FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MANHATTAN COLLEGE HOSTS BOOK DISCUSSION THAT EXAMINES THE CRISIS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

RIVERDALE, N.Y. – Seasoned religion correspondent and author Dr. Peter Steinfels will discuss his latest book, A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America (Simon & Schuster, 2003) Tuesday, March 23 at 4:00 p.m. at Manhattan College’s Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers. This event is free and open to the public.

Steinfels, who is the author of The Neoconservatives and co-edited Death Inside Out with Robert M. Veatch, has contributed essays to 17 books on church history, politics and religion, morality and welfare and other subjects.  In A People Adrift, Steinfels, also a columnist for The New York Times, takes an in-depth look at the divide within the Catholic Church and examines the state of the institution and the faith of its followers in the face of recent scandal.  Steinfels shows how even before the recent revelations about sexual abuse by priests, the explosive combination of generational change and the thinning ranks of priests and nuns was creating a crisis of leadership and identity.

In its review of the book, Publishers Weekly noted, “Steinfels sounds a call for a reasoned common ground that respects the richness of tradition and also reflects the reality of the practices and needs of more than 60 million American Catholics … This book will be hailed by many, and with good reason; it should not be ignored by Catholic officials.”

Steinfels, who left his religion correspondent position at The New York Times to write A People Adrift, created the newspaper’s column, “Beliefs,” which he continues to write.  Steinfels was a visiting professor of history at Georgetown University and held

the W. Harold and Martha Welch Visiting Professorship in American Studies at the University of Notre Dame.  In recent years, he co-directed a three-year research project on American Catholics in the Public Square funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. In addition, Steinfels served as an editor of Commonweal magazine, an independent journal published by Roman Catholic lay people, and has written several articles and reviews for The New Republic, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review and Esquire.

For further information about this program, please contact Dr. John Wilcox at (718) 862-7442.  If you are a member of the press and would like to cover this discussion, please contact Melanie A. Farmer or Amy Massey at (718) 862-7232.   Manhattan College is located at West 242nd Street near Broadway in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, one mile from the Westchester County line and accessible by MTA subway lines 1 and 9.

Manhattan College was founded in 1853 upon the Lasallian tradition of excellence in teaching, inspired by St. John Baptist de La Salle.  Manhattan College is an independent, Catholic, coeducational institution of higher learning offering more than 40 major programs of study in the areas of arts, business, education, engineering and science.  For more information about the College, visit us online at http://www.manhattan.edu.

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