The Catholic Church, U. S. A. ed. by Louis J. Putz, C. S. C. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 105 The Catholic Church, U.S. A. Edited by Loms J. Pmz, C. S.C. Chicago: Fides Publishers Association, 1957. Pp. 415. $5.95. The title of this book is somewhat misleading; it suggests a more comprehensive treatment of the American Church than the text provides. True, the editor says in his preface that the subject might easily call for encyclopedic treatment and this had to be avoided. But the title does suggest areas of Church activity on which the writers have been strangely silent. That a book on the Church in the United States covering the topics listed in The Catholic Church, U.S. A. is timely no one will question. And the reliability of the subject matter is guaranteed by the contributing authors; their names are well known in Catholic circles. So The Catholic Church, U.S. A., is an important work-a must for those who would be correctly informed about the activities of the Church in America. It is obvious from the table of contents that the contributors have given us monographs on subjects with which they are especially competent to deal for they have written on subjects closely related to their special fields of activity. However, it is a matter of regret that some vital issues of interest to Catholics as well as to those outside the Church in the United States should have been omitted. And an index, admittedly difficult in this instance, would have been most helpful. How the late Father Augustine Maydieu, the French Dominican who had originally planned this work, would have covered liis subject, we do not know. The book, according to the editor, is an attempt to realize the plan which Father Maydieu's untimely death prevented him from carrying out. The editor was most fortunate in having His Excellency, the Bishop of Worcester, write the Introduction to the book. Bishop Wright has given us in brief not only an amazingly comprehensive sketch of the Church in the United States, but he has given it to us in his characteristically excellent style. The Introduction is a synopsis of what The Catholic Church, U.S.A., implies. A short history of the American Church, her relations with the Holy See, her organization, her school system, financial structure, labor relations, regional adaptations, intellectual and spiritual activities are all treated by one or another of the twenty-two contributors. In this review the present writer must of necessity confine himself to those chapters which he thinks will command the widest interest, and this with apologies to the writers of the very fine essays that make up the rest of the book. Of especial interest· to Catholics as well as non-Catholic readers because the topics are currently discussed in the press, on the radio and television, are the chapters on the Holy See and the United States, the Catholic school system, the Church and labor, the Church and racial 106 BOOK REVIEWS segregation and the Church's activities and the Christian life, which the author discusses under the title: Activism and the Interior Life. On the Holy See and the Church in the United States Father Edward Ryan, S. J., has this to say: "The Catholic Church in the United States is the daughter of the Roman Church in a way that few Churches are ... owing to the circumstances of the times Rome's surveillance of the American Church has, perhaps, been closer and more effective than was the case of other national Churches. In the nineteenth century America, because of the absence of ties between States and Church, Rome was in general successful in guiding the development of the Church. Counterbalancing this favorable circumstance," he continues, " was the deep suspicion and even hatred of the Catholic Church entertained by many Protestants." (pp. 8788 ) Quoting Dr. Peter Guilday Father Ryan says: "'in 1785 the leader of the American Church (Bishop John Carroll) spoke of the jealousy of our government towards all jurisdiction of a foreign kind.' These sentiments ," he adds, " have never ceased to torment large segments of the nation.'' (p. 88) With the exception of the Federal Government which is no longer suspicious of the Church, the unfavorable circumstances...