Born again

The Revolution of Tenderness: being a Catholic in today’s Church
RAYMOND FRIEL

Some readers might rush to label The Revolution of Tenderness as one of those books that divide the history of the Church into the “bad old days” before the Second Vatican Council - when reading the Bible was the preserve of the clergy, the laity were voiceless, and Catholicism tended to be formulaic and infantilising – and the less deferential and more participative and theologically enlightened period since.

Friel does not look over his shoulder. He seems to have little curiosity about the theological and liturgical initiatives that were bubbling away in the Church in the years before the Council. Instead, he frankly describes the transformation that he and his generation of Catholics have experienced in the Church since the end of the Council; unapologetically thanks God for it; and laments its slow progress.