The Best Catholics in the World by Derek Scally

Excellent and timely’ John Banville, The Sunday Times ‘An unblinking look at the collapse of the Church and Catholic deference in Ireland. ‘Reflective, textured, insightful and original … rich with history, interrogation and emotional intelligence’ Diarmaid Ferriter, Irish Times It is both a lively personal odyssey and a resonant and gripping work of reporting that is a major contribution to the story of Ireland. With wit, wisdom and compassion Scally gives voice and definition to the murky and difficult questions that face a society coming to terms with its troubling past. The Best Catholics in the World is the remarkable result of his three-year journey. And he has probing and revealing encounters with Vatican officials, priests and religious along the way. He travels the length and breadth of Ireland and across Europe, going to Masses, novenas, shrines and seminaries, talking to those who have abandoned the Church and those who have held on, to survivors and campaigners, to writers, historians, psychologists and many more. So he embarks on a quest to unravel the tight hold the Church had on the Irish. While Germans are engaging earnestly with their past, Scally sees nothing comparable going on in his native land. Not for the first time, the collapse of the Catholic Church in Ireland brings to mind the fall of another powerful ideology – East German communism. When Dubliner Derek Scally goes to Christmas Eve Mass on a visit home from Berlin, he finds more memories than congregants in the church where he was once an altar boy. ‘At once intimate and epic, this is a landmark book’ Fintan O’Toole

Brilliant, engaging and essential’ Colm Toibin Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2021

The Best Catholics in the World by Derek Scally