I
have written for those Catholics born and perhaps catechized before Vatican II
or immediately thereafter who as yet are unaware of the true teaching of the
Council. It should not surprise the reader that there are Catholics whose lifestyles
do not differentiate them all that much from those who are not Catholic and/or
Christian. Moreover, many Catholics of the “baby-boom” generation are alienated
from the Church all together because their only exposure has been to a
superficial, cultural Catholicism, impotent in the face of an American culture
increasingly without faith. Conversely, many others have left the Church –
hungrier, as they say, for a more “biblically-based church.” The book is also
intended for young people of the “JP II” generation of Catholics, born long
after the council but perhaps not fully aware of the turmoil spawned by dissent
in the Church which, though on the wane, is still with us today. These young people,
especially those in authentically Catholic colleges (Franciscan, Christendom,
Aquinas, Ave Maria, etc.) will be the
Church of the 21st century, and in my experience have an interest in
this recent history of the Church.
“ F ive years ago, I would have been afraid of saying anything like what the pope said in his [recent] interview,” the Rev. Tom Reese told Sally Quin . “I’m ecstatic. I haven’t been this hopeful about the church in decades....” “It’s fun to be a religion reporter again. For a while it felt like being on the crime beat. It’s fun to be Catholic again.” George Weigel has raised the question of whether or not Fr. Tom has been paying attention throughout the last quarter of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st. Among his findings on the legacies of Pope Francis' predecessors: Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J. millions of adults have been baptized as or entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. new forms of campus ministry in the mold of JPII's "New Evangelization" have developed across the United States. Catholic-studies programs have bloomed on genuinely Catholic campuses across the U.S. the Church has produced the most c...
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