Truth of Catholicism: Ten Controversies Explored Book

The author puts forth a rational set of arguments if the reader is willing to accept his starting points. I read the iBook edition and could not find when it was first published, though frequent reference to Pope John Paul II and mention of (then) Cardinal Ratzinger dates its pretty well.
Near the end of the book Weigel distinguishes between a life of middling happiness with a minimum of pain sought by many secularists and contrasts it with the call to heroism and discernment demanded of believers; but surely many secularists yearn for justice and make heroic efforts to achieve it just as many religious (in this instance, Catholic) people are content to settle for certainty and complacency. In fairness, Weigel argues that being a sincere Catholic means not being a complacent one and he is also clear that no small amount of effort lies beyond assenting to belief.
I would have appreciated some discussion of capital punishment and the scandal of pedophilia. I live in Texas at present where i) they execute people; and ii) Catholic belief is taken seriously. This contrasts to my native Australia where (i) doesn't happen and (ii) is much more casual. The closest that I have heard the Catholic clergy here come to criticizing executions is something said to the effect that even murderers were entitled to spiritual counsel. You might make an argument for capital punishment on the grounds of punishment, suffering and justice, but it's not one that apologists seem to want to make. Pedophilia is such a rock to get out from under that it is avoided, though perhaps not so much was known with certainty when the book was published.
Nevertheless, this book does present a good clear conservative case for the Catholic faith and manages in places to present an alternative to the widely held belief that the Church is a bad-tempered old uncle raving against the modern world. In fact, it is very interesting and pertinent in its discussion of the necessary basis of democracy in the present day. The question of whether a democratic form of government can survive in the absence of a cultural assent to certain truths or whether moral relativism will crack its foundations is pertinent and perhaps more relevant now than when the book was written. On the other hand, not every form of democratic government is as fractured as the American one appears to be (September, 2015).