This is a somewhat difficult book to rate, since a lot depends on what the reader is looking for, and their background.

I always feel that I need to spell out my religious alliances, so I will say that I was raised as a Methodist and am now an atheist. I will say that I left Methodism not because it was too conservative, as most of my friends like to think, but because it was too liberal, not so much politically and socially, but theologically.

I have been reading about Catholicism this year, and I wanted to read something positive. I recommend this to Catholic who are middle-of-the road. Like the sundial who records only the sunny hours, Neuhaus is generally very cheerful and comforting, I kept thinking of a warm, relaxing bath. As an example, he tells us that 200,000 people a year convert to the Catholic Church from other religions. He admits that some leave, but since it is hard to determine how many, he ignores that and keeps rejoicing in the converts. One can only felicitate him on his happiness.

I was amused at his repeated assertion that once a Catholic, always a Catholic. A non-practicing friend of mine, one of the liberals that Neuhaus so dreads, has been trying for the last 35 years to convince me that Catholicism is better than Protestantism. As a atheist, I shrug and say, six of one and half-a-dozen of another. Then she told me that one of the great things about Catholicism is that while one can be born a Protestant, one must personally commit to be a Catholic. I laughed and said that Protestants say the exact opposite. I don't think I'll aggravate her by telling her that Neuhaus is on my side.

Some reviewer have suggested that Neuhaus tried to combine some of his articles from First Things into this book, and I could believe that. It is often repetitive, goes off on tangents, and in general could have done with editing. Still, it did spell out one position in Catholicism, and partly fulfilled what I was looking for. He doesn't address the recent scandals in any depth, although that was not entirely necessary for me. The problem is that there are two types of eloquence: one for the choir and one to persuade outsiders. This is definitely the former.

The book did not entirely fulfill my purposes since Neuhaus routinely put my teeth on edge with his arrogance. I don't know whether to smile, as at a know-it-all child, or scream. After the first 150 pages, I found it very hard to continue. Neuhaus seems completely innocent of the thought that perhaps everyone, at least everyone without horns and a tail, doesn't agree with what is obviously true to him, or doesn't find his logic unassailable. He accordingly can't really speak to outsiders, even though he himself is a convert. I began to appreciate the complaints of an Episcopalian friend who lives in a largely Catholic neighborhood -- she is very tired of her neighbors condescending to her as an ignorant heretic.

I am annoyed by unnuanced discussions of large groups of people; at sixty, my friends are beginning to rail about "young people today," as opposed to our angelic selves in the 1960s and 1970s. I take this as the beginnings of senility. Neuhaus's characterization of Americans is partly true, but ignores that fact that the US is the most religious of the industrialized nations, and many of the conservative Protestants have very stringent views of morality, similar to the Catholic Church. His discussions of Protestantism do not take into account its diversity and variability. For some purposes, it is meaningless to talk about it as a unified group. Had he perhaps discussed the mainline churches as a group, or the Pentecostals, generalizing would be more valid.

The book begins with the funeral of John Paul II, and ends, much to Neuhaus's delight in the election of his preferred candidate, Benedict XVI. I am reading this knowing how this all turned out -- I wonder what Neuhaus would think.

So, it is a somewhat bloated work, great for people with similar views, or people wanting a look at his views, but probably not too endearing to outsiders.

I recommend: The Catholic church : what everyone needs to know by John L. Allen for people wanting to know more. Allen has written a more straight-forward reference book describing the structure of the Church, as well as various views on major issues. ( )

In Catholic Matters, Father Neuhaus addresses the many controversies that have marked recent decades of American Catholicism. Looking beyond these troubles to “the splendor of truth” that constitutes the Church, he proposes a forward-thinking way of being Catholic in America. Drawing on his personal encounters with the late John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, Neuhaus describes their hope for a springtime of world evangelization, Christian unity, and Catholic renewal. Catholic Matters reveals a vibrant Church, strengthened and unified by hardship and on the cusp of a great revival in spiritual vitality and an even greater contribution to our common life.