Catholic-ometer: 5 of 5
Enjoyability: 4 of 5
I give this book a perfect score for faithfulness, but with reservations. Bishop Sheen is one of the finest and holiest teachers of the faith in recent history, but I've begun to notice a strain in some of his writings recently; a strain of calling things "bad" without there being anything really evil about them.
I'm not talking about his tendency to disparage himself. Every saintly person has had that. I'm also not talking about his teachings on what's a sin and what isn't. These, in virtually all cases, have been quite correct. However, when he criticizes himself for "not fasting enough," or "driving a cadillac," one is tempted to put the book down and go read something lighter. God never said that we should seclude ourselves from all Earthly pleasures, and he certainly never said that the pleasures themselves were evil. If read in the wrong state of mind, words like these could easily endanger the soul of a budding Catholic; even tempting them to give up the faith with the words "I could never be Catholic. It was all about suffering and pain." It is possible to make too much of the victimhood to which all people are called in this life; especially when speaking to a mixed audience.
I say this right off the bat, because I want to get it out of the way. For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. As I said, it was a little heavy at times, but enjoyable nonetheless. It's an autobiography of Bishop Sheen, I suppose, although even in this, I'm afraid that whether you like it or not will depend entirely on how you approach the book.
You could approach it as a fan of Bishop Sheen's work, like I did. If you do, you'll find it to be a satisfying compendium of his best and most often-recited stories and experiences from his life, arranged in an understandable order. Bishop Sheen wrote as he talked; with a good sense of humor, a strong element of charity, and a nice flair for the dramatic to keep everything interesting and fun to read, and this was, by and large, how I found the book. Dramatic at points, uplifting at other points, and just a lot of fun throughout. This is why I rate it so highly.
However, there's another group of people who might rate it a bit differently, and that's historians and biographers. It didn't bother me, but I feel I should point out that this biography is not written in a linear fashion, nor with any sort of strong, narrative sense behind it. It's written, not like a single story, but like several, told from different perspectives. I was reminded of the gospel accounts of the life of Our Lord, in a way. This may turn off certain historians, who are more concerned with dates and figures than with perspectives.
Bishop Sheen also reveals nothing terribly new in this biography. He offers no explanation of what happened to his career in later years, or what the real story was behind his alleged falling-out with certain others inside the church. He says that this is because of the obligation of charity, which I actually agree with, but thrill-seekers and rumor-spreaders will need to look elsewhere.
However, in the course of the book, he also makes one statement which I absolutely disagree with; and this is not a common thing. I agree with the vast majority of what he said and wrote over the course of his life.
Bishop Sheen writes, in this book, that one should always avoid exposing sins that go on within the church. Now, if what he meant by that is "when someone does something to wrong you personally, don't make a fuss over it, or insist on justice in this life," he's quite correct, and should be applauded for his mercy and self-control. However, it's far too easy to take these words, and mutate them into the situation that we have today; priests in open rebellion against church teaching, abuses being covered up by higher-ups, chancery officials making backroom deals with lobbying groups who oppose church teaching to keep from "hurting their feelings," etc... These kinds of things absolutely give more scandal to the faithful when they're allowed to fester, and furthermore, a great many saints of the church fought ecclesial corruption whenever they could (Saint Bernard of Clairvaux springs immediately to mind.)
These factors contribute to the imperfect grade I give to this book. They may just be me, wanting everything about the faith to be clean cut, and getting a little antsy whenever some word or phrase seems likely to encourage doubt or loss of faith, but these things did sort of bug me, even while I was enjoying this book. It was a good book; no doubt, and I enjoyed it a lot. I just feel like I could have enjoyed it more.
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