Earthly Mission
The Catholic Church and World Development
With 1.3 billion members, the Catholic Church is the world's largest organization and perhaps its most controversial. The Church's obstinacy on matters like clerical celibacy, the role of women, birth control, and the child abuse scandal has alienated many Catholics, especially in the West. Yet in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the Church is highly esteemed for its support of education, health and social justice. Author of the bestselling The Trouble with Africa, Robert Calderisi has travelled through Africa, Asia and Latin America, talking to cardinals in the hallowed halls of the Vatican, nuns staffing clinics in grimy squatter settlements in Latin America, and priests struggling to speak up for poor people in Africa – not to mention local and Western critics of the Church's work. In this absorbing and deeply informed book, he explores the tensions within the Church – complicity with genocide in Rwanda and dictatorship in Argentina versus the defence of human rights in Brazil and El Salvador, the refusal until very recently to countenance condom use in Africa versus determined support for girl's education. This is a fascinating, often eye-opening investigation that will engross readers of all faiths and none.
About the Author
Robert Calderisi, a former World Bank economist concerned with issues of international development, lectures widely on Africa, development and foreign aid. His book "The Trouble with Africa" was named one of the best books of 2006 by "The Economist". A committed but by no means uncritical Catholic, the author has often differed with Church policies.
Reviews
"'I do not believe', wrote Bertrand Russell, a man famous for his hostility to all religion, 'there is a single saint in the whole calendar whose saintship is due to work of public utility'. In 'Earthly Mission', Robert Calderisi sets out to prove him wrong... Calderisi's credentials for such a task are impeccable. Much of what Calderisi describes is indeed admirable, and his decision to focus on individuals within the Catholic Church – nuns and missionaries as well as popes and cardinals – makes for lively reading" – Caroline Moorehead, Literary Review
