Apologetics

Sister Catherine Goddard Clarke, M.I.C.M.

“I could not put it down.” Such enthusiastic responses as this are typical upon reading this powerfully written his-tory of the Church as illustrated in the challenging pontificates of ten of her more illustrious champions of orthodoxy. As one reads through the first forty-two pages, one is virtually taken on a journey through some four hundred years of tempus ecclesiae, from the momentous entrance of Saint Peter into the fearsome capitol of Satan’s doomed empire, to the triumph of the last Christological Council, Chalcedon, held under the pastoral eye of Leo I, the first Pope that Catholic posterity dared to call “the Great.” Sister Catherine vividly brings to life the painful and virile maturation of the Church Militant from its infancy in Jerusalem to its full manhood as expressed by the Toma of Leo solemnly read at Chalcedon in 451. The remaining bulk of information dovetails into the major periods of religious crises and tells of those heroic Popes who steered the Church through these gravest trials. For example, see how the little known Greek Pope Saint Zachary fought the Moslem influence which generated eastern Iconoclasm; see the Gregorys form the temporal city of God into the vibrant and monolithic power that Jesus intended; and see how the two Pius’s re-establish orthodoxy with one sword and humiliate the brazenly open anti-Christian forces with the other — burying them — for a time. This is a book that can restore hope and confidence in the might of the papacy.

Fr. Didier Bonneterre - PB 148 pages

Historically Dom Gueranger and Pope Saint Pius X are truly at the origin of the liturgical movement, that is, "the renewal of fervor for the liturgy among the clergy and the faithful." But it is a false and pernicious claim that there has been a "homogenous development" in the movement begun by them resulting in the New Order of Mass!

This deception cannot be accepted. That is why this book was written. The Novus Ordo derived from the thought of Dom Gueranger and Pope Saint Pius X?! No way!

The Liturgical Movement is a fast-reading book on the history of the liturgical movement of the last century:

-How was it diverted from its course?
-Who made up the brain-trust which led its early deviation?
-What was the principal error of these liturgical radicals?
-In the end, who hijacked the movement to propagandize for Vatican II and a New Mass?

Find out who were the major players hounding the Popes of the era: Beauduin, Bea, Parsch, Guardini, Casel, Jungmann, Lercaro, Botte, Reinhold, Winzen, Congar, Harscouet, (Gaspar) Lefebvre, Danielou, Fischer, Bugnini, Nocent, Bouyer, Thurian, Gy, etc.

The Three Pillars of Faith in the Real Presence: Ordination, Offertory, Consecration

Edward Snyder - PB-146 pages

Since the introduction of the Novus Ordo liturgy in the 1960s, Catholic belief in the Real Presence and the essential sacrificial nature of the Mass and of the priesthood has declined precipitously. In addition, the number of men entering the priesthood and the percentage of Catholics regularly attending Mass has also fallen off dramatically. When seeking answers to why these facts are so, the author of this treatise, Edward Snyder, has undertaken a substantive study of the words used in both the ancient and the new liturgy and arrived at some startling discoveries and conclusions.

Since belief in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Christ’s true presence in the consecrated host are beliefs central and essential to the Catholic religion, it is important to understand why these beliefs are no longer held by so many. Certain core doctrines believed by the first Christians were supported by the linguistic evidence they left in the New Testament. What does this linguistic evidence consist of? Specifically, about the year 325 B.C. the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek. This translation was done by seventy Hebrew scholars and it is known as the Septuagint. The Greek and Latin New Testament texts contain many semitisms—that is words that were used based on the Aramaic spoken and written by the Church when the original Christians were primarily Aramaic speaking—that can only be properly translated into English, or any other vernacular language, if the Hebrew roots are understood.

This philological study of the root of words used in the scriptures and the liturgy will be most useful as an aid to understanding why clarity of belief is disappearing so rapidly in the Church of our day.

By M. L. Cozens - 118 pages - Paperback

This most concise and helpful reference work was first published in 1928. It was reissued in 1945 by Sheed & Ward publishers and is presented by Loreto again in 2016 because we feel it will be very useful for students, seminarians, priests, and Catholic laity of all walks of life, since so many of these heresies are once again rearing their ugly heads in these most troubling times. Therefore, we must be not only quick to recognize their manifestation in the era in which we live, but we should also be capable of the refutation of these death-dealing errors for those who would look to faithful Catholics for guidance.
Saint Paul in 1Cor. 11:19 says “For there must be also heresies: that they also, who are approved, may be made manifest among you.” Now at first impression that might seem an odd thing for Saint Paul to say— that there must be heresies? Yet the verse gives its own explanation. It is so that truth (those approved teachers and believers) may be made clear among you. It is often the case that truth or light stands out more clearly when contrasted against untruth or darkness and that is one very fine reason why those seeking the truth in more depth of understanding may wish to study heresies. It is so that truth may be made more manifest!
That is exactly what the author does in this book. Not only does he
explain and state clearly the errors but he does three other things that are most helpful to the reader: 1) he describes how and why the heresy arose, and 2) he shows the true teachings in opposition, and 3) he draws out the logical conclusions and implications for thought and behavior that flow from the acceptance of the error. This is a great teaching tool for high schools, colleges and seminaries, or adult study groups.
Saint Anthony - Hammer of Heretics - Pray for us!

Rev. G. E. Phillips

This history of the Holy House of Loreto is the most decisive work in English defending the authenticity of this most hallowed shrine in all Christendom. Our Lady’s Holy House at Nazareth was taken by angels to Dalmatia (Croatia) in 1291 to prevent its desecration by the infidels. Three years later it took flight again to rest in Loreto, Italy, where it remains. Rev. Phillips provides the facts, and excitement behind the story. Many cures, apparitions, and miraculous conversions, have happened within the limestone walls of the Santa Casa.

Also Available as Ebook

Gary Potter - 272 pages Paperback

To go after something is to inquire into it, to be in search of it, to seek the truth about it. In this book, veteran Catholic journalist Gary Potter goes after the truth concerning one of last century’s principal religious controversies, the so-called Boston Heresy Case, and its chief figure, Rev. Leonard Feeney, S.J.

The most famous Jesuit of his day, Fr. Feeney broadcast on the radio, his books were best sellers, his poetry was mandatory reading in parochial schools. Suddenly, newspapers throughout the country were reporting that he was charged with heresy, expelled from the ranks of the Jesuits, and even “excommunicated.” Now his verse was removed from textbooks and Catholics were forbidden by high Church authorities to have any association with him. Scores of young men and women, students of Saint Benedict Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, defied the ban. On Sunday afternoons, they accompanied the famed cleric to Boston Common, the public park where he took to preaching when he was denied a pulpit. Leading magazines labeled him the “hate priest” on account of his preaching.

Also Available as Ebook

Divine Parables Explained: or The Church of the Parables

Father Joseph Prachensky, S.J. - 282 Pages Softcover

Never have you heard the parables of Our Lord explained like this learned American Jesuit did in 1890 when this work was first published. Here, in his own words from the introduction, is the author’s reason for publishing this magnificent work:
The bible tells us it was given to the Apostles to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven either in parables or plain words. If that was so (and who will doubt it?), who has it now? And to whom is it given, if not to their legitimate successors, who were to continue the work which the Apostles had begun, even to the consummation of ages?
If, then, the kind reader of these pages finds in them a more accurate, faithful, and thorough explanation of our Lord’s parables than he ever received from any sectarian preacher, let him bear in mind that the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church are the legitimate and only true successors of those to whom the Savior said: “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”
I have selected for exposition only those of the parables that relate to Catholic dogmas controverted by the sects, and I pass over those which contain only lessons of morality never impugned or denied by any one bearing the name of Christian, at least in theory.

Mary Perkins - Papercover - 220 pages

This is, we believe, the first “book of etiquette for Catholics” ever published. At first glance it may seem absurd that we should need one, but have you never been puzzled by such apparently easy questions as how to address a letter to a bishop or how to end it? Or, if you are asked to be a god-parent, do you know what is expected of you, first at the church, and then afterwards throughout your own and your god-child’s life? These and a hundred other matters are clearly and amusingly explained in this book, the subjects ranging from the very simplest way to manage a Missal to what to do (and what not to do) when a Catholic doctrine or practice is attacked in your presence.

This book is especially helpful for converts, but it is also extremely interesting for life-long Catholics who have little or no knowledge of the proper manners expected from a Catholic. It was first published in 1938 so the author explains much about how things were done in the Church before the second Vatican Council.