's encyclical Mediator Dei).
A nun, though she takes religious vows, remains a layman, albeit one with a special duty. "All religious . . . take their place among the collaborators of the diocesan bishop in his pastoral duty" (CCC 927).
It is paragraph 1577 of the Catechism that sticks in the craw of agitators for the ordination of women: "Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination [Code of Canon Law, can. 1024.] The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry. . . . The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible" (CCC 1577). Those who dissent from Church teaching on this issue ignore its theological basis and view it as gender discrimination, pure and simple.
Whatever the intention of its author, Susan O'Keefe, What Does a Priest Do?/What Does a Nun Do? fits into this feminist agenda like a square peg into a square hole. The fact that it is aimed at kids makes it all the more pernicious.
It may seem like overreaction to object so strongly to this slight children's book, and in another age it might be. But there is a pitched battle within the Church going on around us, and a wolf-even in lamb's clothing-is still a wolf.
-- Tim Ryland
What Does a Priest Do? What Does a Nun Do?
By Susan O'Keefe
Paulist Press
26pages
$7.95
ISBN: 0-8091-6698-4
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