Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 6

On conversion, CWR, journalism, Pope Francis: My recent interview on EWTN

On conversion, CWR, journalism, Pope Francis: My recent interview on EWTN | Carl E. Olson | The Dispatch at CWR

This past Monday I was at EWTN to guest on "At Home with Jim and Joy". I always enjoy my time at EWTN: the folks there are warm and down to earth. Plus, I get to spend some time with Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ, who I first got to know in the late '90s, when he taught several courses in the University of Dallas MTS program I was in from 1997 to 2000. On this visit, Fr. Mitch cooked me some venison steak, told me some new hunting stories, and shared his wise observations on a whole host of current events.

The Pintos are salt of the earth folks. Converts from Episcopalianism (actually, I think Jim said he's a revert, having been raised Catholic), they've been running a crisis pregnancy center in Birmingham for many years. And as good as I think our on-air conversation was (see below and judge for yourself), the off-air conversation was even better.

Anyhow, we discussed a number of things: how my wife and I became Catholic, my work as an editor and author, Catholic World Report, journalism in general, and Pope Francis. Here it is:

Fast-growing "FORMED" program harnesses the power and reach of "the new Roman road"

CWR Staff | The Dispatch

FORMED is a Netflix-like VOD and digital content service that features the best audio, video, e-books and feature-length films from Augustine Institute, Ignatius Press, Word on Fire ministries, and others.

"There is a new Roman road today," says Dr. Tim Gray, president of the Augustine Institute, in explaining how the Catholic program "Formed" seeks to combine the zeal of the early Church with the tools of the digital age, "The new Roman road is the internet and the digital age. We need to take up these roads for the faith, for Jesus Christ.”

FORMED is one of the fastest growing Catholic programs today, described as "a Netflix-like VOD and digital content service for both seeker and believer that features the best audio, video, e-books and feature-length films from some of the world’s most credible Catholic sources, such as the Augustine Institute, Ignatius Press, and Word on Fire ministries."

Augustine Institute says there are now more than 210,000 FORMED users in over 2,300 parishes in the United States, with the website—formed.org—having about 2 million page views each month. And more dioceses are using the FORMED program; in 2016, the dioceses of Baker, Cincinnati, Lincoln, Colorado Springs, Philadelphia and Cheyenne used the program with great success. Other dioceses to implement FORMED recently include Arlington, Birmingham and the Archdiocese of New York, the second-largest diocese in the U.S.. The 2.6 million parishioners in the 296 parishes in the Archdiocese of New York, have unlimited access to the expansive FORMED content, at no cost, for the next year.

On December 1st, Cardinal Timothy Dolan sent out his Advent message, encouraging Catholics to use FORMED. He wrote:

Can I suggest one way you might fit some Advent preparation into your busy schedule?  Spend some time on FORMED.org, if you haven’t already signed up.  Thanks to a generous benefactor, all parishes in the Archdiocese of New York are currently signed up for this online platform that provides Catholic content such as movies, E-books, audio talks, Bible studies, and more!  There is an Advent study, as well as a new program on the Sacrament of Confession, called Forgiven.  I especially encourage you to watch this and prepare for our Archdiocesan-wide Reconciliation Monday on December 19.

The featured content on FORMED includes the "Catholicism" series by Bishop Robert Barron and his Word on Fire apostolate; the 12-session video program "Beloved" that "uncovers the mystery and the meaning of the sacrament of marriage"; the classic movie "The Jeweler's Shop", which is based on St. Pope John Paul II's best-selling book

The content featured on FORMED includes Bishop Robert Barron’s entire Catholicism series; "Beloved", a 12-session video program that uncovers the mystery and the meaning of the sacrament of marriage; The Jeweler’s Shop, a classic movie based on St. Pope John Paul II’s bestselling book; and the popular conversion story, Rome Sweet Home, by Scott and Kimberly Hahn.

“The use of FORMED and the small group concept has transformed our parish community,” says Annie Grandell, who is the coordinator of senior high youth formation at St. Mary’s and St. Michael’s parishes in Stillwater, Minnesota. “We are using it to journey through the retreat experience of the Hearts Afire parish-based program, where we gather weekly and then watch the videos on FORMED. So many people’s lives are changing — it truly has been an extraordinary gift during this extraordinary Year of Mercy!”

FORMED is frequently adding new content, including the recent addition of "Forgiven: The Transforming Power of Confession", a sacramental preparation program that explores the grace and healing offered in confession, demonstrating how this sacrament of mercy reveals the depth and bounty of God’s love. The first two “Forgiven” sessions are now available on FORMED. Children’s content is coming soon, including three animated films from "Lumen", audio dramas on the lives of the saints, a video program that is a dramatization of "Kristoph and the First Christmas Tree", and e-books from Sophia Press.

In addition, the program will also soon feature "Brother Francis: The Barefoot Saint of Assisi", a 10-part audio drama from the Augustine Institute Radio Theatre about the life of Francis of Assisi, the fun-loving son of wealth and privilege who gave up everything for the sake of Christ.

To learn more about FORMED, please visit www.formed.org.

Editor's note: Catholic World Report readers who leave a comment on this story are automatically qualified for a special giveaway. The winner will receive a free one-year individual subscription to FORMED (about a $120 value), and two runner-up winners will receive copies of Augustine Institute President Dr. Tim Gray’s latest talk, “Can You Trust God?” Winners will be selected on Monday, December 12th.

Mary was no ordinary woman: An anthropologist unearths the life of Jesus’ mother

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 6, 2016 – For the first time ever — and just in time for Advent — a new release presents an archeological and historical biography of the most adored and remarkable woman in history: MARY OF NAZARETH: History, Archeology, Legends, by author Michael Hesemann, digs into the heart of the life lived by Mary, the mother of God. From her earliest days as a small child, to the Annunciation and her life raising and loving Jesus, the most beloved, along with the lesser known chapters in the Blessed Mother’s life, Mary is examined in new and impressive detail in Hesemann’s book. Popular legends are explored, ground unearthed and contemporary sources scoured.
 
Hesemann, an accomplished author of 38 books who studied history and cultural anthropology in Germany, is uniquely situated to tell this important story of the Blessed Mother. He has participated in archaeological excavations in the Holy Land, and has helped to date discoveries in Nazareth as well as several Christian relics. Hesemann has advised and participated in TV programs for the Discovery and History Channels as well as EWTN.
 
The author’s impressive background is on display in MARY OF NAZARETH, as the reader is taken on a virtual expedition to the places where Mary lived or traveled. Included in the book are vivid, color images of the places described and investigated by Hesemann, including the Advocata icon (the oldest known Marian image), the interior of the Holy House of Loreto, Mary’s Well (the scene of the Magnificat), Mary’s tomb in the Kidron Valley and many more that bring to life in a special way the locations that played important parts in the daily life of Mary.
 
MARY OF NAZARETH provides the millions of Marian follower’s new insight into the fascinating woman who was the Mother of Jesus and the context for and the answers to many long-held queries about Mary. Hesemann also delivers the truth behind the real Christmas story, including the Three Wise Men and the Star of Bethlehem, just in time for the Advent season.
 
Says Paul Thigpen, Ph.D., author of A Year with Mary: Daily Meditations on the Mother of God: “Through historical, archaeological and textual research, Hesemann takes us on a lively adventure that sheds fascinating new light on the mother of Jesus. His personal devotion to the Virgin shines through his extensive scholarship to create a delightful and enchanting portrait of the Mother of God.”
 
For more information, to request a review copy, or to schedule an interview with Michael Hesemann, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com) of Carmel Communications.  

St. John the Baptist, prophet of Advent and preacher of repentance

"The Preaching of St. John the Baptist" by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1490)

Carl E. Olson | On the Readings for December 4, 2016, the Second Sunday of Advent

Readings:
• Isa 11:1-10
• Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
• Rom 15:4-9
• Mt 3:1-12

If you saw John the Baptist preaching on a street corner, what might you think of him? He would be a wiry man, wild in appearance, bearded and dressed in rough clothing. His message would be direct, but also mysterious: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” He would offer free baptisms and would, from time to time, have less than kind words for various authorities who watched him baptize.

He would be, in today’s terms, a troublemaker, a religious fanatic, a fundamentalist, a narrow-minded zealot.

Jesus, however, told His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist…” (Matt 11:11). This wasn’t merely the affection of the Savior for His cousin, but a striking assertion of John’s place in salvation history. John the Baptist, like so many of the Old Testament prophets, was contrary and confrontational. He drew attention to things usually passed over in polite society, especially the reality of sin and the need for repentance. He denounced hypocrisy, spiritual sloth, and injustice. And today’s Gospel reading—which contains the first mention of John in Scripture—describes him as the final and greatest forerunner of the Messiah: “A voice of one crying out in the desert…”

In his book The Advent of Salvation, the great biblical scholar, Jean Cardinal Daniélou, wrote, “Since the coming of Christ goes on forever—He is always He who is to come in the world and in the Church—there is always an Advent going on, and this Advent is filled by John the Baptist. It is John the Baptist's peculiar grace that he prepares the way for what is about to happen.” The Church has long made the connection between John the Baptist and Advent because John perfectly symbolizes—or, better, lives and expresses—the key themes of this season: anticipation, preparation, humility, repentance. His baptism was one of repentance, but he readily acknowledged that it would give way to the baptism of “the Holy Spirit and fire” offered by Jesus.

John, who was filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born, knew that his work was to prepare himself and others for the One who would offer the fullness of the Holy Spirit. “The fire of the Spirit dwells in him,” states the Catechism, “and makes him the forerunner of the coming Lord” (CCC 718). He, like all of the prophets, pointed to the Messiah. And he, like all of God’s faithful, did the bidding of the Savior. But John, the Catechism also points out, was more than a prophet, for “with John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration to man of ‘the divine likeness’” (CCC 720).

Drawing again from modern parlance, we might say that John the Baptist worked himself out of a job. Jesus, having declared the greatness of John, remarks, “yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matt 11:11). How so? The greatness of John was in his faithfulness to the call of proclaiming the Son of God. But that does not match the greatness of those who, by grace, have been baptized into the life of the Son of God. They are filled with the divine life of God, made possible by the redemptive work of the Cross. The New Covenant is greater than the Old Covenant, and it establishes the Kingdom of God, which is what John the Baptist and the other prophets anticipated and desired.

The heart of John is revealed beautifully in his statement, found in John’s Gospel, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). That is, I think, a perfect prayer for Advent. It speaks of a heart completely given to the Holy Spirit. It describes the essence of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. It reveals a man who speaks the truth in the wilderness, regardless of what everyone else on the street corner might think of him.  

Available from Ignatius Press: "Last Testament In His Own Words" by Benedict XVI, with Peter Seewald

Now available through Ignatius Press:

Last Testament In His Own Words

by Benedict XVI, with Peter Seewald

The story of the first Pope to resign in over 700 years.

Pope Benedict made history by being the first Pope in over 700 years to resign from office. The Catholic Church the world over was stunned. Worn out by corruption in the Church and by an endless series of clerical sex scandals, he decided that the resolution of all these problems was outside his power for a man of his age.

Last Testament is nearest to an autobiography from the shy and private man who has remained “hidden to the world” in a former convent in the Vatican gardens. He breaks his silence on issues such as:

- The “Vatileaks” case in which his butler leaked some of his personal letters that alleged corruption and scandal in the Vatican (the butler remains in jail)
- The presence of a “gay lobby” within the Vatican and how he dismantled it
- His alleged Nazi upbringing
- His attempts at cleaning up the “dirt in the church” (clerical sexual abuse)
- The mysterious private secretary “Gorgeous George”

On a more personal level he writes with great warmth of his successor Pope Francis, who he admits has a popular touch, a star quality which he has lacked. Much controversy still surrounds Pope Benedict`s Papacy--in this book he addresses these controversies and reveals how at his late age, governing and reforming the Papacy and particularly the Vatican, was beyond him.

Pope Benedict XVI served as pope of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013. He was elected pope on April 19, 2005, was inaugurated on April 24, 2005 and resigned from the office on February 28, 2013.

The Four Cardinals and the Encyclical in the Room

Top left: Cardinal Raymond Burke; bottom left: Cardinal Carlo Caffarra; top right: Cardinal Walter Brandmüller; bottom right: Cardinal Joachim Meisner; middle: St. John Paul II and "Veritatis Splendor" (Images: CNS and Wikipedia)

The Four Cardinals and the Encyclical in the Room | Carl E. Olson | Catholic World Report

The essential questions remain what they have always been: "what is freedom and what is its relationship to the truth contained in God's law? what is the role of conscience in man's moral development?"

How to make sense of the current situation? There is no single answer, for the ongoing saga—encompassing Synods and stratagems, debates and dubia, Exhortations and excoriations, posturings and pontifications—is about a wide range of questions. Some of them are obvious and capture the headlines, especially: does Pope Francis want to allow those Catholics who have been divorced and civilly remarried access to Holy Communion, even while they continue to live as though married?

But beneath that question are other, very fundamental questions often not voiced or discussed. In the words of one pastor:

What is good and what is sin? What origin and purpose do sufferings have? What is the way to attaining true happiness? What are death, judgment and retribution after death? Lastly, what is that final, unutterable mystery which embraces our lives and from which we take our origin and towards which we tend? ... These and other questions, such as: what is freedom and what is its relationship to the truth contained in God's law? what is the role of conscience in man's moral development? how do we determine, in accordance with the truth about the good, the specific rights and duties of the human person?

That pastor was St. John Paul II, and he posed those questions in Veritatis Splendor (par 30), his great encyclical on the Church's moral theology, released in 1993. While mindful, again, of the many issues involved, I am increasingly convinced that Veritatis Splendor, nearly a quarter century old now, is the elepha—er, encyclical in the living room. Of course, it does not stand alone, since John Paul II spoke often and wrote in detail about mercy, marriage, freedom, conscience, and a host of related matters over the course of his lengthy pontificate. In fact, every single issue relating to family, marriage, divorce, Holy Communion, culpability, subjective experience, and objective truth that Pope Francis has sought to address, analyze, explore, and grapple with since he announced the Extraordinary Synod of 2014 had already been addressed, analyzed, explored, and grappled with by John Paul II in the 1980s and 1990s.

Which is not to say that these pressing and often complicated matters should not be raised again or discussed further. Of course not. Rather, it is to wonder at how little attention has been paid in recent years to what John Paul II said and wrote over the course of his long and brilliant pontificate about family, marriage, divorce, Holy Communion, and all the rest. 

The 2014 Extraordinary Synod and the 2015 Ordinary Synod were held in order to address, as the USCCB site states, "topics related to the family and evangelization." This was followed by the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which is (at nearly 60,000 words) the longest official papal text in history. What has been the result of all of this time, labor, discussion, and ink? Judging by events of recent weeks and months, it has been much discord, confusion, and frustration, quite a bit of it revolving around that one question: "Are divorced and civilly remarried Catholics now able to receive Holy Communion?" Prior to the current pontificate the answer was "No", as it was understood—if not always accepted or practiced—that those Catholics who had entered into a second "marriage" without addressing the validity or nullity of their first marriage were, in fact, committing adultery.

Now, in short, that clear answer has been called into question, since Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia, entitled “Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness”) allows, as moral theologian Dr. E. Christian Brugger observed on this site earlier this year, "and seems intentionally [to allow]—for interpretations that pose serious problems for Catholic faith and practice." 

Proof of the contention over the now famous chapter is easy to find.

Continue reading on the CWR site.

New book by noted historian explores Catholic influence in North America

Kevin Starr's Continental Ambitions: Roman Catholics in North America looks at the life and times of the first explorers

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 29, 2016 – For the first time ever a single volume tells the fascinating story of three Roman Catholic civilizations — Spain, France and Recusant England — as they explored, evangelized and settled the North American continent.  This dramatic account unfolds in renowned author Dr. Kevin Starr’s new book, CONTINENTAL AMBITIONS: Roman Catholics in North America.
 
Starr was uniquely situated to take on this impressive endeavor. He is currently a professor at the University of Southern California and has served as State Librarian for California. He has authored many articles and books, including the acclaimed Americans and the California Dream series. Because of his writings, he has won numerous awards and accolades, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, membership in the Society of American Historians and the Presidential Medallion from USC.
 
CONTINENTAL AMBITIONS comprehensively tells the story of early exploration into North America. Starr begins with the temporary settlement of Christianized Scandinavians, and continues with looks into New Spain and New France, and ends with the founding of Maryland as a proprietary colony for Roman Catholic Recusants and Anglicans alike. Influential historical figures are brought to life, and we hear their often harrowing tales as they make their foray into the unknown. Starr dramatized the representative personalities and events that illustrate the achievements and failures of each of these societies in their explorations, treatment of Native Americans, and translations of religious and social value to new and challenging environments.
 
CONTINENTAL AMBITIONS helps to fill a void in the citizenry’s information about this early exploration.
 
Says Russell Shaw, author of Catholics in America: “Many Americans, Catholics among them, know very little about the distinctive Catholic cultures that flourished in North America long before the Pilgrims and the Puritans arrived. Now, thankfully, we have Kevin Starr’s scholarly but highly readable Continental Ambitions to fill the knowledge gap. The story it tells is not only fascinating in its own right but illuminating for the light it sheds on issues that remain part of the Catholic experience.”
 
For more information, to request a review copy, or to schedule an interview with Kevin Starr, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com) of Carmel Communications.
 
 

Not Your Typical Lesson in Giving Thanks

(Images: us.fotolia.com | Crucified Christ: Romolo Tavani; wrecked boat: nirutft)

Not Your Typical Lesson in Giving Thanks | Dale Ahlquist | CWR

We lost the garden, but we found a hope that put the whole glory of creation into a new perspective.

A strange thing happened to me the other day. My left knee went on strike. Refused to do its assigned job. Abandoned its work altogether. As so often happens in these cases, there were consequences to be had. The most notable was that I found myself unable to walk. I had been making my way across a large parking lot into a large retail establishment (too large, perhaps), and by the time I got inside the store I was clinging to wall displays and shopping carts and unsuspecting customers until I got the attention of a clerk who promptly rounded up a wheelchair and returned me to my car. It was obvious that I was not going to be buying anything, and I was taking up a perfectly good parking place. Best to get me out of there.

The rest of my day involved sitting on a couch in my study, not at all a bad place to be, but looking and acting shockingly helpless. At least I was shocked. My family has always known that I am helpless, but this time I was in on it.

All those simple steps one takes for granted—getting a pencil, getting a book, getting a glass of water—were suddenly not simple at all. And not granted. Almost impossible. Even moving a short distance became an elaborate and painful production.

So naturally I thought of G.K. Chesterton.

Something similar happened to him. He sprained his foot and experienced the same consequences that I experienced: that is, he (1.) found himself limited to the use of only one leg, and (2.) wrote an essay about it. His was better than this one, of course. Under the typically paradoxical title, “The Advantages of Having One Leg,” he reflected on how the real annoyances in life are not worth complaining about but rather, opportunities to give thanks, especially to give thanks for the things we have forgotten to be thankful for. “This world and all our powers in it are far more awful and beautiful than we even know until some accident reminds us.”

We will appreciate both our legs much more if we try standing on just one of them. We will appreciate the splendid vision of a visible things by winking with both eyes. “The way to love anything,” says Chesterton, “is to realize that it might be lost.” Wise words worth repeating. “The way to love anything is realize that it might be lost.”

He makes the same point in his great book Orthodoxy, where he talks about the famous story of Robinson Crusoe:

Continue reading on the CWR site.

Cardinal Sarah’s pastoral call to “turn to the Lord”

Cardinal Robert Sarah celebrates Mass in Port-au-Prince in January 2011. (CNS photo/Paul Jeffrey)

Cardinal Sarah’s pastoral call to “turn to the Lord” | Jeanette Flood | CWR

Some de-mythologizing needs to take place in order for many to accept Cardinal Sarah’s call to celebrate Mass “ad orientem.”

With Advent around the corner, one cannot help but wonder if any pastors or bishops will accept the controversial invitation Cardinal Robert Sarah made last July. As keynote speaker at the 2016 Sacra Liturgia conference, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments called for a “return to a common orientation of priest and people eastwards.” He urged that the change be implemented beginning on the first Sunday in Advent.

The news was met with intense consternation in some quarters and a tendency to paint Cardinal Sarah as a rogue throw-back, suffering from a warped nostalgia. With the dampening reaction made by the Holy See Press Office shortly afterward, followed by the considerable papal changes to the membership of the congregation, it is unlikely that there will be widespread implementation at this time, but it does not follow that there will be none.

What is clear is that a great deal of education and de-mythologizing must take place first.

Anti-Vatican II?

I can understand the shock and even aversion to Sarah’s proposal. I was raised on the idea that before Vatican II, the Church was stuck in the Middle Ages and the priest said Mass with his “back to the people.” In fact, when the opportunity arose in the ’90s for me to attend ad orientem Masses, I avoided it for some time.

I was blessed to work in-house at Ignatius Press for two years. While I liked and respected the Press’ founder and editor, Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, I was a little hesitant to attend his Masses. I had grown up in the charismatic movement, and expected his style of Mass—while fine for those who liked it—to be too different from my spirituality for me to enjoy.

When I finally went, it turned out to be a real eye-opener. I was pleasantly surprised to find how much I learned and, ultimately, how perfect it was.

What really struck me was that Father didn’t “turn his back to us” the whole time as I expected, but frequently turned around to address us. As he explained to me afterward, “When I’m talking to the people, I face the people. When I’m talking to God, I face God.” He didn’t have his back to us but his face to God. He was facing God with us, leading us in prayer.

Years later, Father Fessio wrote:

I don’t say Mass “with my back to the people” any more than Patton went through Germany with his “back to the soldiers.” Patton led the Third Army across Germany and they followed him to achieve a goal. The Mass is part of the Pilgrim Church on the way to our goal, our heavenly homeland. This world is not our heavenly homeland. We don’t sit around in a circle and look at each other. We want to look with each other and with the priest towards the rising sun, the rays of grace, where the Son will come again in glory on the clouds.

Father Fessio didn’t come up with this all on his own. The director for his doctoral thesis was Joseph Ratzinger. In other words, Father Fessio studied with the future Pope Benedict XVI less than a decade after Vatican II. Ratzinger was not only present at the Council, in the capacity of a peritus (expert, or consulting theologian), but was a shining light there, a featured speaker on theological topics. As early as 1967, Ratzinger spoke of “exaggerations and aberrations” that had crept in to the new Mass, asking, “Must every Mass, for instance, be celebrated facing the people?” [1] This indicates that that orientation was not intended by the Council to be the norm.

The change took hold nonetheless (along with many others made in a free-form “spirit of Vatican II”). Years later, as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then-Cardinal Ratzinger reflected:

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

What is the truth about the Catholic Church and the Nazis?

The book Catholics Confronting Hitler by Peter Bartley offers the historical facts to answer to the question: what really happened with the Catholic Church and Hitler? Written with economy and in chronological order, this book offers a comprehensive account of the response to the Nazi tyranny by Pope Pius XII, his envoys, and various representatives of the Catholic Church in every country where Nazism existed before and during WWII.

Peter Bartley makes extensive use of primary sources – letters, diaries, memoirs, official government reports, German and British. He manifestly quotes the works of several prominent Nazis, of churchmen, diplomats, members of the Resistance, and ordinary Jews and gentiles who left eye-witness accounts of life under the Nazis, in addition to the wartime correspondence between Pius XII and President Roosevelt.

This book reveals how resistance to Hitler and rescue work engaged many churchmen and laypeople at all levels, and was often undertaken in collaboration with Protestants and Jews. The Church paid a high price in many countries for its resistance, with hundreds of churches closed down, bishops exiled or martyred, and many priests shot or sent to Nazi death camps.

Bartley also explores the supposed inaction of the German bishops over Hitler’s oppression of the Jews, showing that the Reich Concordat did not deter the hierarchy and clergy from protesting the regime’s iniquities or from rescuing its victims. While giving clear evidence for Papal condemnation of the Jewish persecution, he also explains why Pius XII could not completely set aside the language of diplomacy and be more openly vocal in his rebuke of the Nazis.

Joseph Koterski, S.J., Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, explains, “Vicious allegations against Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church in Germany get mindlessly repeated. The best way to answer them is with a calm and detailed account of the facts. Bartley’s well-documented volume shows the tireless work of Catholics to oppose the Nazi regime, to defend those being attacked, and to preserve the liberty of the Church.”

Gerard V. Bradley, Ph.D., Professor of Law at University of Notre Dame, calls Catholics Confronting Hitler “a magnificent addition to the small library of works which put the lie to the slanderous assertion that the Catholic Church was silent in the face of Nazi atrocities.”

“This amazing chronicle exposes the sacrifices and the selflessness not only of the clergy, from popes to priests, but also of countless laity who stepped forward to confront the unspeakable evil of Hitler and his Third Reich. As a witness of these times I am greatly encouraged by this accurate and descriptive rendering,” says Kurt von Schuschnigg, author of When Hitler Took Austria.

Tim Staples of Catholic Answers says this book “illustrates the Catholic Church’s response to the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime like no other work to date. It will leave the reader with new respect for both the complexities involved and the enormous amount of heroism displayed.”

Catholics Confronting Hitler is “a redeeming account of the great men, plus the lesser known individuals and groups, that opposed Hitler’s madness. The Catholic opposition to Adolph Hitler is a subject that we cannot learn too much about,” says Paul Kengor, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science at Grove City College.

This book is “a frank and realistic assessment of Catholics during the years of Nazi power in Europe. It is a well-researched and important book, dispelling clichés and opening up critical areas to examination and discussion,” says Joanna Bogle, EWTN Host of The Military Orders and the Crusades.

About the Author:
Peter Bartley, was born in England and educated at Plater College, Oxford, receiving a degree in Political Science. He has written for various UK publications, and is the author of two other books, The Gospel of Jesus: Fact or Fiction?, and Mormonism: The Prophet, the Book, the Cult.

Peter Bartley, the author of Catholics Confronting Hitler, is available for interviews about this book. To request a review copy or an interview with Peter Bartley, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239) 867-4180 or rose@ignatius.com

Product Facts:
Title: CATHOLICS CONFRONTING HITLER
The Catholic Church and the Nazis
Author: Peter Bartley
Release Date: November 2016
Length: 291 pages
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-1-62164-058-5 • Softcover
Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com