UNITED STATES
Chris Castaldo
Chris Castaldo / Friday, October 4th, 2013
Peter McDonough. The Catholic Labyrinth: Power, Apathy, and a Passion for Reform in the American Church. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013. 408 pp. $29.95. cover
A maze is a complex route offering a choice of directions. A labyrinth, by contrast, typically has a single route that leads you from an exterior entrance point to the center. In other words, unlike mazes, labyrinths offer an unambiguous and simple path. Whether Peter McDonough intended to describe The Catholic Labyrinth as a “simple” path is rather doubtful. But ironically, it may actually be an appropriate description.
McDonough, professor emeritus of political science at Arizona State University, is a two-time Fulbright fellow who has spent more than a little time analyzing the history of Catholicism. He’s perhaps best known for his volume on the Society of Jesus, Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits. Writing from a left-of-center perspective, McDonough is a cultural exegete unafraid to critique the unpleasant dimensions of religious life. This book is no exception. However, it is not a screed, as McDonough explains:
The purpose [of this book] is neither to defend nor to indict the church. “Power” and “apathy” take up two-thirds of the subtitle to signal that “a passion for reform” constitutes just one among several positions in American Catholicism—and not an especially homogeneous one at that. My question is why the different strategies emerged in the first place and, second, how they condition the future of the church. (9)
The Catholic Labyrinth presents itself as a behind-the-scenes look at the battle to achieve reform within the Catholic Church. The investigation focuses on numerous challenges facing contemporary Catholicism in America: for example, the sexual abuse scandals, a marked decline in attendance and vocations to the priesthood, and the closing of parishes and parochial schools. Each of these phenomena is influenced by the “Matrix of American Catholicism”—that is, the network of religious traditions, institutions, cultural trends, organizational hierarchy, and power brokers responsible for leading the American church. On this theme, the opening chapters lay valuable groundwork for understanding how recent attempts at aggiornamento (updating or reform of the church) have progressed.
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