Peter CostelloForming Intentional Disciples: The Path of Knowing and Following Jesus, by Sherry A. Weddell (Our Sunday Visitor, €12.75 / £10.50 / $16.95)
This is warmly written American book which many on this side of the Atlantic will find of immense interest. Sherry Waddell starts from the statistics that show that only 30% of Americans raised Catholic are still with the Faith, fully 10% of all adults in the USA are former Catholics, and that between 1972 and 2010 the number of marriages celebrated in the Church dropped by nearly 60%. With these trends in mind, she presents in this book the means for those still within the fold to seize the opportunity to begin a way of evangelisation (very much in keeping with Popes Francis call). Adopting the skills of other Christian evangelists in the States, she says she wants people to make a conscious choice for Jesus. Her final word is that “when life at the parish level changes, the life of the whole Church changes”. But this will be down to the people in the pews. Though this is a US publication it can be ordered online easily enough, as no-one seems to be importing it for bookshop sale.