The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Catholicism

Rating:
Summary: Morality Requires Free Choice
Review: It took the church over a thousand years to get celibacy into the rule book. During that time, priests, monks, bishops and popes (including St. Peter) wrangled with it and at the same time had wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, and children. So why would people think all that is over just because it became a church law? Come on, get real. Those of you who have complained that issues such as abortion or birth control shouldn't be talked about as tough choices need to pick up a newspaper and read about some of the moral choices the clergy is making despite the rules. To say that lay Catholics don't struggle with making moral choices regarding abortion is the same as denying that the clergy doesn't struggle with choices around celibacy. I'm sure that every priest who has broken his celibacy endured a moral struggle before doing so--and those who managed to stay true to their vows struggled, too. Hardly anything in life is black and white...most of the time we are forced into choosing the lesser of two evils...or the better good. Let's acknowledge that the same struggle goes on for all of us. This is an engaging book. I highly recommend it. (Five stars)

Rating:
Summary: Weak tea
Review: Mr. Gorman has contributed a defense of his own book to Amazon.com. It speaks volumes. Note particularly his defense of the section heading "Abortion: It's a tough choice". I wonder; would he have chosen a section heading, "Infanticide: It's a tough choice", or "Adultery: It's a tough choice", or "Wife beating: It's a tough choice"? I think not, even though all the arguments he uses to justify the title "Abortion: It's a tough choice" would apply equally well to the others. The trouble with some dissenting Catholics is that they insinuate what they dare not say outright. The offending title can be understood to mean that the "tough choice" involved is the decision of whether abortion is justified in a particular case. This book represents a very dated, sixties-era Catholicism that has seen its heyday come and go. Generally, those who are attracted to Catholicism
nowadays want the real McCoy.







Rating:
Summary: The Complete Idiots Guide is for Complete Idiots
Review: The Idiot's Guide is unrepresentative of true Catholic teaching. It contains the wishy-washy "lukewarm" Catholicism that we are warned about in the Bible, the Catachism and the writings of the Church Fathers, and some of it is flat out WRONG. The author insists that the "Imprimatur" is not appropriate for his book, but the purpose of such designation is to insure that it contains to doctrinal errors. If Mr. O'Gorman is so sure that his book contains no such errors, why the lack of the Imprimatur? It is both necessary and appropriate for a book about Catholicism to contain the designation.

The authors of this book are your typical neo-liberal Catholics who seem to consider Catholicism more of a social institution than as the CHURCH FOUNDED BY JESUS CHRIST. He seems to imply that all who can find errors in his doctrine are neo-conservatives who hate the reform Vatican II brought. This tone is in the author's response to the legitimate negative reviews and throughout his entire book.

We are not all neo-conservatives (Mr. O'Gorman seems to use this in a derogatory and decidedly un-Catholic manner). We have legitimate claims to his errors, and I for one do not recommend his book to anyone.


Rating:
Summary: Purchase Catholicism for Dummies instead
Review: This book does not represent the church correctly. There are things in the book that the church does not approve of or is stated incorrectly. If you want an easy book about the church buy Catholicism for Dummies instead. It is a great book and very easy to understand Father Trigilio is a priest that helped with the book for Dummies and he knows what he's talking about! Please don't be misinformed by the Idiot's Guide!

Rating:
Summary: you can do much better
Review: This is an ideological book. Its central premise is that there are two Catholicisms. There is the "official" kind, which is taught by the hierarchy and supposedly accepted only by a few hard-liners and nostalgic types. Then there is the kind preferred by the authors, which bears a striking resemblance to liberal Episcopalianism. There is too much wrong with this book to go into all of it. Just a couple of examples will have to do. The pop-star Madonna is held up as a positive example of Catholicism. This is a little embarrassing considering that she recently converted to Judaism (to the understandable displeasure of many Jews.) Mother Angelica (the founder of the EWTN TV network) gets much harsher treatment. She is described in condescending tones as the kind of rigid and simpleminded believer who wants answers but no questions. In the same section, Mother Teresa is (quite rightly) presented as a paragon of Catholicism, but the authors conveniently fail to mention (since it does not fit in with their ideological aims) the well-known fact that Mother Teresa was every bit as "conservative" in her moral and theological beliefs as Mother Angelica. Mother Teresa accepted "official" Catholicism wholeheartedly.