A Reporter Looks at American Catholicism

New York, N.Y.: Hawthorn Books, 1967. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. 256 pages. DJ has some wear, soiling and small tears and chips. Inscribed on the front free endpaper; inscription reads "To Father Barry with affectionate good wishes always. Barrett McGurn, Pastoral Center, 1990. This is one of the Catholic Perspectives series.
The book includes Acknowledgments, Foreword, Notes, and Index. Also includes Part I, The Catholic Yesterday; Part 2, John's Revolution; Part 3, Tomorrow's Catholic Americans; and Part 4, Conclusions. A forceful appraisal of the revolutionary changes affecting American Catholics since the Second Vatican Council. The author probes the specific areas of change unleashed by the Second Vatican Council, and demonstrates both the negative and positive effects these changes are having on all Catholics. Barrett McGurn was a reporter for the New York and International Herald Tribunes from 1935 to 1966. He was an Army journalist during World War II for Yank magazine. He served sixteen years as Bureau Chief in Rome, Paris, and Moscow, where he received journalism awards. Barrett McGurn, was a former public information officer at the Supreme Court. During his nine years at the Court, McGurn also served as a personal assistant to the Chief Justice Warren Burger. Derived from a Kirkus review: Barrett McGurn follows up his A Reporter Looks at the Vatican with this new book in the Catholic Perspectives series which is aimed at "the average Catholic and interested non-Catholic reader--especially the layman--who wants reliable information in clear and attractive language" and presented with the purpose of exploring and clarifying key areas of change and renewal in the Church as a result of the Second Vatican Council. McGurn, a veteran correspondent posted in Rome by the New York Herald Tribune, covered the Councils, and here assesses the past, present and future of American Catholicism. What is happening to the stance and status of the layman, the religious, the clergy? The man in the pew is no longer mute, there is a "new" nun, the question of celibacy for the priesthood has been raised. McGurn touches all bases--birth control, the shortcomings of "the world's largest private school system,", a-politically. This should reach the market it is intended for, particularly the Catholic layman; it informs.