Being Right: Conservative Catholics in America

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive Compendium of Conservative Catholic views.
Review: "Being Right: Conservative Catholics in America", edited by Mary Jo Weaver and R. Scott Appleby. 1995. The editors have collected 12 different chapters representing the conservative Catholic point of view on matters ranging from the "Loss of Theological Unity" to American Catholics in the pro-life movement. This book is definitively written from the Catholic view. For example, you will not find a chapter on the Fundamentals' controversy over creationism versus evolution, as that has already been put to bed by the statements of at least three popes. Our separated Protestant brethren will also probably wonder at the theme of the chapter on the loss of theological unity. There is a "resource" chapter on the "Fellowship of Catholic Scholars" which I found more of a recruiting nature, but then, that is acceptable. There is the obligatory politically correct chapter on the Hispanic observations on the conservative-liberal controversies, in which the Jesuit author displays his own cultural insensitivity by using "Anglo", to lump together all those who are "white" as Anglos. Just because my eyes are blue, my skin fair and my hair blonde, (when I had hair) does not classify me as an Anglo. Many of us of Irish descent consider the term "Anglo" to be insulting. Of most interest to me was the chapter by Professor Weaver (Indiana University) on the four "restoration" Catholic colleges which are bucking the secularization trend of the 230+ Catholic colleges. I used her chapter in my MA, History thesis. Overall, the book is worth the effort to purchase ( I bought my copy through Amazon.com) and to use as a benchmark to measure trends in Catholicism in the U.S.

Rating:
Summary: Anglos
Review: The previous reviewer is in error with his criticism. Anglo tends to be an abbreviation of Anglo-Saxon as in WASP...white Anglo Saxon Protestant, not as in anglophone. The author of the book is correct to object to the misuse of the term anglo. Irish Americans are NOT Anglo-Saxons but a Celtic people.

Rating:
Summary: A good resource when read along with its companion book.
Review: When read with its companion book on liberal Catholics ("What's Left", also edited by Mary Jo Weaver), this is an excellent reference for understanding the issues that face thinking Catholics in America today.

On an earlier reviewer's objection to the use of the term "Anglo" to refer to non-Hispanic Catholics in America, including those of Irish descent like himself, I would like to point out that "Anglo" is really an abbreviated form of "anglophone", which refers (in New Mexico, as in Quebec) to those of us whose native tongue is English. I doubt that the objecting reviewer speaks Irish Gaelic today, any more than I speak German today. From the point of view of the linguistic minorities in North America, we are both anglophones, or "Anglos" for short. It's accurate. Live with it.