Books

Living The Catholic Faith, by Archbishop Charles Chaput

Reviewed by Anthony Cappello

Contents - Mar 2002 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Selecting and forming future priests - Michael Gilchrist St Thérèse's relics make Australian pilgrimage - Mother Teresa OCDM News: The Church Around the World 'Conservation Plan' recommends changes to Toowoomba's Cathedral - Michael Gilchrist North American vocations summit overlooks orthodox success stories - Zenit News Service Former Anglican Bishop of London explains why he became a Catholic - Monsignor Graham Leonard Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration spreads throughout the world - Fr Douglas Harris 'Liturgiam Authenticam', ICEL and the need for improved Mass translations - Anna Silvas The Benedictine medal: a long history of devotion - Fr Fabian Duggan OSB Thoughts of a recent convert to Catholicism - Rett Peaden Letters: Watered-down faith - Teresa Martin Letters: Testimonies - Raymond de Souza Letters: Apology - Fr M. Shadbolt PP Letters: Last straw (letter) - Justin Kearney Letters: Human Rights (letter) - Sr M.B. Eanswythe OSB Letters: Courage Needed (letter) - Frank Bellet Letters: Sunday obligation - Leo Willems Letters: Forgotten teachings - Mrs Hiske Deschepper Letters: Nicene Creed - Ken Bayliss Letters: Parish libraries? - Bob Cotterall Letters: Indian appeal - Kevin L. Fernandes Letters: Teaching position - Robert Anderson Books: Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative-Libertarian Debate, George W. Carey (ed) - Alex Sidhu (reviewer) Books: Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism, by Paul Vitz - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Books: Living The Catholic Faith, by Archbishop Charles Chaput - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: Fatima Handbook, by Leo Madigan - Catherine Sheehan (reviewer) Books: Fr Werenfried - A Life, by Joanna Bogle - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: New Titles from AD Books Reflection: John Paul II: St Joseph's renewed significance for the Church - Br Christian Moe FSC

Living The Catholic Faith, by Archbishop Charles Chaput
(Servant Publications, 2001, 159pp, $22.00. Available from AD Books)

Archbishop Charles Chaput is an extraordinary bishop who also happens to be an inspirational evangelist. As Archbishop of Denver, he has been in the forefront of evangelisation and Catholic renewal in the United States.

His refreshing introduction to the Catholicism - Living the Catholic Faith - begins modestly, with a self- examination of what it means to be a Christian. It is a question that all baptised Catholics need to ask at some point of their faith journey. The answer can mean the difference between being nominal or practising Catholics.

Archbishop Chaput provides valuable insights into what it means to live in Christ, grow in Christ, be nourished by Him in the Eucharist and take up the mission of the Church to make disciples - all in just one chapter.

After reading Chapter One a reader may well feel transformed; an uninterested teenager may possibly start to ask questions; and non- practising parents whose children attend a Catholic parish school may even become interested in that building next to their children's school. Perhaps a bit far-fetched? Yet, this has been the feedback from the United States. For this book challenges those in need of a challenge, those in need of renewal and especially those who think they understand their faith.

All Catholics need renewal at some point in their lives in some aspect of their faith at least. Archbishop Chaput looks at a wide range of key aspects, presenting the Catholic Church as an institution that preserves and transmits the teachings of Jesus Christ. The Catholic Faith is likened to oxygen - something without which one cannot breathe and therefore cannot live.

Living the Catholic Faith, with its compact length, would be equally accessible to a high school student, philosophy teacher or a stay-at-home parent. It is not written with a particular audience in mind but for anyone with an openness to the truth

Anthony Cappello is the Victorian State President of the National Civic Council.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 15 No 2 (March 2002), p. 17