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Fr. Clement Raab, OFM - 136 pages PB

The Church is essetiay coservative. Her conservatism is not merely a measure of prudence and good judgment; it is an intrinsic necessity. No matter what she may consider, decide, or undertake, she always harks back to the beginning.
After twenty [one] centuries the “pillar and ground of truth” has not moved a whit from her primitive position, while all other human foundations have either crumbled to dust or have been driven headlong by the maelstrom of this fast changing world. To these, the ideal looms hazily in the distant future; to the Church, it stands firmly in the distant past. The closer she aligns herself with Christ, the surer she is of ultimate success and victory, being “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone”
(Eph. II:20).
The present volume is designed to serve as a ready survey and reference book on the history of the councils. It is to serve as an aid, primarily to the cleric or lay student who has neither the time nor the opportunity to delve into, and analyze sources and controversies, but who is satisfied to learn the outstanding facts and findings concerning which Church historians generally agree. This brief and positive sketch of the twenty great events in history, so vibrant with life and so far-reaching in their consequences, will afford him, we trust, a very definite and appreciable knowledge of the nature and history of Holy Mother Church.
Originally published in 1937, this re-issue of Fr. Raab’s classic work on the history of the Ecumenical Councils did not include anything about Vatican II, because its convocation still lay in the future. We have not added to his work since so much has already been written of the newest Council elsewhere.

Also Available as Ebook

Gary Potter - PB - 96 Pages

One of the comments made about Our Lord by his contemporaries was that “He spoke as one having authority.” In the modern world, the Church seems to rarely speak as one “having authority”. This is unfortunate; some might say scandalous, for it is authority that men seek when pursuing truth. Young people are inundated with the message that truth, as an objective reality, does not exist . . . except for you alone. “Well, that’s your opinion!”, or “Make your own truth.”, or even Pilate’s own phrase “What is truth?”, are all too common phrases one hears nearly everywhere today. Even the term “faith” is now one of opprobrium instead of a declaration of virtue. One thing that does still speak with authority however, especially to the young, is example. In this powerful modern novella, one young man considers faith and whether it has any meaning at all to a man who wishes to truly live or whether faith is merely something one grasps onto when no clear answers to the deep questions of life are to be found elsewhere.

Fr. John Kane

How to make your Confessions less difficult and more fruitful

If you still drag your feet about going to Confession, here's the help you need to enable you to overcome your reluctance and open your soul to the vast reservoir of mercy found in Confession.

This down-to-earth, practical guide shows you how to transform your confessions from embarrassing moments in a dark room into profound experiences of God's love. The author, Fr. John Kane, provides solid guidelines for how you can (and must) make the most effective possible use of the sacrament of Reconciliation. Even better, he shows you how to carry the grace of Confession into your daily life, so that you'll start winning — consistently — your battles against sin.

Get Fr. Kane's help to confess well and avoid sin:

Fr. Denis Fahey, C. S. Sp. - Paperback - 72 pages

“I repeatedly promised Saint Peter that if I ever got the chance, I would teach the truth about his Master in the way he and his successors, the Roman Pontiffs, wanted it done. That is what I have striven to do and am doing.”    —Rev. Denis Fahey

Mental prayer is, in a certain sense, the most important exercise of the spiritual life. Fidelity to it (saints tell us) will ensure salvation; its complete abandonment may lead to perdition; progress therein means a corresponding progress in the interior life of union with God.
Hence, the special value of books which treat of mental prayer. The excellence of the present work lies in the source from which it is drawn. St. Thomas Aquinas holds a unique place among the Doctors of the Church. He has become the official theologian of Christ’s Mystical Spouse, her Universal Doctor. She has canonized his teaching, making it her own in all its essential elements.
This is the first of of Fr. Fahey’s books to be published, and it remains one of his most important for it presents the foundation of his spiritual life of prayer that was so fruitful.

192 pages, softcover

By Louise D'Angelo

This book presents to the reader the information which they need to protect their own faith or the faith of someone they love from the attacks of the Witnesses. This book was written after 16 years of toil and research by the author. There is nothing like it in print today. It contains full explanations of what the Witnesses believe and how they use the Bible to try to trap unsuspecting Catholics.

by Cornelius aLapide, S.J. - 120 pages - PB

This small book on the interpretation of Holy Scripture is taken from the first volume of the Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide. It is comprised of the Foreword to that book and the 120 or so pages of a Lapide’s preface as well as his Chronology of the life of Christ and his priceless Canons (or standard rules) of Scriptural Interpretation that he composed and followed for his lifetime project.

Being, as we at Loreto believe, the best standards of interpretation ever devised, we felt it important that they receive wider readership. Hence this small volume. Should you be so fortunate as to possess his Great Commentary on the Four Gospels this book is redundant, but either way this handy volume is a great reference tool and one of the best introductions to Holy Scripture available today.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword
General Preface
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Monotessaron: Chronology of the Life and Work of Christ
Canons of Interpretation
Scriptural References

This inspiring book unveils the incomparable history of the Catholics of Ireland, who clung valiantly to the Faith for hundreds of years through some of the worst persecutions ever inflicted on a people. Their unrelenting love of the Most Blessed Sacrament is a clarion call for us in these times when attendance at Holy Mass has waned and the desacralization of the liturgy advances.

From the golden hour in which St. Patrick, as bishop, said his first Mass on Irish soil down to the coming of the Normans, love of the Blessed Eucharist was one of the dominant characteristics of the Irish race. Even during the Protestant Reformation, with its monastery closures, confiscation of Church treasures, and universally hostile treatment of Catholics, King Henry VIII nevertheless left one thing untouched — the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But the attacks would soon begin.

You will be astonished by the assaults on the Mass during Queen Elizabeth’s “reign of terror,” which resulted in the martyrdom of more than two hundred Irish Catholics — many killed in the sanctuary! James I continued the rule of terror, which was brought to new depths of cruelty by the ruthless Oliver Cromwell.

In these pages, Fr. Augustine Hayden reveals a myriad of shocking details that are highly relevant to our time, including:

What the Council of Regency did to Protestantize the Mass (Has history repeated itself?)

• How the Irish faithful responded when it became unlawful to celebrate Mass (Take note!)
• Why the English government sought to cancel the Mass and the sacraments (Surprise, surprise!)
• What the English planned following the suppression of the Catholic Mass (And how it backfired)
• The Saul-like terrorization and banishment of bishops and priests, and their indomitable courage
• The heroic martyrdom of lay Catholics, who bravely hid priests and guarded the Holy Eucharist

“The Mass was the focus of the enemy’s hatred,” wrote Fr. Augustine, “and it was also the magnet of the people’s devotion. Masses infinite in churches, Masses in houses, Masses in every corner — these were the ‘crimes’ with which the people of this country were charged.”

You will see why the heroic Catholics of Ireland believed that the Holy Mass and the Real Presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament are worth cherishing — even unto death. Amid war, starvation, and relentless cruelty, our Eucharistic King gave the Irish the graces they needed to remain steadfast and become a bastion of devotion for the world.

Father Denis Fahey - PB - 440 pages

The principal purpose of The Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World is to deal, from the theological, philosophical and historical standpoint, with the modern revolt against the divine plan for the organisation of human society.
    Dr. Fahey writes at length of the various errors and the nefarious forces which at present menace the divinely-constituted social order. His work is a most important one. Perhaps never before, since the establishment of Christianity, has there been such an organized effort to overthrow it, to dethrone Christ, to destroy His Church, to set aside God and the order which He has established. In some countries, notably Russia, Mexico, and Spain, the veil of secrecy has been withdrawn; in many others the same Masonic and Communistic influences are at work, but their activities are to a large extent underground.
    An essential prerequisite for a proper preparation (to defend the Church) is a knowledge of the nature and extent of the menace, of the organization of the forces behind it, and of the diabolical hatred of Christianity and of everything supernatural with which these forces are imbued. This knowledge is to be found in Dr. Fahey’s work; in fact nowhere else, as far as we know, is there such a logical, co-ordinated treatment of the subject.

George J. Hill, M.A. - 360 pages  - EBOOK - PDF

Few stories grip the heart and stir the soul like those tales of faithful Catholics who have risen up in arms to throw off the tyrrany of anti-Catholic oppressors. The great stories from the bible such as that of young David or Judas Macchabeus and his sons have their numerous counterparts in the history of the Church as well. What Catholic has not thrilled to such stories as that of the First Crusade, or the defense of Malta or the Battle of Lepanto—all victories for the Catholics. But even when the Catholic cause is not immediately sucessful as in such epic wars as the Jacobite rebellions, the nine-years war of Red Hugh O’Donnell and The O’Neill against Queen Elizabeth, or the fight of the Cristeros for a Catholic Mexico, the stark reality of such glorious sacrifices for the Faith inspires us down through the ages.

Such is the story of the War in LaVendée and the courage of youth displayed in the story of the Little Chouannerie by the teenage scholars of Vannes. The satanic explosion of hatred of Christ, of his Church, and of all that was decent in Catholic France that is known to history as the French Revolution was valiantly opposed in the west of France by a peasant army in both Brittany and in LaVendée. This is their story.

The names of Charette, LaRochejaquelein, Abbé Bernier, Cathelineau, Le Tiec, and Jean Chouan should be as well known to Catholics as those of Red Hugh O'Donnell, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Padre Pro, Godfrey deBouillion, Don Juan of Austria and others.

This story will break your heart…and will mend it as well.

Vive la Nation! Vive le Roi! Vive la réligion Catholique! 

Preface
It is commonly argued by writers on the French Revolution that the state of the Church, as well as of the nation in general, must have been exceedingly corrupt, and that both clergy and people were equally destitute of religious belief and of moral principle, or so total a disruption of all the bonds of society could never have taken place, attended as it was with circumstances of unprecedented confusion and horror; and they point to the fact of priests and religious, and even bishops, openly apostatizing from Christianity, and abandoning themselves to all the infamous license of the times, and the atrocious crimes perpetrated by a people so lately, in profession at least, Catholic.

That society was radically and irretrievably corrupt especially in high places, and that many of the clergy, and in particular those about the court, were deeply infected with the taint of infidelity, is unhappily too true. But such writers seem utterly to overlook a fact equally patent and remarkable, that hundreds of ecclesiastics not merely retained and avowed their religious belief, in spite of persecution and contempt, but shed their blood for the faith; enduring the grossest insults and the most agonizing torments, not only with meekness and resignation, but with a touching piety, and a sweet and tender charity towards their murderers, such as make their constancy and fortitude differ in kind from any thing which mere natural heroism, however exalted, has at any time exhibited; while thousands risked their lives and abandoned all things for conscience sake. If a few traitors and apostates—for few they were in comparison with those who stood firm in the hour of trial, and nobly suffered all that a diabolical malice could inflict, rather than abate one tittle of their obedience to the divine law; if this wretched minority are to be taken as a proof of the inroads that vice and infidelity had made upon the Church of France, how triumphant is the demonstration afforded by her numerous martyrs and confessors that she was yet sound and pure at heart!

And as respects the people at large “To judge of a whole nation,” says Mr. Belaney in his Massacre at the Carmes, “by the conduct or manners of its populace in its capital and larger cities in times of great excitement, would lead to as false and unjust, as well as ungenerous conclusions, in respect to that nation, as it would to judge of an individual only by what he did when under the effects of delirium tremens or intoxication.” “The populace,” as he elsewhere observes, “required to be deceived, as well as bribed into the commission of acts which cause us to shudder when we look back on them, even at a distance of sixty years.” An execrable faction, devoid of every principle of morality and every feeling of humanity, had usurped the power of the state; and while over-awing the better portion of the nation by wholesale proscription and slaughter, drove the masses of the people to enact, in a frenzy of terror and fury, excesses which, left to themselves and in their sober senses, they would never have had the heart to perpetrate. That under the seething surface of vice and impiety which covered the land, there lay hid all the while, even in the worst days of the Revolution, fathomless depths of sanctity and devotion beyond the ken of the godless world, the annals of the times sufficiently testify; and that, even when the nation had passed through its fiery conflict, and a generation to whom religion was an effête superstition, and priests but tyrants and impostors, appeared upon the scene, there still remained, not only among the country populations, but among the inhabitants of the towns, a vast amount of supernatural belief, which waited only for an occasion to manifest itself, one circumstance alone would prove:—the demonstrations, not of sympathy and affection merely, but of religious veneration, with which Pius VII was everywhere received on his entrance into France, a prisoner, in the year 1809; multitudes crowding round the carriage in which he was seated, and begging his benediction on their knees as he passed along.

But if the clergy of France contributed its noble army of martyrs at Paris, Lyons, Nantes, her peasantry of Brittany and La Vendée sent forth an heroic band of veritable soldiers of the cross, as admirable and as worthy of being held in everlasting honor as their enemies are deserving of the universal reprobation of mankind. Brave, generous, honorable, merciful, and pure, in the heat of the fight resolute and undaunted as veteran soldiers, and in the hour of victory as tender-hearted as children—what a contrast do these “brigands,” as their opponents called them, present to the self-styled “patriots” of the Republican forces! Sensual, treacherous, bloodthirsty, breathing only hatred and revenge, exhibiting a cruelty and a ferocity truly satanic, their delight seemed to be only in massacre and rapine, and in the commission of the most hideous crimes. Catholic France may well be proud of her heroes of La Vendée. What but simple, supernatural faith could have produced such an army of patriot crusaders, and inspired a system of warfare so truly Christian?

For it is not possible to separate the religion and devotion of the Vendean peasants from their natural virtues and martial qualities. As they fought primarily for their Church, and only secondarily and, as it may be said, accidentally, for their king, so first and before all things they were Catholics: —to their heart’s core they were what the pseudo-philosophers of the day would call “superstitious and bigoted;” as much so as the priests who walked calmly forward to meet their assassins with their breviaries in their hands, and the names of Jesus and Mary on their lips. These men, so intrepid, so cool and yet so daring, so generous and so noble-minded, recited their rosaries on their way to the battlefield, and threw themselves on their knees before the image of the Crucified as they charged down upon the bayonets of the foe. Abstract from the Vendean his faith, and he is no longer the same man: that faith not only inspired his actions, it made him what he was.

As to the conduct and results of the war, it is unnecessary to anticipate here remarks that are made in the course of the narrative. In spite of some signal and palpable blunders, no candid mind, which considers the disadvantages under which they labored, will withhold from both generals and subordinates a very high need of praise, not only for their courage, which was undoubted, but for their strategic skill and address. Unhappily, as the contest proceeded, and their first chosen leaders perished in battle, serious evils began to show themselves; fatal jealousies were engendered, dissensions broke out amongst the new commanders, cruelties were perpetrated which rivaled in barbarity the enormities by which they were provoked, unjustifiable severities were adopted even against members of their own body, and the whole morale of the army notably degenerated. Such were but the inevitable consequences of long-continued warfare, and that of so embittered a character, the subversion of all established order, and the absence of any legitimate head. And yet to the end sufficient of the old spirit remained to excite the fears and even to elicit the admiration of their foes. Despite the terrible reverses encountered in the field, and the general disorganization that ensued, their bravery and tenacity had made themselves so effectually felt, that the Vendean insurgents succeeded finally in obtaining an honorable peace. But their greatest glory consisted in the fact, that the Catholic religion never ceased to be openly professed in La Vendée; nor did they consent to lay down their arms until liberty of worship was guaranteed to them, and their priests were recognized and protected by the laws.

Hence the moral effects of this war it is hardly possible to overrate. Not only did it prove that France never could be one and indivisible, never could be at peace with herself until religion was re-established; not only did the valor and enthusiasm which were evoked insure respect to the religion which was able to produce such sensible effects—but the multitudes whom terror had silenced and isolated, the weak, the timid, the despondent, and even they in whom the light of faith was well-nigh quenched, felt the influence of a struggle in which they took no part; it awoke and sustained a secret sympathy in their breasts, and kept them in a state of continual readiness to welcome back, even with acclamations, the religion for which they had neither the courage nor the will to suffer or to contend.
What, therefore, may not the France of this day owe to La Vendée! How much of the religious revival which now fills Catholic Christendom with admiration and joy may be due to that contest, so obstinately and so fruitlessly maintained, as some may think, in that little corner of the west? And this in two ways; first, as has been intimated, by keeping the lamps burning in her sanctuaries when elsewhere they had been extinguished and the very altars themselves overthrown, and leaving them as beacons to announce to all failing and faltering hearts that an incarnate God still had worshippers, and Peter loyal subjects, among a rebellious and apostate people; and secondly, and principally, by willingly offering that sacrifice which God never fails to accept and to requite—the sacrifice of the heart’s-blood of the best and purest of her children. That blood, like the blood of the martyr-priests, has never ceased to cry out, not for vengeance, but for mercy and for blessings—the richest and the choicest, because spiritual and heavenly—on the land that poured it out as though it had been the blood of brute cattle that die unpitied in the shambles, or rather of the wild beasts of the forest whom it was a necessity to exterminate. Certain it is that nowhere has religion, so trodden down and all but exterminated as it was, had so speedy and so astonishing a resurrection as in once infidel France, and to what can this be more probably attributed, than to that spirit of immolation which animated alike the priests of the Carmes and the peasants of La Vendée? If the butcheries of Tyburn are one day to yield, as we may piously hope, a fruitful harvest of souls to the Church in our land, what might England long ere this have become, had more of her sons bled and died with the gallant Nortons around the banner of the Five Precious Wounds, and the gibbets stood tenfold thicker between Newcastle and Wetherby?

The strength and reality of the principles for which La Vendée contended, and the ardor with which the flame there enkindled burned on, despite the indifference and secularity which weighed upon the land, may be estimated by the enthusiasm excited in the breasts of the young students of Vannes, and the bravery and fortitude displayed in their defense. Singular phenomenon that some hundreds of boys should turn soldiers in sober earnest, all because the great emperor bullied the Pope, changed their catechism, and gave them Charlemagne for their patron instead of St. Catharine and St. Nicholas; but no ambiguous omen of bright and glorious days to France, that, in what with many would have passed for a mere piece of state-policy, with which they had no concern, these schoolboys and seminarians should feel to the quick that a great principle was at stake, for which they were bound, as with all their hearts they were willing, to fight and to die.

The scholars of Vannes—as many as survive—have now passed the prime of their life; but during the forty years that have gone by, what services have they not rendered, by their labors, their writings, their courageous examples, to the Church, to literature, to society! And whence had they derived their first inspirations, but from those annals of the old Chouannerie which as boys it was their delight to collect, and from those bearded men, with their bronzed countenances and thoughtful brows, who had returned to renew the studies of their youth, only that they might complete, as ministers of peace at the altar, the warfare they had begun on the battlefield? True patriots, whose patria is not of this world; though accidentally and from circumstances associated with monarchy, their Catholicism was subservient to no form of government, albeit respectful and friendly to all; upholding obedience to constituted authority as the ordinance of God, it looked, above all things, to maintaining intact the liberties of the Church and the independence of the spiritual power. To such men and such principles France owes everything; and on France at this moment hang the destinies of the world.

The story of La Vendée and of the Little Chouannerie is gathered from the various extant sources; but in the case of the latter, which is drawn principally from M. Rio’s own narrative, an endeavor has been made to assign to that gentleman the position which rightfully belonged to him, but which his modesty and humility prevented him from assuming.

The reader will find a most striking description of the old “Chouans” and the “Little Vendée” among M. Sonvestre’s Tales and Sketches of Brittany and La Vendée, published in Constable’s Miscellany of Foreign Literature. The incidents, which were taken by the author from the mouth of one of Jean’s brothers-in-arms, are related in a style as graphic and touching, as it is simple and unadorned.

The conflict in La Vendée had its counterpart in Flanders. M. Hendrik Conscience, in his spirited historical tale of the era, has described with much dramatic power the sufferings of the people, and their determined, but disastrous, and, as it turned out, fatally ineffectual resistance to the revolutionary forces, and (in the worst sense) revolutionary principles of France. The work in question has just been translated into English. Although fictitious in form, it adheres faithfully to the facts of history: the notes to the original Flemish show, by extracts from the accounts, proclamations, etc., which appeared in the Antwerp newspapers of the time, that the gatherings, skirmishes, and principal events therein depicted, down to the great battle with which the story closes, actually occurred as represented. A few resolute and courageous men, while the masses of their countrymen “looked on in dumb terror” at the destruction of all they held dear and venerable, kept up a continual harassing warfare against the invader, until they were either individually taken and shot, or mowed down in hundreds by the musketry, or hewed and hacked to pieces by the merciless sabers of the French soldiery. But though crushed, and to all outward seeming annihilated, that insurrection against the most intolerable of all despotisms, the tyranny of an impious liberalism, and in defense of altar and hearth, faith and liberty, had as in La Vendée, a most powerful moral effect at the time, and exerted doubtless, both in the natural and in the supernatural order, influences the operation of which we have still before our eyes. For we may well consider the present prosperous condition of Belgium, the freedom, both political and religious, which she enjoys, and the simple piety of her people, to be at once the result and the reward of the spirit displayed, and the sufferings endured, in that truly patriotic struggle.

1. 
   H. T.

Sidney Ohlhausen - Illustrated - EBOOK - 462 pages

This collection of documents and letters grant us an intimate look into the life of an extraordinary priest.
Rev. Haydock is most often remembered today as the author of the famous “Haydock” bible which contains the Douay-Rheims text along with the copious footnotes and commentary by Haydock himself. His purpose was not merely to give the persecuted Catholics of England the best in scriptural text and exegesis taken from the Fathers and Doctors for their own education and edification, but also to give them scholarly ammunition to assist them in the conversion of their protestant family and friends who had been so confused by the various heretical texts and sermons available to them.
The life of Rev. George Leo Haydock (1774–1849) neatly enclosed some of the most remarkable decades in the history of the post-Reformation English Catholic community, as its lay and clerical members moved forward from an ad hoc tolerance to a fuller legal equality. Three years after Haydock’s death, in 1852 St John Newman (1801–90) was to hail the period that took in his own conversion in 1845 as embracing a ‘second spring’, in which England’s Catholic Church re-emerged from centuries of oppression and obscurity, since the Tudor Reformation of the 16th century.

Dr. Robert Hickson - Hardcover - 782 pages

It is a great joy to present to the readers of this volume a collection
of essays written by Dr. Robert Hickson in the course of some five
years, in the last stage of his life as a Catholic author.

This book contains around 80 essays, and they are a sequel to the
last set of two volumes that we published, entitled The Collected Essays
of Dr. Robert Hickson (Loreto Publications, 2022), which contained
almost 100 essays written from 2012 until 2018 and published by the
website Catholicism.org. In light of his own life experience as a military man, a literary and
philosophical scholar, a father of ten children, and, most importantly,
a defender of the Catholic faith at a time of a great crisis of the Catholic
Church, the essays touch upon a large variety of topics.

The Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent - Hardcover - 608 pages - 6" x 9"

Catechism of the Council of Trent for Parish Priests - Issued by Order of Pope St. Pius V
Translated by order of Pope St. Pius V.
English translation and notes by John A. McHugh, O.P. and Charles J. Callan, O.P.
Easy to read modern typesetting.

Foreword by Charles A. Coulombe

“Catechesis,” in the sense of teaching the truths of the Faith, is as old as the Catholic Church; Christ Himself was the first and best of our catechists. Indeed, catechesis and evangelisation are inseparable, and always have been. But “catechisms,” in the way we think of them, are a relatively new phenomenon. It was in fact the Protestant Revolt that launched the genre–starting with Martin Luther’s large and short catechisms, in which he laid out his mixture of truth and heresy in a simple question and answer format. In rapid succession, this method was used by Calvinists and others for the same purpose–Cranmer even composed one for the Book of Common Prayer. It turned out to be a devastatingly effective method. Not too surprisingly, beleaguered Catholics responded in kind, St. Peter Canisius, for example, producing one in 1555.
Aware of this background, the Fathers of the Council of Trent decided that a basic catechism explaining the truths of the Faith was an urgent necessity. At the suggestion of St. Charles Borromeo, on February 26, 1562 the Council Fathers resolved that “to apply a salutary remedy to this great and pernicious evil, and thinking that the definition of the principal Catholic doctrines was not enough for the purpose, resolved also to publish a formulary and method for teaching the rudiments of the faith, to be used by all legitimate pastors and teachers.” Thus, the idea was not to publish a popular catechism for everyone to read, but to produce a resource that would allow priests to use it in teaching their people. To be taken primarily from the Council texts, Pius IV entrusted the composition of the work to four theologians: the distinguished Papal diplomat, Archbishop Leonardo Marini of Lanciano; the Knight of Malta, Archbishop Muzio Calini of Zara; Bishop Egidio Foscherari of Modena, renowned for his work with orphans; and the Portuguese Dominican Francisco Foreiro, theologian, Biblicist, and close collaborator with several of his country’s Kings.
St. Charles Borromeo supervised the whole work, and it appeared at last in 1566.
The Council Fathers intended that their catechism should have a definite weight. Thus we read in the seventh canon, De Reformatione, of Sess. XXIV: “That the faithful may approach the Sacraments with greater reverence and devotion, the Holy Synod charges all the bishops about to administer them to explain their operation and use in a way adapted to the understanding of the people; to see, moreover, that their parish priests observe the same rule piously and prudently, making use for their explanations, where necessary and convenient, of the vernacular tongue; and conforming to the form to be prescribed by the Holy Synod in its instructions (catechesis) for the several Sacraments: the bishops shall have these instructions carefully translated into the vulgar tongue and explained by all parish priests to their flocks...”.
Although subsequent centuries would see any number of Catholic catechisms written for the laity by various writers and authorities, this Roman or Tridentine catechism remained the basic standard and the most authoritative – not least because so much of it was taken directly from the Council. In 1979, Pope John Paul II spoke of it as the “Roman Catechism, which is also known by the name of that council [Trent] and which is a work of the first rank as a summary of Christian teaching and traditional theology for use by priests.”
Of course, it was John Paul II who commissioned the Catechism of the Catholic Church which in the minds of many has replaced or eclipsed the Roman Catechism. But this would be a grave mistake. Whereas most of the former comes more or less directly from the Council and so has a certain level of solemnity, the CCC is decidedly a mixed bag. What was written about the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church by its authors is also true of the CCC: “In studying this Compendium, it is good to keep in mind that the citations of Magisterial texts are taken from documents of differing authority. Alongside council documents and encyclicals there are also papal addresses and documents drafted by offices of the Holy See. As one knows, but it seems to bear repeating, the reader should be aware that different levels of teaching authority are involved.” For reasons having to do with modern fashions in theology, there are a few places where the two documents contradict each other quite plainly.
The most notable of these is the question of the necessity of Baptism. The Roman Catechism’s Question XXX, “Baptism is necessary to all unto salvation” states that “If the knowledge of the matters which have been hitherto explained is to be deemed most useful to the faithful, nothing can appear also more necessary than that they be taught that the law of baptism is prescribed by our Lord to all, insomuch that they, unless they be regenerated unto God through the grace of baptism, whether their parents be Christian or infidel, are born to eternal misery and perdition. The pastor therefore must give a frequent exposition of these words of the Gospel: Except a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” The CCC, on the other hand, for the same question, tells us “The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are ‘reborn of water and the Spirit.’ God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments. The Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ. This Baptism of blood, like the desire for Baptism, brings about the fruits of Baptism without being a sacrament. For catechumens who die before their Baptism, their explicit desire to receive it, together with repentance for their sins, and charity, assures them the salvation that they were not able to receive through the sacrament. ‘Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery.’ Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity. As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus' tenderness toward children which caused him to say: ‘Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,’ allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church's call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism.”
These two statements are in large flat out contradictory (indeed, there are internal contradictions in the CCC’s own text). But the Roman Catechism simply reflects explicitly the defined teaching of the Council of Trent, whereas–as a perusal of the CCC’s footnotes shows–the latter document’s sources are of far less authority. Indeed, the most contradictory statements are not footnoted at all, but must be assumed to be the opinions of the CCC’s authors–and thus, in and of themselves, of no weight when contradicting the Roman Catechism.
But it would be a second error to presume on that account that the CCC is worthless. Save in those very few areas where it contradicts Trent, it explores in a very orthodox way many issues that have arisen since Trent, and also cites Eastern Catholic teaching and worship in a way that helps bring out very clearly the universality of Catholic doctrine.
Those things having been said, it would seem to this writer that the well-prepared Catholic catechist would begin by reading and making his own the Roman Catechism, in the light of which he would then read the CCC. Afterwards, he could then use the St. John Neumann, Baltimore, or any other catechism for actual teaching in the proper light.
But the Roman Catechism remains the gold standard and the essential place to start for anyone undertaking the essential role of catechist. Loreto Publications is to be thanked for once again making easily available to the public an essential document in the life of the modern Church that is only too often allowed–as with so many other things–to slide into obscurity.
Charles A. Coulombe
Trumau, Austria
July 1, 2022
Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

Br. Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M.One can detect a definite influence from the priest poet, Father Feeney, in the rhyme and rhythm of the philosopher poet, Dr. Maluf. The former, however, has that Irish flair for painting with words; the latter that Semitic gift for impressing with similitudes. Brother Francis Maluf wrote these fifty-nine poems for leisure. Those of us who know him would have a hard time imagining him sweating for too long over a verse. When he was deeply moved, whether it be by a devotional grace, by wonder at something beautiful to behold, by a gospel story or character, or even by astonishment over some mystery of iniquity, his contemplative heart would seek a means of expression. These poems are the expression of Brother Francis’ contemplative heart.

by Father Leonard Feeney, S.J.

To My Mother, from her 'Minstrel Boy'.

So, you do not like poetry. Too many flowers and angels and stars and clouds. And too many adjectives ending in “Y”. Besides, the better the poem the less you can understand it, right? You are an ordinary Joe who prefers more solid food for his mind and you do not really care if the words rhyme anyway. Well, Joe, lighten up! Let your mind get a taste of Father Feeney’s verse. Your whole family will enjoy the new turf. It will warm the heart. In fact, every one of Father’s poems comes with that guarantee.

Night Noises

Angela died today and went to Heaven;
We counted her summers up and they were seven.
But why does that trouble you, unloosened shutter,
That flap at my window in the wind's wild flutter!

Angela's eyes tonight are cold and dim,
Off in the land of song and Seraphim.
But what does that mean to you, O creaking stair,
And mice in the wall that gnaw the plaster there!

Angela's little hands are folded white,
Deep in the meadow, under the starry night.
But why should an ugly gnat keep finely whining
Around the candle-flame beside me shining!

And never again — and never again will she
Come running across the field to welcome me.
But, little sheep-bells, out on the distant hill,
Why, at this hour, do you wake and tinkle still!

And not any more—alas!— and not any more,
Will she climb the stairs and knock at my lonely door.
But, moaning owl in the hayloft overhead,
How did you come to know that she was dead!

Msgr. Gaumé

The holy Sign of the Cross is the most important prayer and symbol of our Christian faith. It is at once the image of Christ's passion, the sign of the redemption of all mankind, the awesome testament of the destruction of the power of the devil and of his kingdom on earth. The resurrection is the promise and seal and guarantee of eternal life which consummated the work of the Cross.

Christians rejoice and the demons tremble to see the Sign of the Cross emblazoned everywhere as proof of Christ's victory over the world. Christ said "all power is given to me in heaven and on earth" and the Cross is the seat of that power. There is no place on earth where a person who makes the Sign of the Cross is not immediately recognized as a Catholic, and there is no miracle that has not been worked under this sign. It is the "nuclear bomb" of prayers and with it the faithful can clear away all enemies and temptations with the simplest of wordless gestures. Msgr. Gaumé has compiled a magnificent collection of history and commentary from the saints and fathers and doctors, as well as his own meditations and exhortations regarding this most powerful prayer. All Catholics should avail themselves of this information and make it fruitful in their own lives.