Why Be a Catholic? - by Mark Dooley (Paperback)

About the Book

The Catholic Church is deep in crisis and scandal. A highly intelligent, articulate Irish commentator provides hope, encouraging people to see beyond current problems.

Book Synopsis

The Catholic Church has never been so deeply immersed in crisis - crisis of authority, priestly scandal, celibacy, hierarchy - stretching right up to the Vatican itself.

Most people in authority are keeping quiet or squabbling among themselves.

Mark Dooley is a Professor of Philosophy who is also a serious commentator, journalist and broadcaster. He has written a book of hope for those who have none.

It is, he argues, only when the sacramental life of the local parishes is revitalised that renewal in the Church can be achieved.

Review Quotes

"[a] beautifully written book... In the times in which we live, to write as Dooley has done takes courage. As you read this book you may be edified, you may be enraged; one thing you won't be is bored." --Irish Mail on Sunday

"[Mark Dooley is] well-qualified to get to the heart of the matters that trouble so many today: why bother with being a Catholic." --The Irish Catholic

"Why Be a Catholic? courageously confronts what must be done if Catholicism is to survive as a religion of redemption." --Eoghan Harris, Sunday Independent

"This is a timely book that seeks to revitalise a faith that it all too apt to flag in this time of crisis. Dooley faces up to the clerical sex-abuse scandals, but shows us a church that still keeps the flame of faith alive... [his] heartfelt plea deserves to be heard." --The Tablet

About the Author

Mark Dooley has held lectureships at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and at University College Dublin where he was John Henry Newman Scholar of Theology. From 2003-2006, he wrote a controversial column on foreign affairs for the Sunday Independent. Since 2006, he has written for the Irish Daily Mail. Dooley is also a regular broadcaster on Irish radio and television, and has served as a political speech writer. He is author of The Politics of Exodus: Kierkegaard's Ethics of Responsibility (2001), The Philosophy of Derrida (2007), and Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach (2009). He is editor of Questioning Ethics (1999), Questioning God (2001), A Passion for the Impossible (2003), and The Roger Scruton Reader (2009).