Letter To A Suffering Church - Book 33

This little book is only 105 pages long, so I don't know if it quite qualifies in the 52 Book challenge, but it's a book and I read it!

Letter to a Suffering Church is by Bishop Robert Barron.  It is subtitled A Bishop Speaks Out On The Sexual Abuse Crisis.  In it, in his amazingly compelling and concise style, Bishop Barron puts the whole crisis in context (both scripturally and historically) and exhorts us to stay in the Church and fight the battle!  As he says, we know the story of the Church is a divine comedy.  We know it will have a happy ending so we should stick it out and fight the wickedness and corruption.  And we fight by speaking up whenever we can, getting more involved in church life so we can really see what's going on, and working on our own holiness through prayer, devotion, study.  Holiness is the goal.  We need to be the new saints of the Church, always working for reform.  This is our time!

I think the bishop speaks the truth.  I went through a period of about a month, right after the Cardinal McCarrick news came out when I had such disgust and such a cold fury seized my heart that it was very hard for me to go to Mass.  I sat in the pew so alienated and angry.  But once my initial anger worked off, I began to see that the answer was not to flee (as repugnant as the whole crisis is), but to wade into the fray.  I even went to protest outside McCarrick's door to ask him to resign (and repent!).  My own parish is aging.  It was started by baby boomers right after Vatican II and the population is aging out with not enough new parishioners to replace them.  Masses that used to be full with standing room only when I joined 18 years ago, now have big patches of empty pews.  The demographics have shifted so dramatically since I joined.  But I feel this is where the Holy Spirit has put me and I will do my best to be a contributing member trying to work out my salvation along with the community of believers I share parish life with.

So if you are feeling despair over the state of the Catholic Church, this is a great heartening read.  God bless the good bishop for writing it!  The link above is to the amazon kindle edition.  But if you want the slim paperback version, which is what I bought, you can buy it here.

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.