MODERN HEROES OF THE CHURCH
by Leo Knowles
OSV, 2003 186 pages, $13.95 To order: (800) 348-2440 www. osvpublishing. com
Not all of the spiritual heroes featured in this collection of biographical sketches are canonized saints. Some of them are on their way to attaining that distinct honor. Still others among them probably never will get there. But all stand as unique and compelling witnesses to the power of a life lived in faith and love.
Many of the heroes Knowles tells us about in Modern Heroes of the Church will be familiar to most readers. But it's hard to get tired of reading about true heroes such as St. Edith Stein and Archbishop Oscar Romero.
As often as I have read the words, I am always tempted to stand up and cheer at Romero's 1980 radio address in which he spoke directly to members of El Salvador's armed forces: “Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinated to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill.’ No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God.... In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people, whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I command you: Stop the repression.”
More obscure figures, such as Franz Jagerstatter and Edel Quinn, deserve to be more familiar to us, and one suspects they will be among future generations of Catholics. Jagerstatter was an uneducated German farmer who saw — when all those around him failed to see — that the times he lived in demanded a choice between loyalty to Christ and loyalty to Hitler. He refused to register for military service, rejecting the pleas of his bishop, several priests and his own wife. Even the officers of the military tribunal that condemned him to death pleaded with him to change his mind.
“Since the death of Christ,” Jagerstatter wrote in a letter to his young godson, “almost every century has seen the persecution of Christians. There have always been heroes and martyrs who gave their lives — often in horrible ways — for Christ and their faith. If we hope to reach our own goal someday, then we, too, must become heroes for the faith.”
The portraits that emerge in Modern Heroes are not hagiogra-phies, one-dimensional descriptions intended only to inspire veneration. We get a glimpse of the subjects’ idiosyncrasies and weaknesses. Knowles even allows us to hear from their critics from time to time. We see the arrogance of Tom Dooley, the occasional unkindness of Brother Andre, the impatience and irritability that Charles de Foucault often had with lesser men. This is one of the book's strong points.
If there is one major flaw here, it is probably that Knowles has set his bar too low. If the chapter on Cardinal Basil Hume, for example, offers the best there is to say about him, then surely there are other modern heroes more deserving of space in this book. Meanwhile two indisputable heroes are notable for their absence: How in the world did Blessed Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II get overlooked (or fail to make the cut)? One is tempted to make similar observations about a few of the book's other inclusions and omissions.
Despite my disappointment over what I thought the book could have been, I can recommend Modern Heroes of the Church as a worthwhile read. It will reacquaint you with old friends about whom you'd like to learn more and introduce you to some new friends with whom you'll want to keep company for years to come.
Barry Michaels writes from Blairsville, Pennsylvania.