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.
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
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!
For Chesterton fans this collection of articles written over eighty years ago are vintage G. K. The author arranged the articles in book format by sections and chapters giving to the whole the salient title: The Outline of Sanity. Accused by thickheaded social "progressives" of wanting to push society back into an antiquated agrarian provincialism, these insightful socio-economic indictions ought rather to have heralded the Catholic thinker as today’s prophet for social sanity. The perennial truths of the principles making up these critical commentaries will surely be even more evident in today’s restless age of stroboscopic consumerism. Master of paradox that he is, Chesterton, the philosopher, exposes the enslaving and dehumanizing aspects of an economy dependent upon monopolistic plutocrats and their so-called "labor saving" machines of mass production. With his penchant for balancing satire with humor, this literary giant provides a common sense solution to this age’s fast pace trek to nowhere. Modern man must be weaned gradually, he argues, back away from the imperialistic megalith corporation as a statistical wage earner and be productive on his own terms, on his own land. In order for man to achieve happiness, his true end, he must not build his life around some ephemeral retirement plan, but live each day for his real end: eternal retirement with God. Taking the original sense of the word economy as domestic harmony the ideal which the author champions is simply called Distributism. It is the very antithesis of Monopoly.
Eighteen Enclicals of Social Reconstruction by Pope Pius XI
Edited and annotated by Fr. Joseph Husslein, S. J. - Cloth Hardcover -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.
Fourteen Epochal Documents by Pope Leo XIII on the Social Teachings
Edited and annotated by Fr. Joseph Husslein, S. J. - Cloth Hardcover -300 Pages
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.
