Padre Gaetano Catanoso, ordained in 1902, was sent to Pentidattilo in 1904 to lead the hilltop parish at the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. He served there for 17 years.

The Anniston Star in Alabama reviews My Cousin the Saint. The review is here.

As I receive reader feedback, I am hearing that book clubs are reading My Cousin the Saint. That’s wonderful! To help with the discussion that is the heart and soul of every book club (until it veers off into good friends catching up with each other’s lives!), here is a set of questions to consider:

1.      How would you describe southern Italy at the turn of the 20^th century? How did Catanoso’s description of the land, the long history and the people surprise you? What role did those conditions play in the “great wave” of Italian immigration to America between 1880 and 1920?

2.      The central characters in Part I are cousins Gaetano Catanoso, the eventual saint, and Carmelo Catanoso, the author’s grandfather. How does the tenor of the times influence both men as they pursue their own profound, interior callings?

3.      My Cousin the Saint is divided into three parts – Faith, Family and Miracles. Each part begins with a short miracle story. How do those miracle stories set the tone for the chapters to follow in each part?

4.      Why does the Catholic Church, which has been doing so for 2,000 years, name saints? What is your reaction to the intricate, complex nature of this process?

5.      Pope John Paul II is still criticized by some for naming so many saints. This point is addressed in the book. Do you believe the criticism is fair?

6.      If you learned you had a saint in the family, someone whom the Vatican declares has actual miraculous powers, what would you pray for?

7.      Did reading this book temper your views on the Catholic Church or Catholicism?

8.      A central theme of Part I is America as a land of opportunity, and of biases and prejudices against recent immigrants. How does this story illuminate the current controversy over legal and illegal immigration?

9.      Catanoso, a lapsed Catholic, returns to church following the canonization of his relative and eventually comes to see that being lapsed, skeptical and doubtful is far more common in the church than he imagined. How does this story prompt you to reflect on your own faith or lack thereof?

10.  Catanoso goes off in search and faith and finds his family – scores of them in another country, most of whom don’t even speak English. It was almost as if they had been expecting him for 100 years. How much do you know about your own family history? If you connected with long-lost relatives in another place or country, what would expectations be? Is this something you would like to do?

Enjoy the discussion!

Rhode Island Catholic, the disocesan newspaper for the state,  reviews “My Cousin the Saint,” in its current issue. The review was written by Father John A. Kiley, a pastor in Warwick. An excerpt:

“Mr. Catanoso’s book is a family saga of faith, ambition, determination, hard work, illness, death and success on both sides of the Atlantic. Crowded Sunday afternoon pasta dinners at the family homestead merge with tense family conferences in hospital waiting rooms. The family camaraderie Mr. Catanoso experienced as a youth when his family moved to the Jersey shore is revived on successive trips to Calabria to research and reaffirm his Italian roots. These familial experiences, mixed with some Church politics, make absorbing reading. The author’s maturing Catholic faith is integral to the narrative as well.”

And this, too: “Pope John Paul has been criticized for canonizing too many saints. But there was a scheme in his zeal. Local saints touch the lives of local people. Local saints re-incarnate Jesus Christ graphically and tangibly on the local level so that once again believers can reach out to touch the tassel of his cloak, learn from his words, enjoy his company, bring him their fears, be consoled by his presence.  Saint Gaetano Catanoso had an immeasurable spiritual effect on his family, on his seminarians, on his religious sisters, on his fellow Calabrese, on his American cousins. St. John the Evangelist writes of Jesus Christ: ‘…the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ ”

The entire review is here.

Debbie Barsotti, a talented reporter for the Catholic Star Herald (Camden, NJ diocese), writes about “My Cousin the Saint” in this week’s issue of the paper. An excerpt:

“In Catanoso’s book, the stories of both his grandfather and the sainted cousin come alive. There is historical perspective about life on both continents. ‘In order for me to write about them,’ Catanoso said, ‘I knew I needed to provide enough history to bring them life in the context of their time. Otherwise you couldn’t appreciate the courage of both of them.’ “

The whole story is here.

From the blog Stuff Catholics Like: “We all have fears and phobias. The Church has saints to protect you from them. Print this list out and carry it with you so you will have the prayers you need to get you through the terrors of every day life.” The amusing list is here.

By the way, St. Gaetano Catanoso is the patron saint of parish priests.

Padre Gaetano Catanoso (1879-1963) experienced a relatively quick route to sainthood — about 25 years from the start of his cause to the canonization by Pope Benedict XVI in October 2005. This blog post regarding Father Nelson H. Baker (1842-1936) of Buffalo, N.Y., is a reminder of how long and difficult the path can be for many who are already deemed saints by their ardent followers.

An excerpt: “One of the most frustrating things about the process of establishing that someone is a saint, that someone is with God and can act as an intermediary between God and those still living, is proving miracles. In Father Baker’s case, over 20 healings have been investigated so far for his cause, and none of them have passed muster in Rome.

Yesterday, during the program “This is the Day” on Catholic TV, a cable network, I was interviewed live by hosts Father Reed and Jay Fadden by telephone. The show will be rebroadcast several times this week. An archived link to the show is here. Click then on the program labled August 12. Our discussion is a few minutes into the program and lasts about 6 minutes.

The Philadelphia Inquirer writes about “My Cousin the Saint” in today’s edition. Religion writer David O’Reilly, whom I met and interviewed with in the Inquirer newsroom on July 25, does an exemplary job. No surprise. He’s among the best religion writers in America.

Excerpt:

So why did his immigrant grandparents never talk about the southern Italy they fled a century ago? Had they left some family secret in the impoverished mountain region of Calabria - a home to the Mafia?

They had, but never knew it.

And it was no dark secret at all, but luminous.

The clan they left behind in 1903 had spawned a holy man, the Rev. Gaetano Catanoso, whom the Roman Catholic Church would proclaim a saint in 2005.

And in the course of discovering his long-lost cousin - a parish priest born in 1879 who grew into what he calls an “ethereal, holy being, so virtuous that he is hailed as a miracle worker” - Justin Catanoso would discover his larger family, his Italian roots, and the faith he hardly knew.

“It was an experience that pulled me into the heart of the family,” Catanoso, now a 48-year-old North Carolina journalist, said during a recent visit to Philadelphia. He recounts his journey of discovery in a new book, My Cousin the Saint: A Search for Faith, Family and Miracles.

Read the whole story here.

News & Record (N.C.) columnist Ed Cone writes about and reviews “My Cousin the Saint.”

“Many religions reserve a special enmity for nonbelievers. In recent years, nonbelievers have returned the favor with a series of belief-skewering books. Now comes Justin Catanoso, ambling onto the scene with an open heart and a reporter’s notebook, to offer a different take on faith and skepticism.

“Catanoso, the executive editor of the local Business Journal and a much-respected former writer for the News & Record, has a new book out called “My Cousin the Saint: A Search for Faith, Family, and Miracles.” It’s a story with multiple threads, including the life and works of his grandfather’s cousin, Gaetano Catanoso, who was canonized by Pope Benedict in 2005; the relationships Justin establishes with the family his grandfather left behind when he emigrated from Italy to the United States almost a century ago; and the progress of the Catanosos in this country.”