True Confessions Audiobook By Francis X. Maier cover art

True Confessions

Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church

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True Confessions

By: Francis X. Maier
Narrated by: Tom Gilligan
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About this listen

Over the past decade Rome has been marked with sharp, and often unwarranted, criticism of the Church in the United States and American Catholic life. But very few of the critics have taken the time to talk, systematically, with a wide range of U.S. Catholics to understand their concerns. True Confessions is unique for its frank and in-depth interviews with 103 bishops, clergy, religious, and lay men and women from various backgrounds over a 17-month period, December 2020 through May 2022.

The wide-ranging subject matter includes the unseen challenges of life as a bishop; the pressures and satisfactions of the priesthood, the diaconate, and the consecrated life; the structural and leadership ingredients of diocesan success and failure; fallout from the Church' sex-abuse scandals; problems in Catholic universities; attitudes toward the Vatican; the role of Catholics in the academy and the secular culture; the witness of parents who have children with special needs; and the testimony of immigrant Americans as they assess their new homeland.

Finally, the book presents the reasons why so many U.S. Catholics, despite today's challenges, continue to love the Church and cherish their faith with joy and energy.

©2024 Ignatius Press (P)2024 Ignatius Press Catholicism Christian Living Christianity Leadership
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Fran Maier brings a great perspective on the life of the Church in the world and in the US. The narratives from those he interviewed are excellent.

The narration is very, very poor. Lots of terms — not just ecclesiastical, but also French and other foreign words — are mispronounced significantly.

A wonderful book; very poor narration

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The author has done a great great service in giving us both a snapshot of where we are, assessing what the recent efforts of the Church have wrought for good or ill, and a prophecy of where we are going. The assessment is "mistakes were made" and the prophecy is "better times are ahead."
The performance was great, with a couple of mispronunciations, but delivered with energy and understanding.

Snapshot and Prophecy

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Francis X. Meier did the Catholic Church in America a huge service writing this book. And it’s seems it’s a service few people could render. His activity in key positions over the course of decades provided him with the access to important players in the American Church. That allows the reader to hear from people who know what they are talking about. It has a sociological approach in that it is primarily a compilation of surveys and interviews, but it comes from a clearly transcendent paradigm. These people love Jesus and his Church. It would be interesting to read it again in five or ten years to see how things have changed. I’m sure it will be criticized as ideologically imbalanced, not representing the America Magazine/NC Reporter crowd sufficiently. I certainly won’t criticize it for that.

Excellent survey of the Catholic Church in America

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After promising balance, this book did anything but. It is full of the same lamentations to a time of the Latin Mass and when there were, in the eyes of these Catholics, no gays or transgenders or birth control pills. They lament that the church is not adequately engaged in the culture war. Several say we should be about the teachings of Jesus Christ but they are too busy worrying about other people's morals to "love their neighbor, pray for their enemies and turn the other cheek. And, "judge not lest ye be judged"? Well I should say! They are all about judging. I attempt to be a Sermon on the Mount Catholic. Some of the people in this book should read it. Mathew 5,6 and 7. Give it a shot!

Back to the Fifties

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