This book is an anthology on the sacraments. Chapters on baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist (written by John Baldovin, Edward Hahnenberg, and Michael Driscoll, respectively) constitute the strength of the book. Baldovin, for example, makes fine use of the baptism scene in the movie The Godfather to address the question of meaning what we say when we baptize. Hahnenberg observes that emphasis on the “gift” of the Holy Spirit in confirmation is a function of God's choosing the one to be confirmed and not, as often happens in consumer society, a matter of making choices for oneself to promote the illusion of self-sufficiency. Driscoll opens his chapter on the Eucharist with a discussion of a mass held at the US-Mexico border in 2009, and draws attention throughout to the eucharistic impulse to care for the needy.
The chapter on reconciliation (by volume editor Doris Donnelly) provides an overview of the history of the sacrament but does not provide dates for the rise of the Irish penitential system and implies that weekly confession of sin to a priest was a feature of Roman Catholic life from Trent to the time of Pope Pius X (54). Apart from an important mention of the problem of the preconciliar church regarding missing Mass on Sunday as a mortal sin while not using such strong language about racism (54–55), the chapter does not much engage questions of justice but instead provides discussion of the decline in recourse to this sacrament since the 1960s.
The chapter on marriage (by Natalie Kertes Weaver) raises important questions of justice about how church doctrine on marriage has, for centuries, been crafted by priests, bishops, and popes. The chapter does not draw into discussion, however, blessings during the rite of marriage that speak of the couple being “witnesses of Christ to others” (e.g., Rite of Marriage, no. 33) or the blessing at the end of the wedding Mass that asks God that “the afflicted and the needy will find in [the couple] generous friends” (Rite of Marriage, no. 125). The chapter also claims that marriage was identified as a sacrament in 1439 at the Council of Florence (76); in fact it was included among the sacraments in a list put forward at the Second Council of Lyons in 1274.
The chapter on orders (written by Thomas Scirghi) raises key questions about access to eucharistic celebration in an era when the ratio of laity to ordained continues to rise. Seeking to emphasize that the church is all the baptized, not just the ordained, the author notes that Eucharistic Prayer III asks God to “confirm in faith and charity your pilgrim Church on earth, with your servant N. our Pope and N. our Bishop, the Order of Bishops, all the clergy, and the entire people you have gained for your own” (88). Not mentioned is that a parallel passage in Eucharistic Prayer II asks God to remember “your Church, spread throughout the world, and bring her to the fullness of charity, together with N. our Pope and N. our Bishop and all the clergy” with no mention of “the entire people.” The chapter seems to confuse commutative justice and social justice, and in its discussion of the need for some kind of hierarchy in any social group, it turns to Lockean social contract theory (93), which is at odds with the Christian understanding of the human person as essentially social.
Paul Turner's chapter on anointing draws attention to the problem of access to this sacrament (with Vatican II clearly opening it to the sick and not just the dying) in a time of decreased access to priests. Although Turner correctly points out that the rite charges the entire Christian community with care for the sick, this chapter does not address issues such as whether the Christian community ought to take stands on public health policies, for example.
The concerns I have noted about this book might not register in the minds of undergraduates, and for that reason I do recommend its use. Instructors should be aware, however, that the book is not consistent about whether the “justice” in the title is merely intraecclesial or also extraecclesial.
