Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption Into the Catholic Church
Michael S. Rose
ISBN-13: 978-0895261441

Generally speaking, I don’t like the terms liberal and conservative. These words are too ambiguous, too subjective, and too divisive. Rather than consider myself liberal or conservative, I consider myself Catholic. I’ll even take it a step further by saying that I consider myself an orthodox (small “o”) Catholic. I believe that my faith is the only thing that really matters in my life, and I attempt to frame all of my decisions with that in mind.

With that being said, I can say for certain that this author considers himself conservative, and this book is about a group that he considers liberal, but despicable would be a more accurate term.

I decided to borrow this book from my local public library because the description sounded rather interesting and exciting. The book was indeed very interesting and exciting — for awhile. While the book was informative, it was also rather repetitive. I think it could have been shortened by about 40 percent, or perhaps the author could have included some opposing content.

Essentially, this book is an investigation into the priest shortage that many U.S. dioceses currently face. The author paints a grim picture of typical seminary life during the 70′s 80′s and 90′s, which is shocking, sickening, and saddening at the same time. The author explains that many of the teachers in the average seminary were/are presenting information that is totally contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

The most shocking accounts in the book are the revelations of rampant homosexuality and its apparent acceptance — even promotion in many seminaries. In addition, it seems to be the norm in many seminaries for instructors to publicly denounce the male, celibate priesthood, while they promote the ordination of married men and women.

Young orthodox men have often been denied an opportunity to follow their vocations because of those in charge who labeled them as “rigid” and “outdated” for their pious devotions to things such as the rosary or Eucharistic Adoration. This book lists many accounts of former seminarians who were driven from the priesthood for what appears to be plain orthodoxy.

Where this book falls short is that it is ridiculously repetitive. The same themes are rehashed in nearly every chapter. I had the general idea of what the author felt was the problem with our priest shortage after just a few chapters. I had to wait until the last couple of chapters to read his suggestions for fixing the problem.

In summary, some reprehensible things have gone on at a lot of U.S. seminaries. The priest shortage has been likely caused, at least in part, by members of our own church. If all dioceses would follow the strategies used to recruit orthodox men for the priesthood in the successful dioceses, we would likely not have a priest shortage at all.

This book is not a must read, but it’s very illuminating.  Of course, it’s just one side of the story, so take it for what it’s worth.

†††††

(3/5 Crosses)