*whispers*

I really liked John Cornwell’s new book.

*ducks*

Cornwell, as many of you know, is the author of lots of books, including the last three (Hitler’s Pope, Breaking Faith and The Pontiff in Winter) which have been widely and deeply criticized as everything from unbelievably biased and narrow-minded to deceptive and dishonest to just vile.

On the other hand, two of his books – A Thief in the Night – an investigation into the death of JPI, and The Hidden Places of God  – an examination of various mystical phenomena – are appreciated by many readers as well.

Cornwell is generally seen as a writer with an agenda who cannot see past that agenda and who shapes reality to fit that agenda. Here’s a transcript of a chat he did last year upon the release of his last book – just so you can get a sense of where he’s coming from, as we say. And here’s his rather scattered, only selectively knowing assessment of B16, one year on.

But Seminary Boy is different. Much, much different. And, I’m just going to say it – a fine book.

It’s a memoir. Cornwell grew up in a desperately poor English family (with Irish roots, at least on his mother’s side) and at age 11, sensing a call, he was packed off to minor seminary where he remained until the age of 18. This is the remembrance of those years, and I’ll tell you what makes it so good.

It is gracefully and remarkably balanced. There were, to put it mildly, a few kooks in the place, both among faculty and students, and Cornwell simply – describes. He just tells the story, doesn’t condemn, doesn’t bend over backwards to "understand." He just remembers. His remembrance of his own spiritual development is quite moving, and again, simply told. Too often when we remember our past spiritual excesses and deserts, we judge them, don’t we? We’re embarassed, we’re aghast. Cornwell is none of that. He describes what prompted his transformation from admitted hellion to seminary boy, what experiences – of music, liturgy and nature – moved him and made him sensible of the presence of God. His dreadful family life is honestly described, again, without recriminations for his parents – so common in books like this.

The book, like so many that describe this period, and do so honestly, really make clear the fissures and (to use a term from another post below) – the termites that were present in this particular environment in the 50’s. In the minor seminary, there was a constant, if not everpresent, but still undeniable sense of repressed homosexual desire, which is more a factor of being an all-male environment than anything else, an environment in which certain people fall into playing "feminine" roles, others encourage them and use them in that sense – particularly older boys and some faculty.

But the whole scene is actually set in context, and very well – there was some brutality (although not like Cornwell’s brother experienced at his Jesuit school), but it was a culture that was general brutal towards boys when they misbehaved. It was hard and unbending, but the alternative, for Cornwell, was hardscrabble poverty, which has its own fierce inflexibility.

Cornwell went of to major seminary, but only stayed two years, at which point, he lost – or put away – his faith for twenty years. Upon his return, he went to Mass at Christmas and beheld the congregation singing "Happy Birthday" at the Consecration.

A different world, indeed, and challenging to navigate.

Seminary Boy is a suprising, moving, painful, but ultimately generous book. It is too bad Cornwell can’t set aside his agendas in examining the lives of others in the same way that he does when looking at his own.

Just tell the story. Or better yet – let it tell itself, as best you can.