Morris. CHURCH IN AMERICA

Morris, Charles R. AMERICAN CATHOLIC. Times Books, 1997.
Irish has become chic; Catholic has become chic. But even more chic is attacking both. Charles Morris' book jumps on the band-wagon, with the intent to offset the appeal of the one and the other. He is a reporter, rather than a historian, and has all the defects of that trade with few of its redeeming qualities. He takes as his subtitle: "The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church". Like our newspaper and television reporters, he is bored with accounts of goodness; he looks instead for "the story" ("the dirt"), which will sell. There are precious few saints in his book. (And nothing about God to distract us). And no serious account of the role of nuns. Indeed, with the worn cliche about "severe grammar school teachers", he does not fail to take a swipe at them. As our poet put it, "he damns with faint praise". He finds little good in most bishops who served in the United States; and of one (a cardinal), he writes that "he was a terrible human being, and a bad priest". That's a lie.
Mr. Morris writes, like all our experts, as one virgin of experience. It would not be worth noticing this book had it not received superficial praise in some Catholic journals. Better to read a good, well-reasoned, well-documented, honest attack on the Church.