When Pope John Paul II released his encyclical Vertitatis Splendor (The Splendour of Truth) in the fall of 1993, it gave members of the Roman Catholic Church much to ponder. It states that certain acts, such as homicide, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, suicide, physical and mental torture, slavery, prostitution, homosexuality, and contraception are intrinsically evil. Some of these are easy to accept and understand as evil, but others, like contraception and homosexuality, made Catholics deeply question the meaning of their faith. The Pope’s encyclical also called upon bishops to crack down on parish members who question the Catholic Church’s morality, and to remind everyone that being ruled by one’s conscience is simply not enough.

It is in this light that Ivor Shapiro, an editor at Chatelaine, writes What God Allows: The Crisis of Faith and Conscience in One Catholic Church. To understand the nature of the conflict within the church, Shapiro spent one year observing events at St. Paul’s Parish in Kenmore near Buffalo, New York. He wanted an ordinary, middle-of-the-road, heterogeneous parish where pastor and staff would be comfortable with his research. Shapiro conducted more than 150 hours of taped interviews with parish members, and attended liturgical, educational, and social events. He also talked with Catholics outside the parish. The large majority of the characters in the book go by their real names. Shapiro attempts the most representative text possible, and its air of authenticity is indeed its strength.

While conducting his research between May, 1993 and May, 1994, Shapiro discovered discord within the church even before the Pope’s encyclical was released. Parish members were still reeling from Pope Paul’s 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which condemns contraception in all forms. By following the lives of the people at St. Paul’s, Shapiro came to realize that parish members, though still deeply troubled by the inflexible rulings on contraception, had begun to use their own consciences as their guides.

Members of St. Paul’s faced many other issues, and offered Shapiro their uncensored thoughts and conclusions. During this period, one of the parish’s pastors confronted his own unhappiness as a member of the clergy, admitted his homosexuality, and left the priesthood. Parishioners sensed a loss when he resigned, and also felt the weight of reassessing their perceptions of various rites, like confession, baptism, and the taking of the Eucharist. Also near the centre of debate was the Catechism and how new members should be educated before being confirmed into the church.

What God Allows is a thought-provoking, reflective look at the present state of affairs in the Catholic Church. Shapiro is a fair and effective writer and reporter, presenting all sides of these complex issues with a sense of respect and understanding. Readers of this book will no doubt come away quietly assessing the foundations of their faith, no matter what their religion.