archives

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
New York

Probably the most delicate cause for sainthood currently working its way through the Vatican system will be further studied this year, according to the Holy See’s top official for saints, but he offered no projection of when Pope Pius XII might be formally beatified and, eventually, canonized.

Portuguese Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, spoke in a Feb.1 interview with the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, L’Avvenire.

Reviewed By DENNIS CODAY

CARDINAL MAHONY: A NOVEL By Robert Blair Kaiser Humble-bee Press, 257 pages, $19.95

Robert Blair Kaiser’s Cardinal Mahony: A Novel is more a polemic wrapped in a tale of intrigue than it is a novel. Surprisingly, the book works pretty well as fiction and as argument.

The book is set in the near future. Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles is kidnapped by a clandestine revolutionary group inspired by liberation theologians and taken to Mexico. The group, calling itself Para los Otros, puts the cardinal on trial and broadcasts the proceedings live to the whole world.

Reviewed by RICH HEFFERN

IN DEFENSE OF FOOD: AN EATER’S MANIFESTO By Michael Pollan Penguin Press, 243 pages, $21.95

Author urges people to reject nutritionism for the food of their forebears

Truth about what we eat is hard to find. The government is influenced by the industrial agriculture giants that produce most food. We can’t trust labels that print “natural” above a list of chemical agglomerations. Doctors don’t really know much about food, and nutritionists, food author Michael Pollan points out, are educated but biased in particular ways.

Reviewed by WAYNE A. HOLST

	BEYOND THE WHITE HOUSE: WAGING PEACE, FIGHTING DISEASE, BUILDING HOPE By Jimmy Carter Simon and Schuster, 272 pages, $29.99
	PROPHET FROM PLAINS: JIMMY CARTER AND HIS LEGACY By Frye Gaillard University of Georgia Press, 128 pages, $19.95

Historian Douglas Brinkley ended his 1999 book The Unfinished Presidency, about Jimmy Carter’s post-White House years, by quoting from the poet Dylan Thomas. “Do not go gentle into that good night,/Old age should burn and rave at close of day …” Mr. Brinkley believed these lines described Jimmy Carter, whose lifelong sense of calling have spurred the former chief executive to continued public service on a global scale.

Unquestionably, Jimmy Carter stands as one of the most notable “post-presidents” in American history. The presidency occupied but four years of his life and exists as only one important part of it. He has clearly contradicted many of his detractors who, in the early 1980s, were quick to issue negative post-mortems.

Reviewed by CYNTHIA D. BERTELSEN

DO YOU BELIEVE? CONVERSATIONS ON GOD AND RELIGION By Antonio Monda; translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein Vintage Books, 178 pages, $12.95

Born from a survey conducted in 2003 for La Repubblica newspaper, Do You Believe? Conversations on God and Religion contains brief interviews with members of America’s intelligentsia about “religion’s central place in existence.” The premise is promising, if these people are indeed those who subtly and subliminally shape America’s thought processes. Antonio Monda, a cultural critic and writer for the Italian publications La Repubblica and La Revista dei Libri, teaches at the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, Tisch School of the Arts, in New York City. A traditional Catholic, Mr. Monda states in his introduction that, “from the perspective of my own religion [Catholic, apostolic, Roman], I’ve always found less than convincing the position of those who recognize the existence of God and the divinity of Christ but dispute (or even have contempt for) the church.”

The 40 days of Lent invite us deeper into the journey of nonviolence, to walk more closely with Jesus to the cross of nonviolent resistance to empire and suffering love for humanity. As we begin this year's holy season of Lent, I hear the Ash Wednesday blessing, "Repent of the sin of war and believe the Gospel of Peace" (my translation), as a call to renounce the violence within us and around us, breathe again the new life of nonviolence, surrender ourselves to God's reign of peace, and walk forward with Jesus on the road to peace.

By JASON BERRY
Special to NCR

Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, 87, the scandal-plagued founder of the Legionaries of Christ, died in Houston, Texas, Jan. 30, several weeks after suffering a stroke.

Maciel was arguably the greatest fundraiser of the modern church. Using Pope John Paul II’s many endorsements, he generated huge support for the Legion’s educational network, which required a $650 million annual budget, according to The Wall Street Journal. Benefactors include billionaire Carlos Slim of Mexico City, reportedly the world’s richest man.

U.S. corporations are committing murder and getting away with it. Millions have died due to tobacco, vinyl chloride, asbestos, benzene and radiation exposures. There is no need for additional laws. Murder has been unlawful since the times of Cain and Abel.

Manufacturers have known for many decades about the harmful effects of their products and have refused to disclose their knowledge to their employees, customers, the general public or regulatory authorities.