Behind the Mitre: The Moral Leadership Crisis in the Canadian Catholic Church

Dominique Marshall is an associate professor of history at Carleton
University in Ottawa.

For a short while at the turn of the 1980s, the Catholic authorities of
Canada became out-

spoken critics of economic and political trends. With the wind of
Vatican II in their sail, they advocated state interventions that would
remedy unemployment rather than inflation or deficits, international
relations that would be critical of the human and environmental
consequences of the market, and respect for Native rights. Bishops,
priests, and Catholic activists were at the centre of most movements for
social justice. By the mid-1990s, however, the Conference had become
associated with anti-abortion campaigns, the handling of cases of child
abuse in Catholic institutions, and questions having to do with
individual faith.

Tony Clarke, a research assistant in the social affairs department of
the Canadian Catholic Conference between 1972 and 1992, was one
prominent advocate of “prophetic” engagement. In this book, he
presents a detailed and personal account of the progressive
disengagement of the Conference in the name of “moral neutrality.”
It is a complex story that encompasses regional tensions within the
Canadian Church, alliances between denominations, relationships between
priests and the faithful, and dramatic shifts in papal teachings, from
the “preferential option for the poor” of Vatican II to John Paul
II’s recent abandonment of Vatican II in the name of moral
regeneration of the faithful and the restoration of hierarchical
relationships within the Church. The tightening of the links between
government and big enterprises, the tensions between organized labor and
other groups representing the disadvantaged, and the rise of the Reform
Party were among the factors that took a toll on the work of the social
affairs commission.

Historical comparisons with the Protestant Social Gospel and with
movements of Catholic social action offer a glimpse of the deeper
analysis that would be necessary to fully understand

this remarkable episode. In the meantime, this well-documented book
offers some invaluable insights.