Frank J. BUTLER. Belonging: One Catholic’s Journey. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2020. Pp. 187 + xx. $25.00 pb. ISBN 9781626983830. Reviewed by Calvin MERCER, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858.

Recent decades have been challenging ones for the Catholic Church with clergy sex scandals, disclosures of great financial wrongdoing, declining vocations, and more. Frank J. Butler saw all of this up close as president of the influential Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA). The FADICA includes some of the largest private charitable organizations in Europe and America. The autobiography gives the reader a ringside seat looking into the politics, financial affairs, and personalities of the fascinating world of Catholic wealth and philanthropy, all in the context of the recent challenges that rocked the Catholic Church.

Under Butler’s leadership (1980-2012), the FADICA pushed for much-needed financial transparency in Vatican business affairs and then helped the Vatican accomplish this, spearheaded a multimillion-dollar campaign to address retirement needs of more than 50,000 U.S. religious women and men, helped rebuild the Catholic Church in eastern and southern Europe and Russia, and funded award-winning high schools for immigrants and low-income families.

Butler is not naïve. He understands fully the depth of corruption and abuse in his church. As noted in the foreword by James Martin, Butler “… offers a fascinating and upbeat story that would not gloss over the rough aspects, divisions, and scandals that we Catholics know so well.” (p. x) Butler is deeply committed to Christ in the context of his Catholic faith, and that gave him strength to work for change and gave him hope for the future.

The author is seminary-trained and did his doctorate in systematic theology, with a dissertation on John Henry Newman. With that background, Butler brings a valuable theological and historical perspective to the events of the last few decades. His obviously deep spirituality sustained him in the face of the hypocrisy and repugnant political maneuvering of some church leaders through the scandals.

The Second Vatican Council elevated laity in the church, giving them more voice in the affairs and direction of the church. Butler is a fine example of a layperson who held his own with bishops and other church leaders, never relenting in his insistence on accountability and transparency from his church.