Should Have Known Better

On my flight back from Newark I had a long layover in Denver and needed another book - after thoroughly devouring and enjoying Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential."

Having just seen Pope Benedict XVI, I was filled with a certain Papal excitement. Unfortunately, in this excitement I refrained from reason just long enough to purchase Thomas Cahill's biography of Pope John XXIII.

This is of course the "historian" made famous by his best-selling tribute to the Irish: "How the Irish Saved Civilization."  

Here, he uses his significant abilities in polemics and shoddy-history to advance Catholic liberalism.  Even Christopher Ruddy of Commonweal writes that this book is only enjoyable for those

"who like their biography Manichean-style.” In this case, it’s Good Pope John XXIII against Evil Pope John Paul II. 

With the Church I believe John XXIII to be a saint.  And with the faithful of the world, and Pope Benedict XVI I might add, I believe the same to be true of John Paul II.  I tire therefore of the "liberal conventions that only demean John XXIII by making the case for his greatness dependent upon denigrating the greatness of John Paul II" (so says Richard John Neuhaus in First Things).

What's worse, Cahill wields Scripture like a sword, dismissively asserting that every pope before and since John XXIII has failed to read the Gospels well enough - and then conveniently forgetting the Scriptures when it suits him . . . like, say, when celibacy was the topic. The great irony, of course, is that this animus "violates the gentleness so characteristic of Good Pope John, and fails to exhibit the ‘primacy of charity’ that Yves Congar held to be the first condition for all true reform in the Church” (Neuhaus again).

Do yourself a favor.  Just skip this one.