Book Summary and Reviews of Render Unto Rome by Jason Berry

Reader Reviews

Write your own review

Michael S. Noone

Render unto Rome
This book is generally very well researched and referenced, although there are portions where the conclusions may be a little soft, primarily due to lack of input (essentially refusal) from Catholic Church hierarchy.

Having said, my "take", and I am Catholic, is that the infrastructure of the Catholic Church is badly (very badly!) in need of a "re-do". In any organization, whether business, charitable not-for-profits, churches, etc. there should be encouraged and effective input from the rank and file to management's decision makers. This is no less true of the Catholic Church, which is imbued with an archaic management structure which seemingly conveys little interest or ability in church membership input. Thus, with the identification of the pedophile issue in the 80's to the present, the reconciliation of needed action has too often been played out in a public forum as a contest between victims against the clergy.......how sad! From a spiritual perspective, my belief is that the Holy Spirit's presence is not the province of the hierarchy of the Church alone, but that he lives within all of us, and therefore, all voices of Christ should be heard.

Lastly, the book underscores the insulation and group-think of the Roman Curia and the Vatican to effectively address the challenges of the age, as the pedophile issue is testimony. The parallel analogy that translates in the book, is that this is no less different than businesses who do not effectively recruit and train personnel, and provide oversight and quality control for their operational activities.

In an observation of Pope John Paul's legacy, and while I have no doubt that while he was indeed a good and well-intended man, and likely deserving of the canonization that lies ahead, he was totally out-of-touch in addressing the pedophile issue. I would also argue that as our Church's "CEO", he would have been fired for his inaction and/or inability to address this very major problem if his job were in the business sector of a publicly-traded company. I quarrel with the thought that he would perhaps have been able to address the problem early in his papal career, but as the ravages of age diminished his abilities, it is reasonable to assume that he no longer had neither the energy nor the grasp of the problem to solve it. But that point is another issue.

So, in sum, I congratulate Mr. Berry for his attention in highlighting this problem to the root cause issues, which alas, seem no less different than the failings of any organization undergoing critical challenges and underperformance.