Catholic Social Teaching & Economics

Distributist Perspectives is a collection of essays by leading thinkers of the school of English Distributists that in the 1920s and 1930s articulated a humane vision of social and economic life based upon the Social Doctrine of the Church. Subtitled "Essays on the Economics of Justice and Charity," and including essays by Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton, George Maxwell, Harold Robbins, Cdr. Herbert Shove, H. J. Massingham, and Eric Gill, this first collection of Distributist writings serves as an introduction to the depth and coherence of the Distributist position on such essential topics as the nature of work, the role of tradition, the dangers of industrialism, and the importance to the family and the State of the widespread distribution of ownership of productive property. Volume I of the series offers a rare glimpse through true, primary source material, of the seriousness and persuasiveness of the critique of modernity by some of the finest English Catholic minds of last century. This first volume of Distributist Perspectives also offers a newly edited edition of the Distributist Manifesto, written by Arthur J. Penty for the Distributist League in 1937.

“A clarion call to solve current societal ills... in light of the Faith[.]” —Anthony Cooney

A compact and compelling look at the usefulness of the medieval guild and the broader political theory underlying it for a solution to the age-old and still perplexing problem of the struggle between capital and labor and the economic tension between cooperation and competition. A clarion call to solve current societal ills, such as unemployment, absentee corporate ownership, and employee disenfranchisement, in light of the medieval Faith.

• Foreword by Dr. Roger McCain
• Preface by Anthony Cooney
• Publisher’s Introduction

Father Denis Fahey - PB - 146 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

Secret Societies and the Kingship of Christ is a collection of twelve articles that were written by Fr. Fahey and published in The Catholic Bulletin in 1928, the year after he published his first book Mental Prayer According to the Principles of Saint Thomas. Fr. Fahey’s formative educational years coincided with the pontificate of  that implacable foe of modernism, St. Pius X , the successor of Leo XIII who had spoken out so stridently against the sect of Freemasonry and naturalism. Attentive to the needs of the Church in his time, Fr. Fahey followed the Leonine instructions given in Humanum Genus article 31;  “We wish it to be your rule first of all to tear away the mask from Freemasonry, and to let it be seen as it really is…”
This book is a short, but thoroughly researched and footnoted introduction the the subject of Secret Societies and their impact on the Church, Christian civilization, and modern history.

Fr. Walter Farrell, O. P. - Ebook (epub, mobi, pdf) 408 pages

This magnificent set of four books is an exposition and guide to the entire Summa of Saint Thomas Aquinas. It was written by one of the premier Dominican Thomistic scholars who were active in the scholastic revival of the 1930s and 40s. These books contain the entire Summa transposed into modern English prose, thereby making accessible, for those who are not trained philosophers, the complete theology of Saint Thomas’s Summa.
The composition of these four books matches up perfectly with each of the 614 questions of the Summa. This book is meant to be read alongside the actual Summa in order to make it more easily understood by the average reader.
Volume One
This volume attempts to put in popular form St. Thomas’ masterly study of God, man, and the world in the Prima Pars of his Summa Theologica. His study is of extreme pertinence to our times precisely because we are the victims of a constantly increasing intellectual confusion. We have become more and more timid about digging beneath the surface of life, more and more emphatic about a knowledge of facts, less and less concerned with the wisdom of beginnings and ends. To put it baldly, we have concentrated more and more on the physical world and less and less on man and on God. The fact is, however, that exclusive concentration on a study of the world does not unearth the important truths about the world; an exclusive consideration of man and the world results in a blurred, distorted vision of both. We have tried to know only the world and remained most ignorant of it; to know only man and the world and have become entangled in a mass of meaningless detail. For the world is intelligible only in terms of man and God; man is intelligible only in terms of God; God is intelligible only in terms of Himself.

Fr. Walter Farrell, O. P. -ebook (epub, mobi, pdf) 412 pages

Volume Two
There is a need felt by those who, having heard enough of St. Thomas to whet their appetite, suddenly discover that they cannot go directly to St. Thomas without the guidance of a professor; and for most of them the leisure days of the classroom are over forever.
This, then, is the double purpose of this book: to furnish a rational defense of his faith for the ordinary Catholic and to open St. Thomas to the layman who has no professional philosophical or theological knowledge. It is not, then, intended only for the very learned, nor for a textbook. If it must be described in a phrase, it might best be called an easy guidebook to St. Thomas’s greatest work.
Just as a guidebook to Paris can be best evaluated in the streets of Paris, so this guide book to the Summa can be best appreciated in the pages of the Summa, by comparing the individual chapters of the book with the corresponding questions of the Prima Secundae (First Part of the Second Part) of St. Thomas’ Summa, questions that are given at the head of each chapter. Any particularly striking point will be found more fully and more beautifully developed in the Summa itself; further proofs, explanations, and illustrations can all be had directly from St. Thomas.
It is important to remember that it is the Summa reduced to popular language and not merely another book about St. Thomas or about the Summa. In fact, it is often more than that, for, particularly on difficult questions, the parallel passages in other works of St. Thomas have been freely used where the conciseness of the Summa might have caused some obscurity for one not wholly familiar with the thought of Thomas.

Father Farrell’s four-part Companion to the Summa has been responsible for much of the renewed interest in Thomism in the United States. It is required reading for many Catholic college students and “unrequired reading” for thousands of other lovers of St. Thomas.
Its author was born in Chicago in 1902. He attended Dominican schools and was ordained in the Dominican order in 1927, then going to the University of Fribourg for his S.T.D. degree. In 1940 he was awarded the seldom given Dominican honor of the Master of Sacred Theology degree. He served as a Navy chaplain during World War II and was then stationed at the Dominican Houses of Studies in Washington, D. C. and River Forest, Illinois until his death in 1951.

Fr. Walter Farrell, O. P. - ebook (epub, mobi, pdf) 464 pages

Volume Three
Originally, Fr. Farrell published Vol. Two and Vol. Three before Volumes One and Four.
Chesterton, in his Saint Thomas Aquinas, has explained both my order of publication and the title of this volume. “He (Thomas) did, with a most solid and colossal conviction, believe in Life; and in something like what Stevenson called the great theorem of the livableness of life.… The medievals had put many restrictions, and some excessive restrictions, upon the universal human hunger and even fury for life.... Never until modern thought began, did they really have to fight with men who desired to die. That horror had threatened them in Asiatic Albigensianism, but it never became normal to them—until now.” The whole second part of the Summa, covered by Vols. two and three, deals precisely with the living of human life, the invaluable meaning of that life, and the secrets of the fullest success in the living of it. This part was published first, had to be published first, because of that unholy, perverted eagerness of modern men to throw away their lives and to discard their humanity. This is St. Thomas’ superb defense of the humanity of man. The remaining volumes of this work plumb the depths and scale the heights of the unutterable truths, the mysterious beginnings and glorious goals, that interpenetrate that human life with something of divinity, the truths that are the ultimate explanations of its incredible significance.
This is not a book about the Summa, but the Summa itself reduced to popular language; and Thomas is not read in a day or a year, nor can we suffer an introduction to him, shake hands and then dismiss him from our lives. If we make the happy mistake of so much as smiling at him, he moves bag and baggage into our minds, to become an increasingly more delightful intimate as the years move on.

Fr. Walter Farrell, O. P. -ebook (epub, mobi, pdf) 430 pages

Volume Four
St. Thomas died too soon to finish his book, the Summa Theologica. Not all authors are so fortunate. This book marks the completion of a series, projected long ago perhaps with an eye to Thomas’ good fortune. The first was a search for the ultimate answers that form the bedrock of human life, human action, and the living of human life; the second furnished the key to human life and human action; the third concentrated on the living of human life in all its exuberant fullness; this, the fourth, traces the royal road a man’s feet must walk and the goals that await him at the end of the journey.
It was the Son of God Who declared. “I am the way”; this book takes His words literally, as they were meant to be taken. Its subject matter, then, is the sublime mystery by which the Son of God became man to lead men to God, the mystery of the Incarnation. It does not stop at an examination of the mystery but goes on to trace all the consequences of God’s dwelling among men: the life of Christ, detail by detail; His blessed mother; the continuation of His life in the sacraments; and the goal of heaven which is at the end of the royal road, the goal of hell which is the terminal of any other path. From beginning to end, this book deals with the supernatural, and that without apology, excuse, or defense; all this has been taken care of in previous volumes. Its contents are thus not so much an argued thesis as a divinely stated fact. If a modern reader is avid of facts, he will find a sublime diet of divine facts here; if, however, he is fastidious in the matter of facts, particularly supernatural facts, this diet may well prove too much for him.
It was not, however, for the fastidious, but for those who were hungry for God that these books were written. If they do something to stave off starvation from those who have the courage to admit their hunger, Thomas may be pardoned for not having seen to it that they were not finished, and I may be forgiven for the effrontery that began them.
Again, I wish to express my gratitude to Thomas for the good things in these books, and to my critics that the bad things are not worse.

Ebook files: mobi, epub, and pdf

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.    

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.

Don Pietro Leome - PB 246 pages

In our days the war against God and His Church has become deeper and broader than at any time in history. No longer are the powers of darkness content to attack only the institutional Church that God founded. The truth is that the human nature that God the Father created is now the subject of the adversary’s most violent persecution, and through the undermining of the very concept of human nature and the natural law enshrined in it the enemies of God hope to make any consideration of the concept of  ‘super-nature’ and super-natural life disappear from the minds of men.

The Church has always been the true guardian of not only supernatural life, but of the natural law as well. Since the natural law is the law that God put into our nature and it is discernible in the light of reason, the Church, speaking for God, is the champion of sound reasoning. With the natural law as well as supernatural law governing human sexuality and family life under attack, Don Pietro Leone has risen to defend (and to properly distinguish) those areas, so that those who wish to defend the Church and human society in our age may have sound teaching upon which to base their actions.

In the course of this treatment of these topics he makes a detailed critique of certain novel presentations of themes found in the Magisterium from the time of the Second Vatican Council onwards. Amongst these doctrines is one he terms ‘Magisterial Personalism’ and another called the ‘Theology of the Body.’ Drawing upon scholastic philosophy and the perennial teaching of the Church, Don Pietro brings light to a subject recently plunged into obscurity and darkness that is not currently being dispelled sucessfully, even by the guardians of Truth themselves.

Father Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp. PB - 144 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.”   
    — Fr. Denis Fahey

Denis Fahey was born in Golden, County Tipperary, Ireland, on the land and among kinsmen whom he dearly loved. The parish of Knockavilla where he was baptized is part of the Diocese of Cashel. He was, by the grace of God born into a devout Catholic family that was blessed with three sons. Thomas was the oldest. John died very young, and Denis was the youngest son of his parents, Thomas and Brigit (Cleary), who were deeply devoted to the Church. Denis was sent at the age of twelve to Rockwell College, where he was educated by the Holy Ghost Fathers among whom his vocation to the priesthood was nurtured and eventually came to fruition.

Fr. Fahey’s life work was the promotion of the Catholic social doctrine of Christ the King. He firmly believed that “the world must conform to Our Divine Lord, not He to it.” He always defended the Mystical Body of Christ without compromise. He called the social doctrine “Our Lord’s Program for Order.”

Fr. Denis Fahey was the great champion of the Kingship of Christ in the 20th century. This is the best introduction to his work, since it is the most concise and yet comprehensive summary of the great battle of our age. It is a clear outline of the eternal battle between the fallen angels with their worldly allies and Our Lord in his Mystical Body, the Catholic Church.
There are two cities, with two armies, battling for the victory of God’s kingdom on earth. He of course already reigns without opposition in Heaven as it says in the Lord’s Prayer.

The Mystical Body of Christ and the Reorganization of Society is Father Fahey’s magnum opus, and his other books are all worthy of our attention, however, we at Loreto feel that this is the best short introduction to Father’s teachings.

Father Denis Fahey - PB - 128 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

This book is the first published by Fr. Denis Fahey, the great apostle of the Kingship of Christ in the 20th century. In it he lays down the essential philosophical and theological principles that undergird and enliven the entire published corpus of his life’s work in defense of the Social Rights of God, in direct opposition to the nefarious Declaration of the Rights of Man that was the published declaration of war against Catholic civilization issued by the “enlightened” Freemasons who were responsible for the French Revolution.

The war that Fr. Fahey so clearly delineated and chronicled is still engaged, even though few Catholics understand the nature and the extent of this war against human society and especially against Our Lord in His Mystical Body, the Catholic Church. The two ancient battle cries “We will not have this Man rule over us!” and “Non Serviam!” have been vividly revived in the 20th century by a host of enemies of Christ’s Kingship over human society. Until all human society—especially national governments—publicly recognize that Kingship, civilization will continue on its downward spiral.

We hope that the re-publication of Fr. Fahey’s works will assist the Faithful in their attempts to restore all things in Christ for the future of our children and our children’s children and for the Greater Glory of God!

The major works of compadres G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc have been widely circulated in the past few decades among an expanding circle of Catholics seeking a more universal knowledge of our Christian perspective, history and faith. At this time Loreto Publications cannot carry these treasures of wisdom, which are voluminous (Belloc wrote about 150 books), however a good supply can be obtained from other Catholic publishers. What we have chosen to do is periodically promote certain of their productions which we feel are particularly timely and potentially formative. Outline of Sanity and The Free Press preeminently qualify as fare for any soldier whose enlistment in the Church militant is more than perfunctory. The Free Press is a new release from IHS Press. It was written in 1917, the same year Our Lady came to Fatima. The media’s manipulation of thought among the masses, which Belloc warned about back then, by the financial power elite (motivated by capitalist interest rather than truth) has grown exponentially over these last four score industrial and technological decades. Yet this eighty page essay is not a wailing sheet of moral nor intellectual despair. The mighty author was too much of a Catholic, too much a man of hope, to see nothing but gloom and darkness on the literary horizon.

Twelve Types is a collection of short biographical essays, by one of 20th-century England's greatest essayists. In keeping with the spirit of IHS Press, that there is a Catholic way to look at everything, this book evaluates the place of such figures as Tolstoy, St. Francis, Savonarola, William Morris, and others, in the history of the West and from an unabashedly Catholic perspective. With typical wit and flair, Chesterton accomplishes what modern biography most often fails to do: discuss the important and central elements of the characters it presumes to examine, while omitting tedious discussion on matters of little import. Chesterton looks at the souls, the characters, and the lives of some of the West's most important figures, providing modern readers with a sane and Catholic orientation to their approach to these great individuals. Originally published: London, 1905.

IHS Press is pleased to present a new Preface to this edition by Dr. Malcolm Brennan. Malcolm Brennan is Professor Emeritus of English Literature at the Citadel, South Carolina, and is the author of numerous works, including a collection of essays on the history of the English martyrs. The social doctrine isn't just about economics. Make this slim volume part of your Catholic cultural library today!

By Fr. John J.  Hugo - PB - 176 pages

Fr. John Hugo (1911–1985) was a priest of the Diocese of Pittsburg who spent much of his life giving retreats based upon those that he had participated in while still a young priest in the 1930s. Those retreats were given by Fr. Onesimus Lacouture S. J. and Fr. Hugo was one of over 6000 priests to whom the retreat was given over a course of several years. The Retreat, as it was affectionately called by its devoteés was an electrifying and life-changing experience for many of them. It was nothing more nor less than the Spiritual Excercises of Saint Ignatius. But these retreats given by Fr. Lacouture were, as the saying goes “the real deal.” They were given as St. Ignatius intended, for the proper length of time and according to the true Ignatian spirit. They got to the real “roots” of Christian living. They were, in short, radical.

Fr. Hugo became a disciple of Fr. Lacouture in the sense that he experienced the fruits and saw the necessity of the retreat for Catholic Americans. He determined to continue that work as part of his priestly vocation. Fr. Hugo became the spiritual advisor of Dorothy Day (and the Catholic Worker Movement) who took the retreat more than twenty times during her life.
This book, The Gospel of Peace, is one fruit of that work, and it was very controversial at the time of its publication in 1943. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is always controversial because it is “out of step” with the world.

Father Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp. - Small book - 100 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.”   
    — Fr. Denis Fahey

Fr. Fahey’s life work was the promotion of the Catholic social doctrine of Christ the King. He firmly believed that “the world must conform to Our Divine Lord, not He to it.” He always defended the Mystical Body of Christ without compromise. He called the social doctrine “Our Lord’s Program for Order.”

This is the second book Father Fahey wrote exposing Communism as it was actually practised in Russia. The first book, The Rulers of Russia was published ten years earlier and was widely appreciated for its exposure of the truth about those who brought about the ‘birth’ of Communism.

“See to it, Venerable Brethren, that the faithful do not allow themselves to be deceived! Communism is intrinsically wrong.”
— Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris, on Atheistic Communism

By Rev. Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp., D. D., D. PH., LA  —  Small book - 96 pages

   Well footnoted and impeccably researched, this book was first published in 1938 on the eve of World War II.

   Much had been written by that time about the persons who were the primary movers of the Revolution of 1917 in Russia that had been spoken of by Our Lady to the children at Fatima and at many other times much later to Sr. Lucia. A new war that was predicted to Lucia “if Russia is not consecrated to my Immaculate Heart” was humanly inevitable by the time this book was published. Her words to the children, “Only I can save you now!” have echoed through the mind of millions since that fateful hour when the Consecration of Russia was indefinitely postponed by Pope Pius XI.

   Before the Bolshevist revolution, which was engineered and perpetrated largely by the ancient enemies of Christ, had even occurred its imminent fruition called forth from Heaven the “Woman clothed with the Sun” to speak words of warning and of comfort to a world in the midst of the what many have called ‘the bloodiest century’ and what Yuri Slezkine has named ‘The Jewish Century.’

   “We will not have this Man to rule over us!” has been the cry of Jewish revolutionaries since the days when the incarnate God walked among us. Nothing much has truly changed since the time of the Gospels and in this knowledge there resides much wisdom. He who has ears to hear, let him understand. Father Fahey speaks to us plainly and lets the facts fall as they may.

Father Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp., - Small book 100 pages

   The art of money manipulation is similar to the art of manipulating the number of inches in a foot or ounces in a pound or days in a week. Those who can do it are in control of the lives and fortunes of those who cannot. Since peace within societies and between nations must be founded upon justice, it stands to reason that there cannot be any justice or peace in a world where the manipulators of money control the economic order to their own advantage. The Christian social order of the nation inevitably breaks down.

    The money question is very much on the mind of the American people today. Only the Catholic Church has the answers that we seek. Father Fahey is among the best expositors of the social Kingship of Christ and the economic principles of a Christian social order

Adapted from the French of Rev. A. Phillippe, C.S.S.R. - by Rev. Denis Fahey C.S.Sp. - 138 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

If one were to state succinctly the predominant supposition that underlies all modern thinking and action regarding human societies it would be that God has no absolute rights over the laws and governments of men; that men are sovereign over their own lives both individually and collectively.
This is the antithesis of reality. It is the devil’s doctrine. “You shall not die the death.You shall be as Gods!” This was the first lie and it is still the most destructive. Belief in that lie is almost universal today, both in thought and in practice.
God is the Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, Savior, and Sanctifier of all men. All men belong to God and we owe him our love and obedience in every aspect of our lives. Jesus Christ the God-Man is our King by every conceivable right and title, both human and divine. He has the RIGHT to be obeyed and honored by all human societies, especially governments. The Rights of Man are all subject to those of Christ the King, and all so-called ‘human rights’ will disappear if God’s rights are not properly honored by society.

Fourteen Epochal Documents by Pope Leo XIII on the Social Teachings - EBOOK - PDF

Edited and annotated by Fr. Joseph Husslein, S. J. - Cloth Hardcover -300 Pages

Few American Catholics truly understand t he social teachings of the Catholic Church. This may be in part due to the fact that many of he best papal teachings on this subject have either been ignored or  not widely read by Americans. Father Husslein tried very hard to remedy this situation with the publication of two books in 1940 dedicated to solving  this problem. He gathered together all of the encylicals by the two popes who wrote most on  the topic and made certain that the english translations were well organized, accurate, and easily understandable and readable in translation. He also made many notes that are helpful to the reader. The service he performed is treausred by all students of the Church's social doctrine and these two books, so long out of print, are now available agai exactly as they were originally published.

If you have not read many of the encyclicals that were published before the modernization of encyclical writing that took place after the 2nd Vatican Council you are in for a real treat! The brevity, clarity, and chastity of the language will surprise you. Leo is no phenomenological exegete. He speaks the way one would expect the Vicar of Christ to speak, in clear, unambiguous, and manly language that is full of charity and pius unction and truth. No one who reads these most important social encylicals will come away confused. Be warned however, their brevity is deceptive. They are overflowing with profound insights and exhortations, therefore, small doses properly savored and meditated upon is the best way to imbibe the true wisdom and sound doctrine found here.

Eighteen Enclicals of Social Reconstruction by Pope Pius XI - EBOOK - PDF

Edited and annotated by Fr. Joseph Husslein, S. J. - 450 Pages

Few American Catholics truly understand t he social teachings of the Catholic Church. This may be in part due to the fact that many of he best papal teachings on this subject have either been ignored or  not widely read by Americans. Father Husslein tried very hard to remedy this situation with the publication of two books in 1940 dedicated to solving  this problem. He gathered together all of the encylicals by the two popes who wrote most on  the topic and made certain that the english translations were well organized, accurate, and easily understandable and readable in translation. He also made many notes that are helpful to the reader. The service he performed is treausred by all students of the Church's social doctrine and these two books, so long out of print, are now available agai exactly as they were originally published.

If you have not read many of the encyclicals that were published before the modernization of encyclical writing that took place after the 2nd Vatican Council you are in for a real treat! The brevity, clarity, and chastity of the language will surprise you. Leo is no phenomenological exegete. He speaks the way one would expect the Vicar of Christ to speak, in clear, unambiguous, and manly language that is full of charity and pius unction and truth. No one who reads these most important social encylicals will come away confused. Be warned however, their brevity is deceptive. They are overflowing with profound insights and exhortations, therefore, small doses properly savored and meditated upon is the best way to imbibe the true wisdom and sound doctrine found here.

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.

Don Pietro Leome - PB 246 pages - EBOOK - PDF, Kindle, & EPUB

In our days the war against God and His Church has become deeper and broader than at any time in history. No longer are the powers of darkness content to attack only the institutional Church that God founded. The truth is that the human nature that God the Father created is now the subject of the adversary’s most violent persecution, and through the undermining of the very concept of human nature and the natural law enshrined in it the enemies of God hope to make any consideration of the concept of  ‘super-nature’ and super-natural life disappear from the minds of men.

The Church has always been the true guardian of not only supernatural life, but of the natural law as well. Since the natural law is the law that God put into our nature and it is discernible in the light of reason, the Church, speaking for God, is the champion of sound reasoning. With the natural law as well as supernatural law governing human sexuality and family life under attack, Don Pietro Leone has risen to defend (and to properly distinguish) those areas, so that those who wish to defend the Church and human society in our age may have sound teaching upon which to base their actions.

In the course of this treatment of these topics he makes a detailed critique of certain novel presentations of themes found in the Magisterium from the time of the Second Vatican Council onwards. Amongst these doctrines is one he terms ‘Magisterial Personalism’ and another called the ‘Theology of the Body.’ Drawing upon scholastic philosophy and the perennial teaching of the Church, Don Pietro brings light to a subject recently plunged into obscurity and darkness that is not currently being dispelled sucessfully, even by the guardians of Truth themselves.

Dr. Godefroid Kurth - with an Introduction by Father Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp. — Small book 64 pages

Is not the strategy of the enemies of God there to teach us a lesson? They want to destroy the faith in the hearts of individuals, it is true, but they direct still more vigorous efforts to the elimination of religion from social institutions. Even one defeat of God in this domain means the weakening, if not the ruin, of the faith in the souls of many”

This short essay on the workingman’s guilds by Professor Kurth was translated into English by Father Denis Fahey, who also wrote the introduction included here. The introduction is longer than the article since it introduces briefly the entire plan for a Christian social order, of which the economic life of the laboring man is only a portion.

When speaking of the economic life of a Christian society the most important principle to consider is that it—the economic life of society— must be subject to the moral law before all else. This subjection must be the first principle of the structure of society’s economic life and not simply something engrafted as an afterthought. Both politics and economics are disciplines subsidiary to the science of ethics.  Without this subjection nations become ensnared by the terrible modern errors known as capitalism, communism, or socialism, all of which amount to the same thing, the destruction of the society operated according to their principles, and the end of Christian civilization.

Rev. T. J. O'Kane - Small book - 88 pages

This Catechism of 84 pages was originally published by the Catholic Social Guild of Oxford England in 1936.
It contains all of the essential teachings of the Church on man’s nature, purpose, and destiny, as well as his fall and redemption. There are sections on the divine and natural law, the right to life—one’s own and that of others— as well as extensive Q&A sections on education, marriage, private property, wages, the family home, the state and Catholics in politics. This is a great teaching tool and very much needed today in America.

Jeanne Dvorak - PB - 88 pages

Natural Family Planning and the Christian Moral Code by Jeanne Dvorak, is in its fourth printing. This book reaffirms that NFP was just a novel and sinful introduction to the modern Catholic world. This compact treatise now includes a 1940 letter from the Archbishop of St. Paul, MN, in which NFP is condemned. Natural Family Planning and the Christian Moral Code does more than just examine the negative. It allays fears and bolsters confidence through its many stories and examples of obedient Catholic parents living their family life with faith and trust in God. Children are the first purpose of marriage – better to have them on your lap than on your conscience!

Fr. Denis Fahey C.S.Sp. -  226 pages - EBOOK as PDF, EPUB, or Kindle

“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

This is the last book published before Fr. Fahey’s death. It is an enduring testament to his love of the land and his firm belief that the best setting for most Catholic living is the family farm or small business, similar to the life lived by the Holy Family of Nazareth.
The Church is greatly interested in farming because it is the most fundamental of all human occupations. Those who work the land are deeply immersed in, and must work in harmony with, the natural rhythms and processes of God’s creative handiwork. The harmony and balance of rural life are profoundly upset by industrialized living, both on and off the land. Father delves into many spiritual, chemical, technical, and scientific questions pertaining to the future of farming and the life of the Church and all human society, which depends completely on the land for its existence and prosperity.