Letters

Enlightening book (letter)

Br Con Moloney CFC

Contents - May 2001 - Buy a copy now Editorial: A crucial appointment to Sydney - Michael Gilchrist Vatican signals continuation of reform process - AD2000 Report AD2000 Online - Michael Gilchrist 'Systematic instruction in the faith' program to be launched in July - Bishop Luc Matthys News: The Church Around the World The Church in Germany: John Paul II expresses serious concerns - Catholic World News New WA Catholic schools document stresses orthodoxy US professor defends papal teaching on universities - Charles E. Rice Why John Henry Newman converted to Catholicism - Michael Davies A Melbourne artist's labour of love - Michael Gilchrist Letters: Different Church (letter) - Frank Smith Letters: Vocation question (letter) - Msgr Richard Schuler PP Letters: Racism (letter) - Helen Daniel Letters: Sydney appointment (letter) - Frank Bellet Letters: Paul Collins (letter) - Arnold Jago (Dr) Letters: Vatican II ambiguities (1) (letter) - George F. Simpson Letters: Vatican II ambiguities (2) (letter) - Fr G.H. Duggan SM Letters: Eucharistic Congress (letter) - Basil Lane Letters: Elizabeth Anscombe (letter) - Edward Clarke Letters: 'Courage' (letter) - John Dodwell Letters: Objectionable cover (letter) - Fr Edward P. Evans Letters: Altar? (letter) - D.I. Davies Letters: Destruction (letter) - John D. Pratt Letters: Queensland Bishops (letter) - Dr Tim Coyle Letters: African reader (letter) - Fr Stephen B. Muchemwa Letters: Scripture truth (letter) - Mary Beaumont Letters: Enlightening book (letter) - Br Con Moloney CFC Books: 'Becoming Fire' by Fr Ken Barker mgl - Peter Westmore (reviewer) Books: 'Great Christian Prayers' by Stephen Redmond SJ - Peter Westmore (reviewer) Books: 'He's Risen' by Phelim McGowan SJ - Mary-Jane Donnellan (reviewer) Books: 'Prayers From The Heart: for the Feasts of the Year', Joanna Bogle - Mary-Jane Donnellan (reviewer) Books: 'A Vacation With The Lord' by Fr Thomas H. Green SJ - Catherine Sheehan (reviewer) Books: Stations Of The Cross (CD), Perth Catholic Productions - Colleen McGuiness-Howard (reviewer) Poetry: The Ballad of Antichrist - Andrew Huntley Reflection: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit' - Fr Ian Falconer SJ

I have just finished reading one of the most enlightening books I have come across in recent years. It is Witness To Hope by George Weigel. This is not only a biography of Pope John Paul II, but also a detailed account of the problems facing the Church in the many countries so far visited by our Holy Father. I highly recommend it to readers of AD2000.

Professor Glendon from Harvard Law School writes of this remarkable book: "At last, a biography worthy of the man of the century. George Weigel's graceful writing, meticulous research, political sophistication, and theological understanding make this a matchless portrait."

George Weigel concludes the biography with this tribute: "If the Church of the future knows John Paul II as 'John Paul the Great,' it will be for this reason: at another moment of peril, when barbarisms of various sorts threatened civilisation, a heroic figure was called from the Church to meet the barbarian threat and propose an alternative. In the case of Pope Leo the Great (440-461), the barbarians in question were Attila and his Huns. In the case of Gregory the Great (590- 604), the barbarians were the Lombards. In the case of John Paul II, the barbarism threatening civilisation has been a set of ideas whose consequences include barbarous politics - defective humanisms that, in the name of humanity and its destiny, create new tyrannies and compound human suffering."

BR CON MOLONEY CFC
Indooroopilly, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 14 No 4 (May 2001), p. 15