Market Saturation
God and Man at Georgetown Prep : How I Became a Catholic Despite 20 Years of Catholic Schooling
Mark Gauvreau Judge
Crossroad Publishing Co, New York, 2005; Paperback: 184 Pages
One reason that I'm reviewing this book is that like the author, I, too, went to Georgetown Prep and Catholic University around the time he did and am curious to read what a contemporary has to write about these institutions.
Actually, this volume hasn't that much content about Georgetown Prep or Catholic U. Its text is largely an avalanche of Catholic figures' names, their backgrounds and extensive quotes from other works. But what Judge himself has to say is largely true, if not all that juicy. Religious education at Georgetown Prep wasn't very memorable. At Catholic U. where one of my priest-professors ridiculed the real presence and another declared that he was not a rabid anti-abortionist, religious education could be downright heretical.
Darkness at Georgetown Prep, however, was not total. One candle was Fr. John Nicola who taught Thomistic Philosophy and an analysis of The Decalogue to seniors, thus supplying some of what Mr. Judge claims was missing. Fr. Nicola engendered in me an interest in Philosophy that carried me through lack of Catholic faith. Thanks to him, I always believed in God and knew that there was such a thing as truth.
My parents, grandmother and other exemplary Catholics also helped me rediscover my faith. When you come right down to it, it's what happens in the home and not at school that forms one's faith and character.
The second reason I am reviewing God and Man at Georgetown Prep is that it comes at a time when I am wearying of books, magazines, web sites, 5-day cruises about what has been wrong with the Catholic Church since Vatican II. It's not that I disagree with the content of these presentations. Lord knows, I've echoed their propositions enough on this site. It's that I think the propositions have been proposed enough, that we have reached the limit of times we can say that a big mess was caused by religious and theologians who assumed, without even reading any Vatican II documents, that the council called for radical overturning of the Church.
John Paul II in his life and papacy showed us how Vatican II is supposed to be lived. The syncretists and ecumaniacs and dissenters are old and dying off. It's time to start making the next chapters of history and turn to working into Catholic life and education all the progress toward fidelity of the last 25 years. Which is being done.
Related: