Gary Potter - PB - 100 pages
Gary Potter has been a Catholic journalist and writer of the first rank for over fifty years. As a convert to the Faith during the 1960s, (that time of revolutionary turmoil in the Church and the world), he developed a unique perspective on the Church in the 20th century that has matured over the years into a deep and penetrating vision of our times and the place of the Church and the Faith in the politics of our age.As it is in Heaven is all about Christian politics. It contains Mr. Potter’s summation of that common worldview that was held by the men who built that civilization known as Christendom during the ages of Faith in the Christian West. He observes its disappearance and describes the effects of its absence on the life of men in our day. He proposes that it will one day be revived in a fashion suitable to modern times. This extended essay encourages Catholics to face reality in the murky spiritual darkness of our present century. That means that it is also a message of light and hope. Do not be mistaken, Mr. Potter is no silly optimist or clueless observer. He knows the darkness and the dangers as clearly as any living writer, but he is a Catholic through and through, and his judgments are sound and realistic. Catholic realism! A realistic outlook can only come to a Catholic who believes and who tries to live according to that belief. The strength to face reality and to deal with it courageously is what is most necessary to men who wish to truly live—not just pass through this world—and to fight manfully for truth and goodness and beauty during this short pilgrimage that is life on earth.On Earth, as it is in Heaven is part of the daily prayer of every Catholic, indeed it is also the daily prayer of many who loosely adhere to certain Christian principles, even though they do not yet belong to God’s Church and are therefore far behind on their road to salvation. The subtitle of the book (Christian Living and Social Order) clarifies the challenge. Let us hope and pray that this challenge to live this life as if God really mattered, is heard not only by weak and confused Catholics, but also by all men, who in any way desire to live a virtuous life, make this world a better place in which to live, and to give glory to God by doing His will ON EARTH, as it is already done in Heaven.
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.
A New Statement of an Old Ideal
Obliterating the notion that there are only two choices - right and left - for perspectives on social and economic life, this apologia by twelve Catholics for a socio-economic life based upon the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church offers an outline of independent operator-owners, regulative guilds, and economic science subortinated to morality and the genuine needs of mankind.
Amintore Fanfani
Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism is one of the most scholarly and comprehensive treatments of the antagonism between Catholic doctrine and the capitalist spirit. As such it is eminently persuasive. The author, Amintore Fanfani, was the Chair of Economic History at the University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy, and was the heir to a long and unmatched tradition of Italian Social Catholicism, a tradition effectively sanctioned and promoted by Popes Leo XIII and St. Pius X. Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism will be of particular interest to those seeking to better understand both the preconceptions and mentalities that the pioneers of the capitalist system possessed, and the reaction of Catholicism to that system. The book demonstrates, conclusively, that there is a scholarly, intelligent, and convincing answer to the propaganda which suggests that the world is irreparably divided into two camps, the capitalist and socialist.
Sr. Mary Concilia O'Brien - Hardcover - 478 pages
This brilliantly concieved and executed textbook was published for Catholic High School & College students. It was published in 1941 and it is still one of the clearest and succinct summaries of Catholic Social teaching. It draws primarily on the teaching of St. Thomas in the Summa and the papal encyclicals of Leo III and Pius XI. There are chapter summaries, questions for further discussion, lists of primary sources quoted, an extensive index, and suggested reading for advanced students. This is an invaluable resource for neophytes in the study of the Church's social doctrines.
Fr. Vincent McNabb
Modern "wisdom" urges people to crowd into cities or their suburbs, to have few children, to live on credit. It teaches them to regard Industrialism as inevitable, and to view a life of speed and noise as both normal and desirable. The Catholic Church teaches the contrary. She proclaims rather that life on the land, the raising of large families, the possession of real wealth over artificial tokens, concern for the needs of men and not those of machines, and a focus on the life to come, constitute the only way to true happiness and contentment. The Church and the Land is a collection of essays and articles by England's famous Dominican Distributist. De facto "chaplain" to the Distributists and the Distributist movement, Fr. McNabb was in many ways the most passionate and fervent of those seeking reform of economic life in the name of truly human values. In over 40 short essays, Fr. McNabb tackles subjects as diverse and yet unified as industrialism, morality and economics, working conditions, and the role of the state in shaping and defending the proper economic conditions. Fr. McNabb's is a common and yet unique voice within the Distributist tradition, for he represents the voice of the Church, with its characteristic concern for morality and the salvation of souls, in economic as well as all other aspects of man's daily life. Originally published: London, 1926.
Senior's well-known and popular treatise is a first-rate scholarly and impassioned expose, linking up the causes of cultural decline, ignorance, and decay across the disciplines of literature, music, and the liberal arts. Senior diagnoses the rot in our culture and provides, in the clearest and most profound terms, a candid and frank assessment.
