Catholic Matters, by Richard John Neuhaus. Basic Books. £14.99

The author was a Lutheran pastor in the U.S. for thirty years before being received into the Church in September 1990. Ordained a year later, he is now a well-known Catholic apologist and public speaker. His book, subtitled “Confusion, Controversy and the Splendour of Truth”, is a shrewd and humorous survey of the sedate Protestant world he has left behind him and the colourful Catholic world he has embraced.

It starts and ends with his “Rome Diary”, begun when he knelt in tears beside the body of John Paul II and concluding with the election of Benedict XVI. Having privately forecast the election of the former Cardinal Ratzinger, Neuhaus is content to be wise before the event. The sight of the thousands of reporters with their technology and satellite trucks “being forced to watch a stove pipe for a puff of smoke” makes him chuckle.

He describes his Christian formation in the Lutheran church of Ottawa Valley, where his own father, nicknamed “Pope Neuhaus” for his friendly relations with the local Catholic priest, was pastor. Clearly he has great affection for the self-effacing, plain-speaking and godly community he grew up in even though, surveying the customs and beliefs of his boyhood Catholic friends, he was forced to conclude they had everything the Lutherans had “and more”. Lutherans believed that Catholics could be saved by a “felicitous inconsistency”; the Catholics believed Lutherans could be saved because of their “invincible ignorance.”

After his conversion, Neuhaus is gently scathing of those ecumenically-minded Catholics he encountered who had moved “in a few decades” from believing that non-Catholics “are headed for Hell to wondering why anyone should want to become a Catholic.” He is more sharply critical of Catholic dissenters – “those aging refugees from the ‘post-Vatican II’ revolution that was not to be.”

Much of the book is an analysis of the crisis in the Church following the Council. Some of this is old ground, but Neuhaus always provides an interesting slant. He defends the new rite of Mass, believing it can be celebrated “with dignity, reverence and more than a touch of the majesty that befits the worship of God”, though he supports the need for a “reform of the reform” – especially of the vernacular translation. He makes the point that Protestants who have grown up with the magnificent English of the Book of Common Prayer often feel a greater sense of loss when they listen to the current ICEL translation than Catholics who have moved from “the linguistic obscurity of the Latin to the linguistic barbarism” of the new rite.

As a convert, Neuhaus reproves those Catholics who are always hearkening back to the good old days, accusing them of the “sin of morose delectation” – dwelling on and taking delight in what is wrong.” This does not make him blandly optimistic about the life of the Church; he poses the question whether in our time it will be “indifferent, fearful and corrupt or a luminous proposal to the world of a more excellent way.”

Looking at his own country he suggest it went astray in part because people chose to be “American Catholics” rather than “Catholic Americans”, thereby relinquishing their distinctive ecclesial identity. Given this observation I was startled by his figure of 200,000 adult converts each year in the US, but Neuhaus emphasises that despite the recent scandals, the lack of diocesan leadership, the internal divisiveness among Catholics, the “John Paul II generation” is still irresistibly drawn to the splendour of truth. A warm admirer of the present Pope whom he worked with in his Lutheran days, he is convinced that his papacy will be transformative, rather than transitional. A short book, both salutary and stimulating.

Amazing Grace for Married Couples, by Jeff Cavins, Matthew Pinto and Patti Armstrong. Family Publications. £8.95

This book is composed of twelve stories of (American) marriages that have fallen apart but which, through the “amazing grace” of the title, have been resurrected and renewed. The authors acknowledge that in circumstances such as physical violence, separation is necessary; generally they hope to demonstrate that there is no marital problem “too big for God to handle.”

The situations they describe are certainly those that would defeat most people; several involve addiction on the part of one of the spouses: alcohol, pornography, drugs and gambling. Sometimes the issue is infidelity; sometimes the couple work long hours, so that communication between them withers. All of them are struggling with unresolved issues from their own childhood that have resurfaced explosively in adult life.

The catalyst for change is a conversion or re-conversion (after long years of lapsing) experience on the part of a spouse. These stories, sometimes propelled by a chance reading of scripture, are most movingly recounted. One husband realised the force of “till death do us part” and that “unconditional love is necessary, even if a wayward spouse never changes”; a wife confesses that “we failed to see marriage as a sacrament”.

Good counselling and a wise priest often helped in the healing process, as does the recognition of the need for confession. One couple was told by a priest, “If you put Jesus at the centre of your life, he will save your marriage.” They did, had seven children and spent twenty years as lay missionaries in Central America. This tale is particularly dramatic, but all twelve show evidence of the miraculous.

If Tolstoy’s famous opening sentence to Anna Karenina is true, and each unhappy family is unhappy in its own fashion, this book suggests that divine intervention is also beautifully shaped to meet individual needs. The cover picture of a tanned, wrinkle-free couple with gleaming teeth might give a slight US success story slant to these case histories, but do not be put off. They are humbling instances of all-too-human frailties that could overwhelm any marriage; they are also proof that the suffering and desperation of spouses can be transformed by grace.

© 2006 Francis Phillips

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