THAT UNCERTAIN SOUND

The situations with which the Church is attempting to deal today are so complex that it seems, at first glance, presumptions for one man-- and one not particularly burdened by credentials, academic or otherwise-- not only to attempt a survey of the problems engendered by centuries of ecclesiastical intransigence but also to recommend specific solutions. Yet, this is exactly what Father McGoey has done and, except for the simplifications that are a necessary peril in a work of this general nature, it is hard to fault him. He presents a very real, and not overly soothing, picture of the state of the American Church, with its ill prepared and inadequate clergy, its seventeenth-century seminary curricula, stultifying, legalism, wasteful and inefficient educational system, etc., the whole of which is presided over by an oligarchy the members of which tend often to function as administrators and financiers rather than as pastors. The author's suggestions for change are not only sound, but practical, and so obviously spring from a spirit of charity that only the most irreformable among the clergy or laity could take offense. Father McGoey is, of course, writing principally for the clergy, but the book may be recommended also to the layman who is involved with or concerned with the future of the Church.