Laws of Heaven CL

This gently probing examination of personal commitment profiles 15 Americans whose practice of Catholicism has placed them at odds with church and country. Among the activists are Philip Berrigan and his wife, Elizabeth McAlister, two well-known proponents of civil disobedience techniques and members of the Catholic peace movement. Others who have taken a public stance against American nuclear armaments and support of repressive regimes in Central and South America include Raymond G. Hunthausen, the beleaguered archbishop of Seattle (now retired), whose anti-government position and gay-rights advocacy evoked church censure; William P. Ford, who continues to seek justice in the case of his sister, a Maryknoll nun murdered in El Salvador; and Gordon Zahn, a tireless spokesman for pacifism whose rejection of civil disobedience makes him a target for criticism from radicals as well as conservatives. The author, a former Jesuit seminarian and now a contributor to Commonweal and a professor at John Carroll University in Cleveland, sees these men and women, who follow their own lights in putting their faith into practice, as emblematic of contradictions among American Catholics. (Aug.)