Religious Life and Priesthood: Perfectae Caritatis, Optatam Totius, Presbyterorum Ordinis (Rediscovering Vatican II)
Those, who like myself, who became committed Catholics because of Pope John XXIII and his council will welcome the publication by Paulist Press of eight concise, accessible commentaries of the council texts and their implementation during the subsequent four decades, under the general title Rediscovering Vatican II....These two books (Gaillardetz and Cassidy) are the jewels in the crown of this first installment of the Paulist series." They are supported by workmanlike accounts of Gaudium et spes by Norman Tanner, an expert on church councils, and Dei verbum by the Sulpician Bible scholar Ronald Witherup Dolores Leckey, who has done much for the cause of the laity, covers Apostolicam actuositatem in a treatment whose focus is overwhelmingly American and hardly mentions the emergence of the new ecclesial movements. These volumes are not bedside reading. They are designed for the library, the study, and the classroom. Let us hope they receive the attention they deserve. --COMMONWEAL, Sept. 14, 2007