Breaking Faith: The Pope, the People and the Fate of Catholicism

by John Cornwell

The author of the best-selling Hitler's Pope takes on the current successor to Peter, revealing how Pope John Paul II has taken the Church to the brink of self-destruction, plunging Catholicism into a crisis of identity, and addresses the controversies and issues confronting Catholics today. 30,000 first printing.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Theology

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

John Cornwell is a British journalist, author, and academic. Since 1990 he has directed the Science and Human Dimension Project at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he is also, since 2009, Founder and Director of the Rustat Conferences. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters (University of Leicester) in 2011. He was nominated for the PEN/Ackerley Prize for best UK memoir 2007 (Seminary Boy) and shortlisted Specialist Journalist of the Year (science, medicine in Sunday Times Magazine), British Press Awards 2006. He won the Scientific and Medical Network Book of the Year Award for Hitler's Scientists, 2005; and received the Independent Television Authority - Tablet Award for contributions to religious journalism (1994). In 1982 he won the Gold Dagger Award Non-Fiction (1982) for Earth to Earth. He is best known for his investigative journalism; memoir; and his work in public understanding of science. In addition to his books on the relationship between science, ethics and the humanities, he has written widely on the Catholic Church and the modern papacy.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE POPULAR (AND CONTROVERSIAL) WRITERS LOOKS AT THE CURRENT CATHOLIC CHURCH

John Cornwell has written important (and sometimes controversial) books such as 'Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII,' 'A Thief in the Night: Life and Death in the Vatican,' and 'The Pontiff in Winter: Triumph and Conflict in the Reign of John Paul II,' as well as the memoir 'Seminary Boy.'

He begins the book by stating, "My readers... have a right to know where I am coming from... I was born and raised a Catholic, and I spent seven years in seminaries before abandoning a vocation to the priesthood in my early twenties, and, eventually, as a matter of conscience, Christianity itself... I was a happier, better person without a belief in God. I did not look back... I had reason to regret an ovedisciplined youth, but I had also benefited from a privileged Catholic education." (Pg. 6)

He wrote in the first chapter of this 2001 book, "John Paul's pontificate has been assailed by a grim accumulation of woes: defections, plummeting Mass attendance, a collapsing priesthood, conflicts over a host of moral and jurisdictional issues, the decline of Catholic marriage, and expanding Catholic divorce rates... bishops are at odds with the Vatican over centralized authority; the faithful are battling... over issues such as pastoral and liturgical participation, sexual morality, the status and involvement of women, the strictures that prevent divorced Catholics from full communion...

"This book, which reports on the critical condition of the institutional Church, argues that despite the persistence of faith, a thirst for spirituality, and enthusiasm for good works among the billion strong Catholic faithful, John Paul is leaving the Catholic Church is a worse state than he found it... The Pope and the Vatican are not inclined to consider their own shortcomings and weaknesses, their own part in the plight in which the Church finds itself..." (Pg. 2-3)

He also admits, "My Catholic identity---which I intend to keep, come what may---is... for me, a daily creative action and interaction with the world, like a language. First and foremost I am a Christian, but my Catholic expression of Christianity, which I consider a special privilege of grace as well as accident of birth, parenthood, and education, is a way of using my imagination in prayer, in the liturgy, and in the work and encounters of everyday life, in reaching out to God, and being reached by God." (Pg. 87)

He adds, "When I began to go to church again after breaking faith twenty years earlier, I felt personally and belatedly the full force of a despondency shared by many at the deterioration and adulteration of traditional Catholic worship." (Pg. 90)

He notes, "Three-quarters of Catholic Americans... think that EXTRAMARITAL sex is always wrong. And while three in every four Catholics thought PREMARITAL sex was always wrong in 1963... by 1994 only one in six American Catholics believed that premarital sex was always wrong. What is more, when unmarried Catholics engage in sex they do so more frequently than their average non-Catholic fellow Americans." (Pg. 123) He adds, "between 1989 and 1996, the annulments in the United States indicated that 6 percent of the world's Catholics received 75 percent of the world's annulments." (Pg. 134)

He observes, "In their attempts to work freely and constructively many Catholic women have decided to work outside Catholic institutions. [Elizabeth] Schüssler Fiorenza eventually left Notre Dame for Harvard; Rosemary Radford Ruether went to the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary ... Uta Ranke-Heinemann, after losing her Catholic teaching license, was awarded the chair in Church history at Essen University..." (Pg. 190)

For those interested in thoughtful criticism from “within” the Catholic fold, Cornwell’s book will be appreciated.

[Allan Savage]

This book reports on the contemporary state of the institutional church. It includes the author's own confessional statements which help us to understand his perspective and criticisms of the Roman Church. It is a good assessment of the Church without the sensational overtones which I have so often found in books written by journalists examining the Roman Catholic faith. Cornwell introduces the notions and issues that surfaced at the time of the so-called Modernist Crisis. He does so wisely and reveals that his personal convictions are in sympathy with the thinking of these theologians. This gives the work philosophical credibility as opposed to mere opinion. The following passage, found on pp 215/216, is typical of the observations and insight Cornwell shares with the reader throughout the book. "Pluralist, multicultural societies are a fact, and Catholics have to live in such societies by according more than mere tolerance for the convictions of their fellow citizens. After all, Catholics expect the same respect of others. Moreover, how can the world avoid destroying itself if its religionists cannot find a way of living together in harmony?...But Christian theologians rightly object that theirs is a Trinitarian God, a God that essentially expresses the truth of creation and salvation, and which is profoundly distinct from that of the God of Israel, or of Islam, or the Gods of the Hindus, or Buddhism. All the same, brave attempts have been made by Catholic theologians to find a basis for genuine respect." To my mind, in our time, a basis for such genuine respect may be found via an existential philosophy with roots in the thinking of the "modernist" theologians. I recommend this book to any serious philosopher or theologian.

[Kenneth Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author spent 7 years as a seminarian, then left the Church only to return after 20 years. He has written several books on the papacy. This book is his look at the Catholic Church in current times and the problems it faced in the new century. The Church had a divide between conservative and progressive factions. The conservative wing wants the Church to be a top down hierarchy with the pope as the sole determinant in all facets of the Church. The progressive wing wants more decentralization of the Church giving bishops and laity more say in doctrinal issues and how the Church operates.
The main issues of division are the power of the Curia, the role of women including becoming priests, intellectual freedom to question doctrine and the issues of sexual nature. This last category has many facet: the sex abuse scandals, divorce, gay rights, contraception and premarital sex. The current pope has ruled against the use of condoms even to prevent the spread of HIV/ AIDS. This has severely contributed to the spread of the disease in Africa and other third world countries. The refusal to accept divorce has lead to the banning of the sacraments to divorced or remarried laity.
The Church is also suffering from the reduced interest in becoming priests or joining religious orders. This is a problem facing many denominations today.
The author suggests that the Church must change how it operates if it is to continue as a universal body.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is sort of a follow on from Hitler's Pope and he asks the fundamental question of the Churches motives. How does the current power structure benefit the people of the church? His point is that it doesn't and needs to be re-defined if the idea of catholicism is to have any bearing on the future of this planet. As with many aspects of society, the current power structures tend to yield to a philosophy of attempting top-down institutional control over something that began as a grass-roots revolution and dissatisfaction. The image of a golden-clad pope standing atop of the billions of destitute poor and suffering and claiming to empathize with them seems to be what inspired this book. Additionally, the idea of papal infallibility which occurred in 1871 at Vatican I as a political response to the loss of the papal states is explored and questioned. He was attacked by the church for this and other books. A worthwhile read for people questioning their own faith.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author writes about the history of the Catholic Church and the role of Pope John Paul II. He discusses changing belifs among Catholics and how that affects the Church.