With Him: Listening to the Underside of the World
BRUNO CADORé
(BLOOMSBURY CONTINUUM, 224 PP, £12.99)
Tablet bookshop price £11.69 • Tel 020 7799 4064

Introducing this collection of semi-autobiographical meditations by Bruno Cadoré, former master of the Dominican Order, Timothy Radcliffe (who preceded Cadoré in this same role) affirms that the present crisis of Catholicism “is the crisis of the Church which came into existence in response to the Reformation”, and lists among its drawbacks “a poisonous kind of clericalism”. The roots of the problem lie in the visions of priesthood and holiness of the Counter-Reformation which have exhausted their spiritual momentum and lost their historical and cultural relevance.

Luckily, Catholicism does not have only one model of priesthood, holiness and governance. Most religious orders, especially of sisters, have practised generous forms of ­synodality for centuries. The Dominican Order, which counts sisters, nuns, brothers, priests and countless lay associates, offers a horizontal model of priesthood which preserves accountability and circulation of power and has proved remarkably resistant to ­entitlement.