CATHOLICISM

A sweeping history of modern Catholicism.

McGreevy, a professor of history at Notre Dame and author of three books on Catholicism, examines the past two centuries. The author begins his authoritative survey with the French Revolution, noting that no series of events since the Reformation had so thoroughly rocked the Catholic landscape. The excesses of the Revolution and the upending of Catholic authority in France led to the global “ultramontane revival” movement. “At the revival’s core,” writes McGreevy, “was a deepening attachment to the institution of the church.” This attachment would add significantly to the powers of the pope and the Roman ecclesiastical structure. The revival’s “triumph” was the First Vatican Council, in 1869-1870, which confirmed the doctrine of papal infallibility and severed voices of dissent, modernism, and reform. “To signal church independence,” writes the author, “Pius IX decided against inviting any monarchs or heads of state, a decision that for the first time eliminated lay participation in an ecumenical council.” However, the church was already fighting nationalist movements around the world. As nationalism bumped up against the interests of the church, a new infrastructure was created to safeguard Catholic society and culture: “the Milieu,” an unending series of social welfare organizations, movements, missions, and other initiatives. The Milieu spread across the 19th and 20th centuries and became a public and sometimes-pugnacious face for Catholicism. After decades of social upheaval, Pope John XXIII changed the course of Catholicism by calling the Second Vatican Council in 1959. The ensuing decades were marked by liberation theology; the monumental papacy of John Paul II; and, of course, the destructive onslaught of sexual abuse scandals, to which the author appropriately devotes an entire chapter. Throughout the text, McGreevy, a skilled historian and storyteller, provides a wealth of detail about the church and the changing world to which it has been reacting for the past 200 years.

A must-read for practicing Catholics and anyone interested in religious studies.