The MagazineChurch SocialA personal view of faith turned inside out.Mar 14, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 25
• By JOSEPH BOTTUM
 The Spirit of Vatican II  Getty, DeAgostini A History of Catholic Reform in America by Colleen McDannell Basic Books, 304 pp., $26.99
For the last 20 years we’ve been caught in a wildfire of unhappy childhood memoirs: of adult writers trying to make the bestseller list by dousing their mothers and fathers with gasoline and striking a match. We’ve been told about anti-Semitic parents, and child molester parents, and adulterer parents, and criminal parents, and drunken parents. We’ve been burned with scenes of incest, violence, and religious mania—and all to cast a flattering light on the authors who, they insist on telling us, were strong enough to survive such childhood horrors. It’s all been pretty awful, and if nothing else will convince you of the decline of the family in America, this ought to do it: an entire generation without a sense of familial unity or belief in duty to protect their relatives’ reputations. And yet, bad as it’s been, there’s something nearly as bad in that kindly, oh-so-understanding tone some authors use to speak of the past—something almost as insidious in the self-congratulation with which they forgive their own parents for being helpless victims of the backward past. To read more, you must be a Weekly Standard Subscriber We're Sorry,
the rest of this article is available only to subscribers. You have two options: 1:
2:
If you are not yet a Subscriber to TWS, don't wait
any longer to Subscribe Now!
Subscribing today will provide you with immediate, complete access to the current issue, as well as to all back issues on the site. Each week you will be able to read articles from the newest issue even before print copies are mailed! Privacy PolicyThe Weekly Standard ArchivesBrowse 15 Years of the Weekly Standard |
What Did You Miss? 
Features |
Become a Fan on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Share This
© Copyright 2012 The Weekly Standard LLC - A Weekly Conservative Magazine & Blog. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy
