American Catholic Bishops and the Politics of Scandal: Rhetoric of Authority by Meaghan O'Keefe

Abstract

Reviewed by: American Catholic Bishops and the Politics of Scandal: Rhetoric of Authority by Meaghan O'Keefe Anthony M. Wachs American Catholic Bishops and the Politics of Scandal: Rhetoric of Authority. By Meaghan O'Keefe. New York: Routledge, 2019. 177 pp. $155.00. The stated goals of O'Keefe's American Catholic Bishops and the Politics of Scandal: Rhetoric of Authority are "(1) to show how structures of argument emerge and are adopted in order to advance particular positions, (2) to link current work in linguistics to the long tradition of rhetoric, and (3) to provide insight on how a specific traditional religious organization has dealt with its loss of authority" (165). To accomplish these goals, O'Keefe analyzes the rhetorical strategies contained primarily within recent U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voting guides in the context of the bishops' loss of authority due to the coverups of priest sexual abuse. One of the most interesting elements of the book is concerned with the unique rhetorical situation of authoritative institutions making arguments within an individualistic culture. More specifically, she explores the question of "how can a group of leaders widely viewed as morally deficient tell anyone how to form their conscience?" (18). In particular, she argues that the USCCB is able to avoid the questioning of its moral standing by utilizing repetition and the question/answer format of the Baltimore Catechism as a persuasive means of establishing authority and "simultaneously stabilizing terms that are contested" (8). Along these lines, O'Keefe analyzes the USCCB voting guides' use of the terminology of "well-formed conscience," "intrinsic evil," and "the dignity of the human person." The most interesting arguments provided in the text are 1) that the bishops' arguments are unique to the American context and are not representative of official teachings of the church concerning these matters, and 2) that the bishops shifted their position with regards to racism and racist acts to appeal to conservative Evangelical Protestants having lost influence over the American laity. In one of the most interesting chapters, and yet possibly telling of her perspective, she provides a constructive read of rhetoric of the Nuns on the Bus campaign in contrast to the USCCB's failed Fortnite for Freedom [End Page 83] campaign. The comparison of these two campaigns is apropos, and yet while she spent most of the book deconstructing the bishops' attempts to maintain doctrinal continuity with church teaching, she provides a constructive approach to the more heterodox Leadership Conference of Women Religious. My largest issue with the text is with regards to the legitimate disciplinary norms concerning rhetoric. An overarching topic of my education and research within rhetorical studies concerns the church's ignorance of its own rhetorical tradition, which is tragic on account of the lost means for engaging with the culture and accomplishing the New Evangelization. However, rhetoric as developed by O'Keefe is far removed from that tradition. For instance, this same study could have been performed utilizing the realist semiotics of St. Augustine rather than relying on the social constructivist assumptions of contemporary rhetorical theorists. Along these lines, O'Keefe notes that the purview of her project is to give "an account of particular texts within a particular period of time, not a study of the rich Catholic tradition on social teaching" (5). The analysis has little to do with the truth of arguments made by the USCCB, but rather the grammatical and textual effects of language upon discourses of authority and power in ideological structures. With that said, I recommend American Catholic Bishops and the Politics of Scandal: Rhetoric of Authority for scholars and teachers interested in engaging with this form of textual, linguistic analysis. However, if one is looking to learn or teach about the rhetoric in a manner that would productively allow for Catholics to engage with the culture, especially through learning about the rhetorical failures of USCCB, this book is not that. Even with my theoretical differences with regards to O'Keefe's approach, I recommend its addition to institutional libraries. Specifically on account of the potential for extending her case study concerning the USCCB to other authoritative institutions. The analysis may be fruitful for...