Saturday, July 18, 2009

Berkeley Professor Writes Book

Brian Olszewski, editor of the Milwaukee archdiocesan newspaper, reviews a study of six northern California parishes for Catholic News Service on July 8.

The book, Sense of the Faithful: How American Catholics Live Their Faith, contains interviews of parishioners in Oakland and San Francisco
The author, Jerome Baggett, (here) is associate professor at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

From Olszewski’s review:
“The statistical compilations are interesting and valuable as they provide qualitative and quantitative responses to a variety of questions, e.g., Why are you Catholic? Would you ever consider switching to another religion? Do you consider the Mass to be important to you? What does this parish do particularly well? “…However, in addition to the data, what makes this important reading for those who are in parish ministry and planning are the stories of the interviewees. Given the variety of parishes -- one that ministers to and with a large gay and lesbian membership, another that celebrates two Latin Masses every Sunday, and another that serves Filipinos, Anglos, African-Americans and Vietnamese -- one reads accounts of the Catholic experience that reflect the diversity within their faith communities.”

Link (here) to piece in California Catholic Daily
Photo of Jerome Baggett

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