Remaining Catholic: Six Good Reasons for Staying in an Imperfect Church

by Martin Pable

Father Pable has written a practical, non-apologetic, convincing book about what the church has to offer that cannot be found anywhere else: community, tradition, sacraments, Scripture, mission,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879462892
• ISBN13: 9780879462895
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: ACTA Publications
• Length: 126 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Remaining Catholic:Six Good Reasons for Staying in an Imperfect Church

I found this book to be informative. It is refreshing to find a priest who can see that the people in the Church are the ones who are imperfect and not the Faith of the Church. Father Pable does not mince words when it comes to explaining the six reasons on why we should stay.

Never Thought of Leaving

This is one of the best little books for RCIA, CCD, and Adult Faith Formation that I have encountered. On a personal note, I have three Jesuit degrees, am a Eucharistic Minister and Lector, and Advocate Procurator, and have been a Lay Presider. In all of these areas, the author has been precise, accurate, and open. I place it in the same spectrum as Garry Wills Augustines, Noonan's Changing Church, and other modern masterpieces. It is a must read for intelligent Catholic laypersons. The subtitles for each of the six reasons are much more revealing than the cold ones given by Pable: (1) Why Do We Need a Church Anyway?; (2) The Church Has a Long Memory; (3) Ways We Meet Christ [Sacraments]; (4) The Search for Truth; (5) You Are Welcome, You Are Needed; and (6) We Are All in This Together. Quite coincidentally, I am writing this on the day after the Grand Jury Report on Philadelphia's Cardinal Responses to horrific clergy sex abuses & Coverups has surfaced. But then I remember Puzo's book on Alexander VI, whom the Vatican honored with a stamp in CE 2000, "The Family", and remember that my Catholic Church is both sanctified and sinful. Pable helps me to resolve the Theodicy of Jesus' Church. "What I [Pable & this reviewer] believe is needed most at this time [2005] is honest but genuine dialogue---between the Vatican and church scholars, between bishops and their priests and laity. We need a mutual sense of respect for each other, and we need to begin with the assumption that we are all searching for truth. . .we will [do so] in dialogue with the [C]hur wisdom and tradition." Whether this vision will encompass John Paul II, Ratzinger, and Levada's fearfull suppression of discussion remains an open question. Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

Good Discussion Group Book

At our Catholic parish, we used this book for our Adult Faith Formation book study. It was an excellent resource for this, generating good questions and discussions. The only reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is that a bit more on Scripture could have been helpful, I felt that chapter was not as well developed as it could have been. Overall, it is a brief review of basic Catholic teaching presented in a friendly and interesting manner and is useful in group discussions, Returning Catholic Ministry, possibly RCIA and other situations where adults can discuss their faith.

The Catholic Church, Its Flaws and Graces

The following statement, found near the end of Remaining Catholic seems to synthesize the philosophy Fr. Pable brings to this new work: "For two millennia the church has withstood wars, schisms, scandals, abuses of power, and controversy upon controversy. In that same time, it has given physical and spiritual healing to the sick, homes to the impoverished, courage to the frightened, understanding to the intolerant, and love to the hard-hearted. In a way, the church's history is much like the people, clergy and lay, in every parish in the world--an embodiment of good and evil, sin and holiness." On the way to that statement, Pable addresses the six reasons for staying in (or reconnecting with) the Catholic Church: community, tradition and history, sacraments, scripture, stewardship and mission, saints and sinners. In addressing scripture, tradition, and history, he reminds us that Jesus did not leave an operating manual, that early believers received word-of-mouth instruction on the set of beliefs passed down in the Christian community from generation to generation. Following the example of Jesus, the Church has always placed great emphasis on the teaching authority of the popes and bishops as interpreters of scripture and tradition. Today's seekers, Pable believes, turn to the Church following their realization that "there needs to be some body of teaching that can claim continuity with the apostolic church" and an authority that can uphold and clarify that teaching through time. This work fully acknowledges the problems of the Church, most recently clergy sexual misconduct, and offers useful insights for those falling anywhere on the scale between sticking it out and leaving. It is especially valuable to those involved in welcoming-back ministries and RCIA.