Book Reviews

DE FIGURA IURIDICA POSTULATORIS IN CAUSIS BEATIFICATIONIS ET CANONIZATIONIS. By Angelo Mitri, O.M.I. Romae: Desclée, 1962. Pp. 190. No price given.

The beatification of Mother Seton and of Bishop Neumann will direct the attention of many in the United States to the canonical concept of sanctity. While it is well known that beatification and canonization come only at the end of a very long and elaborate ecclesiastical process, very few are well acquainted with the nature of these processes. Very little of a scientific nature has been written concerning them. This book by Father Angelo Mitri represents an effort towards a more scientific treatment of the processes. As such it fills a void and is an eminently useful work.

The Postulator is one of the most important individuals involved in the processes and is often referred to as the "Saint's Advocate" or the "soul" of the processes. Father Mitri, who is the Postulator General of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, deals exclusively with the office of Postulator. However, since the Postulator's role is so central, there is necessarily much said of the whole canonical process. In so doing, Father Mitri brings new light to many of the historical and juridical aspects of the causes themselves. The book brings into clear focus the juridical nature of the Postulator. Up to the present there had been nothing written about the history of this office nor about its precise position in law. Consequently the image of the Postulator has been vague; his activity has sometimes been thought to be regulated by various mysterious laws, rather than by a remarkable number of canons.

The book is divided into two parts, one historical, the other juridical. In the historical part the author traces, for the first time, the evolution of the office of Postulator. He effects a synthesis of the amazing number of documents concerned with these processes, concentrating on the more pertinent ones which illustrate the importance and the influence of the Postulator in the legislative developments of the proceedings. This first part is the shorter of the two but it is sufficient for the author's purpose and provides a sound basis for further studies in this area.

The juridical part is divided into six chapters. They consider the processes of beatification and canonization, the notion of the Postulator, his qualities, his obligations, his rights, his many duties, his status before the law and the cessation of his mandate. The Vice-Postulator

and the Postulator General are treated in two scholia. What is said concerning the Postulator General should be of great utility to the Postulators of religious communities and their superiors.

Appearing at the beginning of the council, this book is most timely. As L'Osservatore Romano noted in its review of the book, the author's conclusions could provide guide-lines for the reform of the canonical processes. For example, Father Mitri states that the manner of postulation could be modernized: to facilitate the introduction of those causes not dealing with members of religious communities, also the causes of those whose lives possess a particular significance for our times, some procedural solemnities should be abolished and more importance attached to a real reputation for sanctity, finally, the mode of giving testimony should be substantially modernized.

The book contains five appendices devoted to various cognate subjects. It is written in a Latin which possesses clarity together with a simple elegance. It should be of great utility to Postulators and to those who have to deal with them. It will be of considerable value to the professor of Canon Law, enabling him to say something clear and adequate about the Postulator and the processes of beatification and canonization. We wish the book the same success in America that it has enjoyed in Rome.

JOHN J. KING, O.M.I.

MARY AND THE PRIEST. By Rev. Mark J. Lyons. Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1963. Pp. 233. $4.75.

Recent rumblings that would put devotion to Mary on a par with the biretta-only used "convenienter"-are indirectly but effectively silenced in this meditation book of Father Lyons. Indirectly, because it is a meditation book written for a priest at his prie-dieu, not a theological treatise. Effectively, because it will imperceptibly fill the meditator with the theological sound doctrine, "To Jesus through Mary", which seems at the moment to be confounding the "wise".

Moreover, if (which some believe to be the case from a recent novel about a priest) the American priest is an erring knight-errant in his quest for his own sanctification and that of his people, then, this book with its conscience-jabbing questions will set him right in his search. Any sincere jousting with these questions cannot but lead the priest to adopt the practical resolutions which Father Lyons offers.

Father Lyons' probing is not only deep but his vision broad, considering the hands of the priest counting money and those same hands

administering the sacraments, and the conscience of the priest checking parish records along with his own heavenly record.

One of the happiest features of the book is the apt quoting of Papal Encyclicals and exhortations on the priesthood, for which any priest will be quite thankful, since before him he will have modern popes recalling the duties of the priest in a modern world.

A legitimate wish might be that Father Lyons had not included the apocryphal story of Mary's early life in the temple. Perhaps his parallelism, between the life of Mary and that of a priest forced him to adopt the temple story to coincide with seminary life, a literary device that does not justify the presentation as fact of what has no adequate historical foundation. Also, one might wish that along with his sharp questions and solid resolutions he would have written a few affections to help start cold hearts on cold mornings.

Notwithstanding, used as a meditation book or employed for spiritual reading (perhaps more than one chapter should not be read at one sitting, to get the full benefit) Mary and the Priest, in the end, will have the Priest like Mary.

JAMES GEIGER, C.SS.R.

Books Received

THE IMAGE OF GOD IN CREATION. By Sister M. Charles Borromeo Muckenhirn, CSC. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963. Pp. ix + 113. $3.95.

THE WORD MADE FLESH. By David J. Bowman, S.J. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963. Pp. x + 118. $3.95.

THE HOLY PLACES OF THE GOSPELS. By Clemens Kopp. New York: Herder and Herder, 1963. Pp. xvii + 424. $8.50.

LOUIS OF GRANADA. By R. L. Oechslin, O.P. St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co., 1963. Pp. 142. $4.20.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Volume I. By Gregory Alastruey. Translated by Sister M. Janet La Giglia, O.P. St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co., 1963. Pp. viii + 341. $6.00.

CREEDS OF THE CHURCHES, Edited by John H. Leith. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1963. Pp. xiv + 589. $7.50.

THE EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH. By Ernst Benz. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1963. Pp. vi + 230. $5.00.

OUR LADY IN OTHER WORDS. By Dom Hubert van Zeller. Springfield, Illinois: Templegate, 1963. Pp. 92. $2.95.

CHRISTIAN HOPE. By Bernard Olivier, O.P. Translated by Paul Barrett, O.F.M. Cap. Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1963. Pp. vi + 140. $2.95.

CATHOLIC ACTION IN PRACTICE. By Martin Quigley, Jr., and Monsignor Edward M. Connors. New York: Random House, 1963. Pp. x + 240. $4.95.

A CHAPLAIN AFLOAT AND ASHORE. By Samuel Hill Ray, S.J. Salado, Texas: The Anson Jones Press, 1962. Pp. 123. $6.95.

ST. PROSPER OF AQUITAINE: Defense of St. AUGUSTINE. No. 32. Ancient Christian Writers. Translated by P. De Letter, S.J. Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1963. Pp. v + 235. $3.75.

THE OUTBURSTS THAT AWAIT US. By Arthur Hertzberg, Martin E. Marty and Joseph N. Moody. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1963. Pp. viii+ 181. $4.50.

A CONTINUING STUDY OF OUTCOMES. Edited by Reverend Cornelius M. Cuyler, S.S. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1963. Pp. vi + 95. $2.25.

FICHIER BIBLIQUE. Sous la direction de Dom Thierry Maertens. Bruges: Publications de Saint-André, Biblica, 1963. Pp. 357. 45 FB5,15 FF.

BOOKS FOR RELIGIOUS SISTERS. Compiled by Sister Mary Fabian Harmer, S.C.M.M. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1963. Pp. xvi + 184. $4.25.

JESUS, A DIALOGUE WITH THE SAVIOUR. By a Monk of the Eastern Church. New York: Desclee Company, 1963. Pp. 185. $3.50.

THE MERCY OF GOD IN HIS WORKS. By Rev. Michael Sopocko. Translated by R. Batchelor. Stockbridge, Mass.: Marian Publications, 1962. Pp. viii + 232. $2.25-Paper. $3.00 Cloth.

IN THE REDEEMING CHRIST. By F. X. Durrwell, C.SS.R. Translated by Rosemary Sheed. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1963. Pp. vii + 292. $5.00.

LETTERS FROM VATICAN CITY. By Xavier Rynne. New York: Farrar, Straus & Company, 1963. Pp. xiii + 289. $3.95.

THE WORK OF PÈRE Lagrange. By Père F. M. Braun, O.P. Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1963. Pp. xviii+ 306. $7.00. PAUL, TRUMPET OF THE SPIRIT. Compiled by Sister Emily Joseph Daly, C.S.J. Paterson, N.J.: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1963. Pp. xiv + 249. $3.50.

THE WORLD OF MONSIEUR VINCENT. By Mary Purcell. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1963. Pp. x + 243. $4.50.

WHAT IS A SAINT? By Jacques Douillet. Translated by Donald Attwater. New York: Paulist Press, 1963. Pp. 120. $.95.

CATHOLIC LAWYERS GUIDE. Compiled by Officials of the Matrimonial Court of the Archdiocese of Detroit. Detroit: Catholic Lawyers Society, 1963. Pp. 155. $2.00.

I BELIEVE IN GOD. By Paul Claudel. Translated by Helen Weaver. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1963. Pp. xxi + 318. $6.50.

THE NEW RELIGIONS OF JAPAN. By Harry Thomsen. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1963. Pp. 269. $5.00.

THE PRIEST IS NOT HIS OWN. By Fulton J. Sheen. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1963. Pp. 276. $4.95.

THE JEWISH-CHRISTIAN ARGUMENT. By Hans Joachim Schoeps. Translated by David E. Green. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1963. Pp. xvi + 208. $5.00.

NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY TODAY. By Rudolf Schnackenburg. Translated by David Askew. New York: Herder and Herder, 1963. Pp. 133. $2.95.

THE PROBLEM of RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE. By William T. Blackstone. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963. Pp. xii +175. $1.95-Paperback, $3.95-Cloth.