Customer Reviews

WHY CATHOLICS ARE RIGHT

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"This book is not supposed to be anything like a definitive guide to Roman Catholicism. It is a mere handbook dealing with some of the most common but by no means all of the attacks on the Church and should be useful to Catholics who want to defend their beliefs and need a little help, an intellectualizing of the instinctive or a mild fleshing out of what they already thought to be the case. It should also be of use to honestly curious non-Catholics who have heard the usual accusations and rumours and can't believe that this institution that has done so much good and contains so many good people can truly be so evil and wrong...

This is a small book about a huge subject, but that should not distract from its premise that Catholicism is right and this is why."

The above extract comes from the introduction of this book by Michael Coren. Coren is a practising Catholic, Canadian author, weekly newspaper columnist, and host of the Canadian "The Michael Coren Show."

I have watched Michael Coren's TV show and find him to be an extremely interesting character. In fact, I've analysed him and how he interacts with others. (One of my degrees is in psychology.) Thus, I feel like I know him despite never having actually met him.

In the above extract, he mentions that this book "should be useful to Catholics." I agree. At the end of the book he boldly states:

"[I]n a perfect world everybody would be Roman Catholic."

Thus, Catholics should be extremely proud after reading this book.

However, in the above extract, Coren also mentions that this book should "be of use to honestly curious non-Catholics." These people may have some problems with this book. I'll mention only three of these:

(1) Why hasn't this book an index? Many concepts are presented and yet there's no easy access to this information. The table of contents has chapter titles that are very general only.

(2) This concerns the book's references. It appears to be mainly Catholic literature written by Catholic authors. Why not use references from more neutral academic sources that are objective and that give a balanced & fair discussion?

(3) I also had difficulty in seeing how most chapters related back to the book's premise ("Why Catholics are Right").

For example, for the "Catholics and the Abuse Scandal" chapter, is Coren saying that Catholic priests are RIGHT in what they did? For the chapter entitled "Catholics and Theology," is he saying that Catholics have THE RIGHT theology and other religions do not? Or consider the chapter entitled "Catholics and History." Is he implying that Catholics have THE RIGHT history and other religions do not?

In conclusion, this book should resonate well within the Catholic community!!

(first published 2011; introduction; 5 chapters; main narrative 215 pages; acknowledgements; notes; bibliography)

<<Stephen Pletko, London, Ontario, Canada>>

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Brilliant and informative in depth presentation re the truth about the Catholic faith. Being so accustomed to the uninformed and skewed opinions expressed by the media , his response was inspiring .

If you are already a far right Christian fundamentalist, and want someone to reinforce currently held belief that Catholics can do no wrong, then this is the book for you.

Otherwise best to pick up a something a bit more serious.

Michael Coren gives a good historical background of some things such as the Crusades. He appears knowledgeable and apparently did a lot of research in preparation for writing this book.
However, his strong pro-Catholic bias does not allow for any objectivity.

Great summary and refutation of some of the common misconceptions and deceptions propagated against the Catholic Church. Easy to read and a great reference for anyone (Catholic or not) to get an accurate perspective of what Catholicism is and what it is not! Anyone interested in history, religion or just the plain truth should consider owning a copy.

Jack

What I especially like about this book is its boldness. Should a priest or a bishop write a book with such a title, riots would follow: "How dare you, after all these scandals!". In our confused age, it takes a layman, a brave and superbly talented journalist, a disciple of the likes of Chesterton, Belloc and C.S. Lewis, to urge people to think again. So, if you 'have issues' with the Church or want to be good at defending truth, give it a try.

This book is excellent - as it argues a rational case for what we Catholics believe in and debunks a lot of the nonsense that has been leveled against the Church.
I have had the privilege of meeting Mr. Coren at a Marian day last year and I can say he is every bit conceited as he comes across on the radio!! But seriously, he is a good man and my dad - the professor loves to read his column. He is not one of the 'politically' correct talk show people who just wags his tongue to please public opinion. For that - I know he's suffered much.
Anyway - this IS the BOOK for all of us who have had all this hatred spewed against us by the crowd - who know less about the Catholic religion than they do about Jesus Christ. It seems like the media at large, especially in Canada - has been trying to demonize all Catholics because we don't applaud abortion, sodomy, pornography and that that other stuff that gives them - God forbid - rather nasty consciences!
Anyway - this is good material. It's wonderfully logical and comes in rather handy when a relative at the Christmas dinner decides to tell everyone about what's wrong with the Catholic Church.
READ IT!

Michael Coren's book is ridiculous and biased. For example:

He blames Homosexuals for the majority of the Churches sex scandals.
He defends the sexist views that women are inferior members of the church by arguing women can bear children while men cannot
He dismisses serious religious travesties like the Crusades and the Inquisition by changing the subject to the wrongs "Atheists" Stalin and Hitler (Hitler was a baptized Catholic) committed.
In fact the whole book he basically downplays the issues and diverts the attention by attacking something else to take the attention away from the issues.

His book is way too short (240 pages) to fairly examine all of the issues. Hundreds of books have been written about each individual issue alone and Coren somehow manages to breeze through each issue in a matter of a couple of pages and sometimes paragraphs.

Coren's overall point is the tired argument that every religious apologist uses. "Society would be immoral without the Catholic Church".
If you have read any book by a christian apologist then don't bother reading this one. In fact this is essentially a terrible summary of other redundant christian apologetic arguments.

It should also be noted that there are few sources cited, and the sources that he does site are ALL christian apologetics or very questionable media sources.

Coren is great at giving his "biased" opinion but if you are looking for more serious and credible work that really examines the issues I would look for different works. The only people who will like this book are MINDLESS extreme right-wing christian fundamentalists...