Ma'am gud day, what if someone would say you are in a wrong church. It is paganic, satanic & , blah, blah, blah. How would u defend The Bride of The Son of Man?
John Leary I can't believe anyone would follow. He said everything was going to happen by 2000. He now mixes in other seers who have approval and is dangerous.
Those who wear the Scapular of St. Michael the Archangel and pray the Chaplet of St. Michael the Archangel daily have 9 angels accompanying them (one from each choir) at mass and at the hour of death. There's no promise that they act like guardian angels outside of those circumstances. Angels can also be called upon to help you, but there are no specific promises for particular tasks that I know of, because we don't know the names or jobs of any angels besides the three named in the Bible. I don't believe that people can unknowingly consort with demons, because people can't unknowingly do evil, but people can put too much emphasis on the angels and saints, and that is something to be careful of.
Most of the angel books I encounter are New Age in nature, and usually from the 90’s- early 2000’s, when angels were super popular in the new age movement.
I'm Protestant, yet your attention to making sure that our church library is of sound doctrine is something that I'm now prompted to begin to attend to as a Pastor's wife. Thanks.
Hi, Ruth- I will be praying for you as you begin this task. It does take a lot of time, research , and prayer to go through the books. Decision making fatigue is real! But it is important work. God bless you for taking it on!
I once purchased a copy of The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila, but something seemed off when I started reading. I went back and read the translators forward where she described how she purposely mistranslated certain terms to eliminate ideas such as sin. I threw it away and left a review on Amazon, but it was shocking that the publisher would market it as an authentic work by a saint when the basic meaning was altered by a translator.
Good grief! That is horrible. Do you by any chance remember the publisher? We have several copies of The Interior Castle in our church library by different translators.
There is a translation by a Jewish woman, which could be the one. It's some time since I read some of it & the absence of sin references was one thing that struck me as odd, as sin was a big thing in other older translations I've read.
When I was studying Catholicism years back my guardian angel must have guided me to Sophia Press, TAN Books, and Ignatius Press. Years later I was given other "Catholic" publisher catalogs that sent up immediate red flags. I asked our priest and he said, "Yeah, I'd stay away from those." Later I ran across a few of the books in my public library and I was rather shocked by how left-leaning they were, with Our Lord's words being taken out of context. Marianne Williamson and her New Age "church" is well known here in the Detroit area. She was a recent presidential candidate as well.
Omgosh!!! When I heard her name, I wondered if it was her so it was! I heard about her in the 1980s when I was in University of Steubenville, there were some students I knew who were into A Course in Miracles ( unfortunately), so her name really rang a bell for me
Marianne Williamson is a sweet lady with a good caring heart. Y'all need to pray for her to find the truth, she will get there with the help of all our prayers and God's grace. Please remember her in your prayers.
I had already appointed myself, the remover of all heretical books from our small exchange library in our parish. Always astonishes me the books that people think are appropriate. Interestingly, when wecleaned out and a massive old collection our pastor asked me if I’d be willing to do the purging. I admitted that I was going to confess anyway that I’d been throwing away terrible books and he applauded that. Some titles were not even pretending to Catholic. All kinds of books on Zen and Buddhism and such, and a dandy one about an angry lesbian bartender who swore like a sailor and considered herself a preacher. …
Regarding the books you found, good grief! Good for you for tossing out the bad books. Do you have an opinion on the Catholic author Robert Able who wrote The Catholic Warrior, The Healing Power of Jesus, and other books? I’m suspect of them, and even my Protestant husband thinks they’re bad.
Oh, my goodness, Mary! Your story made me laugh... Catholic woman fesses up to secretly removing terrible books. But good for you! Yes- it is amazing how much crazy stuff is donated to our church library. We've had more than one copy of the Communist Manifesto donated... it's always an adventure!
I am not familiar with his books, but after looking at the Amazon reviews for The Healing Power of Jesus, I would say you are right to be extremely cautious. The notion that you have to say the right prayers to rebuke your illness does not sit right with me. Thanks for the heads up about this author!
@@catholicmomanddaughter Regarding the Communist Manifesto, it doesn't hurt to find out what the enemy is up to firsthand. Although I wouldn't put it in a Catholic library without alerting readers that the Catholic Church doesn't endorse CM's ideas.
The Angelspeaks book is exceptionally sinister as people who have "spoken to angels" in recent past were actually conjuring demons which lead to the murder of a family.
Thanks so much for doing this and for looking out for our souls. Some titles can be very deceiving. I was reading the csfs catholic book a while back & didn't realize. I'm so very grateful you're here for us !
We didn't realize, either, Lena until recently. While researching a different author, we came upon the Chicken Soup information, and the more we looked into it, the darker it was. We had several CSFTS books in the library that we pulled out. Many of the contributors in the series are new age or Mormon writers. We keep learning here!
Good information. The screening tips are also helpful for vetting RU-vid channels--I have put a lot of supposedly Catholic channels in my "do not recommend" list because of sketchy things like you described. I'll be referring to this video again!
A long time ago (maybe around 2011 or 2012), read a book titled something like My Friends, the Saints, by a Father James Martin, SJ. At the time I had never heard of this author so,I read it and I thought it was fabulous. Each chapter was about a different saint and the author’s particular devotion to that saint during a failure, a disappointment, a loss, or other traumatic time in his life. Asking for that saint’s intercession proved critical for Martin. There was nothing about the LGBTQ issue in the book and I enjoyed it from the first page to the last. As time went on, Father James Martin became well-known as a promoter of gay rights and I realized this was the same priest who had written the book I remembered fondly. My point is that a Catholic reader could very well miss out on an enjoyable read if he relies solely on the reputation of the author. Even now, knowing who Father James Martin, SJ, is, I would recommend that early book of his without reserve. I wish I could recall the exact title of the book.
I'm reading Fr James Martin's most recent book, Come Forth, for Lent. It's actually wonderful and inspiring. I've read most of his books and have never once had to clutch my pearls in shock. I like to read a range of authors and don't agree with absolutely everything I read, but I'm a big girl now and like to make my own mind up about books and their authors.
@@caricrook4633 if we're properly formed in conscience then heretics are not dangerous only those who don't know their faith have to avoid information that might mislead them to sin. That being said I think St. Paul warned us though to not associate with immoral men. Martins photo opp of blessing two men in homosexual union I would imagine falls under immoral men
Off topic, I know, because this video focuses on fake Catholic books, but I’d like to recommend an authentic author whose books *should* be part of every Catholic library - Dom Anscar Vonier, a Benedictine abbot who died in 1938. He was an extraordinary, orthodox Catholic writer whose books deserve far better recognition than they currently receive. He was able to take even the most abstract theological ideas and explain them in a way that any serious Catholic reader would be able to understand. I can’t recommend him highly enough.
I retired a month ago and looking forward to spend more time reading catholic books. Your information will help me weed out fake catholic books. Thank you.
Thank you so much for this. Reminds me of my mom and dad. They used to read a lot of books and whenever they read something that was doctrinally incorrect or non-catholic they would write HERETICAL on the side and keep it. Or daddy would write little comments in the margin and underline disturbing passages. I inherited all their many books and love it when i encounter one of their editorials
This was very informative. Have I told you that if my church has a library, I am not aware? There is a small bookshelf in the narthex with some books but I have no idea, how one goes about taking one. But I have so many books at home I need to read, I have not pursued asking about it. That should be on my Catholic list for 2024. Marianne Williamson was on Oprah years ago (when I still enjoyed the show. That was a LONG time ago.) I am pretty sure the Holy Spirit deterred me from her "wisdom" without me being very intentional about learning more about her. Thanks again for your tips. I might need to put this video in my saved list to refer back to later.
It is so interesting that you mention the Holy Spirit, Ann. One of our librarians also mentioned recently that she thought the Holy Spirit had protected her from reading a suspect book. It's exciting to hear about grace in action like that!
@@insanemainstream3633, I agree. This was a long time ago before I understood such things.I am sure I haven't watched her show in the last two decades, and hopefully longer than that.
The only way my parish lent books was Father Luis saying I think you should read this. A few of the quick answer to problems in the Church books by Bishop Barron wete passed around usually every Saturday at Confession.
This is an extremely good topic to be aware! Great insight , I didn't know about "nihil obstat" and "imprimatur" , thank you! Also may I add , while I was exploring books for future purchases , I discovered that some study Bibles are not faithful and more "critical"/ anti-christian politics. God bless!
Yes- that is definitely a problem. We are all at different levels of knowledge/catechesis. Definitely we need the grace and wisdom of the Holy Spirit as we try to navigate all the books out there.
The BEST way to determine if a book is published by a Catholic press if by looking for the the NIHIL OBSTAT and IMPRIMATUR by a Catholic Cleric. Near the front of the bookI was taught this in High School and later impressed upon us as instructors of Catholic doctrine.
The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are no longer required for Catholic books except when a book is to be used for catechetical purposes (such as a religious education program). So the lack of one is not necessarily an indication that anything is wrong with the book.
The absolute best thing to find in any book is an imprimatur. However that tends to be more prayer books rather than the suggestions of types of books in this video.
There are various publishing houses you have to look for. Paulist Press, for example has put out some very weird Catholic stuff amid the good. Stick with the good houses like Ignatius. Any secular publisher is questionable. Like Scripture says, we must test everything and retain what is good.
The problem with the imprimatur is it is designed for Nonfiction books. Nil obstat covers fiction but if your priest is not educated in literary analysis they may not be able to critically analyze a catholic fiction work. It trully is a specialized skill set. If you have ever wondered what the point of a an english lit degree is-- this is it actually. Catholics need a person who is educated in both theology and literary analysis
We would love to have an expert in both theology and literary analysis help us out at our library. That would so wonderful! Lol- could be a good consulting job for someone :)
You are calling these books "fake catholic books". I think they are just merely crazy. I have great sympathy for your work. It is hard enough to get good catholic books let alone get trapped by crazy ones.
I manage a media center for my parish, too. Anything dealing with faith or morals MUST have an imprimatur or nihil obstat. That's canon law. I did not know of any problems with Janice Connell or the Chicken Soup series. Thanks for the tips! I am also very wary of Protestant-based fiction for throwing in false doctrines. One final tip: any publication that claims Mary was an unwed mother goes straight to the trash.
The fact that a book does not have nihil obstat or imprimatur does not necessarily mean it is immoral. It may mean the author did not want to go through the rigamarole of getting it.
Verry informative. There are a few books I better alert our Catholic Bookstore owner of. He's screening books for what to sale and what not to. Thank you.
Hi, Angela- Susan Brinkmann at EWTN is a wealth of information on this topic. Her blog would be a great resource for him. In a short video we did not have time to get into some other books we would have liked to address. Sarah Young's Jesus Calling books are not Catholic, but they are popular devotionals. We were shocked to learn that there were so many complaints about New Age references in the early editions that the publisher completely revamped them. Another one to watch out for!
@@catholicmomanddaughter I just checked out her blog site, and it is so comprehensive! I bookmarked it for further reading and reference. Thanks for recommending it!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I am definitely grateful when I can learn something new, even if the process can be a little painful at times. It is excellent for my humility!
One book I'd like to mention to you and any other Catholic librarian is the two volume set called "My Work With Necedah". It's two books, vols I & II and then vols III & IV. By Henry H. Swan. It is Marian blue has a lovely image of Our Lady on the front with a rosary. This book purports to be the collected visions or experiences or apparitions that Mary Ann van Hoof of Necedah, WI had back in the 1940s. The diocese of La Crosse ordered that the associated "Marian shrine" be shut down, but it is still in business, and people do visit, and the books are still printed. The bishop of the diocese saying that the visions were false is good enough for me. Many of the visions are really quite wild, such as Mary warning Americans against the pharmaceutical industry or the trade unions or calling Jews by bad names or speaking against ethnic "mongrelization".
Thank you so much! Such important advice! It’s wonderful that you and the other volunteers are taking the time to screen the reading material. God bless you and your efforts!
Thank you! We feel the weight of making sure that the books are not leading anyone astray. If you would say a prayer for us, that would be great! Thank you :)
It is important that we stay in line to the teachings of the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God. When we approach the Holy Spirit with an open heart to study the Word, the Holy Spirit will open our minds and our hearts. This is why I read the Bible and if I read any other books I make sure they give all glory and praise only to the Lord for He is and should be our only Lord and Saviour. God Bless
@@scroogemcduckismyspiritanimal There are numerous passages that describe Jesus' brothers and sisters, and those words are not used metaphorically. The context and wording always make it clear that scripture is referring to his biological siblings. Therefore Mary was not a virgin forever.
@@johnzielinski9951How so? A traditional solution to the problem is that Joseph was a widower, so any "brothers" who weren't more distant relatives were half brothers by adoption. I don't know that you have to resort to that, though. In any case, the claim that Church doctrine lines up perfectly with Scripture is irrefutable because the Church is the authoritative interpreter; the Bible means what the Church says it means.
I first read that as "How to Spot a Fake Catholic." 😂 I was thinking what happened to Jennifer? Someone hacked her account. Thank you for the heads up on fake Catholic BOOKS.
Great video! A while ago I found a book in the clearance section called Reluctant Saint: The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi by Donald Spoto. I was excited to read about St Francis, but within the first chapter I knew something was off. The author seemed to not understand the terms he was using, and made some comment about how awful life was for women because they didn't have contraceptives yet. I decided to Google the author, and while he had a Catholic education, he turned out to be an openly gay man who mostly wrote about movie stars, and had also published a book called "The Hidden Jesus", which makes a number of heretical claims, denying the virgin birth, etc. Only book I have ever thrown in the garbage instead of donating!
Thanks for this heads up! It sounds like there are definitely better choices out there for St. Francis biographies. It is always hard when a book you have high hopes for turns out to be so disappointing.... we've definitely been there!
I had been given the Catholic Chicken Soup book by someone who was clearing out their bookshelves a long time ago. I had maybe read one story out of it. Thank you for the heads up. I will share this on my fb page. God bless you! Now, a new subscriber to your channel.
I'm so glad the video was helpful for you :) The Chicken Soup books were very popular for so long; we had no idea here about the new age roots here until we started looking at all our library books more closely. Who knew? Thanks for sharing and subscribing!
Yes- we have read that the earlier editions had many new age and occult references and had to be revised by the publisher due to so many complaints. It is possible the gift shop employees just don't know this.
Great video. Here in every book store I go to, in the "catholic" section there are books by Hans Küng, a former priest. He was banned from teaching in the catholic university for his heterodox ideas. For some reason he became really popular, but it's better to stay away from his writings. He tries to argue that most catholic doctrine is merely a misunderstanding of the original Gospel message. He's really some sort of hippy protestant pretending to be catholic.
Thanks for this heads up; we will be on the watch for any of his books. So far we have not had any of them come through our library, but we do get many donations, so you never know.
Thanks so much this is a great resource! Marianne Williamson! Eewwww! She started something called A Course in Miracles, very occult! Lot of Catholics into this unfortunately. A lot of Catholics also into the Enneagram I would pull that too, I've also heard a lot of questionable stuff about Richard Rohr. With material on the Blessed mother, anything by Mark Miravalle is good, he is an expert on our Blessed Mother and he is a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville.
my biggest (and saddest) surprise was to find out a lot of catholic Bibles have notes and introductions that clearly contraddicts what the Church Fathers said, I'd suggest books by Francesco Spadafora, a well know italian biblist and a true catholic
@MrBillBronx More info please? The St Joseph edition is just a particular publisher's edition of the New American Bible, and to print the NAB, even the footnotes are copyrighted and must be included as is. So the problem would be with the NAB (which is the US bishop's promulgated translation, disappointingly) rather than the St Joseph edition's publisher
One tip I would add: know your publishers. If it’s published by catholic answers, Sophia press, or ignatius press, Emmaeus Road, you won’t have to give them more attention than whether or not it’s in good condition! I’m personally a little iffy on TAN publications and Ave Maria Press, so I’ll usually give the book a cursory once over. If it’s a secular publisher, it almost always gets more scrutiny.
Thank you for this good advice. I have also found that Ave Maria Press can at times be a little iffy. Glad to know I am not the only one who has thought so. Last year I read one of their devotionals about the Psalms and found the wording a little off.
@@owlobsidian6965 I think my issue with TAN in general is that their older stuff is generally orthodox but irrelevant, and a lot of their newer stuff is, oh, for a lack of a better word, flighty? So it’s not so much a question of their orthodoxy, but more a question of value added. It really could just be my own perspective, and it’s partly from the perspective of a fellow church library volunteer (limited space and resources) so take that for what it’s worth. But it has been a while since I’ve given them a good look, (as they seemed to be in a slump for a while) maybe they’ve upped their game?
@@catholicmomanddaughter Ave Maria Press is often mistakenly thought to be associated with Ave Maria University, and so a lot of people just end up trusting their content for that reason. They’re not affiliated. I *think* AMP is associated with St. Mary College in south bend, but I’d have to double check on that.
@@catholicmomanddaughter ohhhh! And one of the funniest experiences we have as our church library volunteers are the “Christian romance” books that get donated! We do have some literature (CS Lewis, Michael obrien, Tolkien. and Chesterton, for example), but we just feel so squishy and get a good laugh out of thinking of a section of romance in the church library. They get donated to the local used bookshop.
Happy new year Jennifer. It’s been a while since I’ve commented. This was a very interesting and eye opening video. I first came across Anthony De Mello (Jesuit Priest) on a retreat in the late 90’s presented by two Catholic nuns. I must say I do remember it was an excellent retreat. I also recall they incorporated the (Buddhist) concept mindfulness into the retreat from the book Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh (which I have to admit I did buy at the time, though no longer own). I must say the book did help me to be mindful and rush less when washing the dishes. I bought Anthony De Mello’s book Awareness and later down the track the book Well Springs (both of which I still own). It makes me wonder if there’s an Eastern religion influence with Anthony De Mello books and teachings. I don’t know enough about the Eastern Religions to say if he was influenced or not by them. Out of curiosity I’m going to look further into Anthony De Mello and Cardinal Ratzinger's decision. It goes to show that we even have to be careful of what priests and nuns tell us when it comes to the Catholic religion and faith. Thank you for showing the evidence you did. Thank you also for another insightful video. Hope 2024 is a wonderful year for you, Kate and your family 🙏🏻
It's always great to hear from you, Catherine! Yes, Anthony De Mello was influenced by Eastern religions according what we have read (we have the article links for you in our description box). You make an excellent point on how careful we have to be, and even then, sometimes we still make mistakes or wish we would have known more after the fact. I try to keep on learning here as much as I can. It has been a very humbling journey for me, definitely!
@@catholicmomanddaughter Thank you kindly Jennifer for your understanding reply and for providing the link. I’ll have a read. I suppose we are all on a learning journey, even those who’ve given themselves to Christ. In my regular job, I look back and look at the errors I made, but if I’d known what I now know I wouldn’t have done what I did. I learned (well hopefully) from these mistakes. I may be making other unknown mistakes to this day, which I may not be aware of for another five years. As a perfectionist this is hard for me to accept. I suppose that’s why we not only need to ask God for forgiveness for ours errors, but we have to forgive ourselves for not being perfect in following the Catholic doctrine or doing our job perfectly even after a 110% effort has been given. Anyway, I’ll leave the topic here, but appreciated you bringing the contents of your video to our attention. It was thought provoking😊
2:50 Angels Speak - It is important to note that the topic of this book has become a growing trend for women of the Protestant faith. I believe the main author of this heresy has recently died in 2023. I don't recall her name, but she has been promoting 'channeling' of spirits through journaling where angles or even God Himself would 'reveal' secrets to whoever does this journaling technique. She has written many books over the decades promoting this heresy. Most Protestant men don't even know about it but seems to be very popular with women. This book you have seems to be along the same heresy that was started by this other author. This seems to be a new way to promote eastern spiritualism ideas into the church.
I think I accidentally bought a fake Catholic book at the used book sale at my Catholic college. (The library gets many book donations, and what they don't keep they sell for $1). It was called "Care of the Soul" by Thomas Moore (not the St., I came to realize, and the wrong spelling anyway) and was an old style bound book. But when I opened it it said something about drinking hot tea and taking a bath. So I guess it was "self-care" not Catholic spirituality. Lol!
Haha. St. Thomas Aquinas recommended taking long hot baths. A bubble bath is my favourite place to read in the winter when I cannot enjoy the garden. Certainly, self-care is not something that Catholics need to avoid. We must be healthy to have the strength to care for others. But yes, a lot of self-care books take inspiration from Eastern or New Age spirituality. So I understand completely what you mean. We have to be cautious.
Well, on the upside, at least the book did not have you sitting at your computer waiting for your angels to type out a message for you, lol. But still, it sounds like it was not quite what you were expecting. We've also been there and had that happen :)
This is interesting. Short of the pope and/or a group of bishops condemn a book based on doctrine or faith errors it is a tricky thing to individually condemn an author just because of some ideas that don't sit right or that we don't immediately understand. Galileo, a devout Catholic had his writings suppressed by the magisterium; now thankfully we know better. St. Joan of Arc, Athanasius and Columba had either their writings or their stories banned by some arm of the church. Now we treasure them. The Nihil Obstat is one of the best way to go but also knowing the authors and their lives. The Church grows and evolves in the way we understand revealed eternal truth.
Yes- we have to use both charity and caution, especially if the author is a priest in good standing with the Church. We try at our library to gather information in a variety of ways and seek the counsel of our clergy as well. Thank you for your thoughts!
👏Very interesting video. 🤔 I can see why a lot of these authors would market these books to Roman Catholics. 99% of Roman Catholics don’t have a good grasp on Roman Catholic doctrine and beliefs. My whole family is Roman Catholic and o live in a large staunch Roman Catholic county. Most Roman Catholics I meet are very much into New Age thinking, the supernatural and eastern philosophies. So I can understand why these books would be marketed to Roman Catholics: they sell well.
I hear you, but that's a tough one. Books are something I know well and can comment on- and then only after researching them the best I can (and not always perfectly despite my best efforts). For the sake of charity, I will stick to them.
I will suggest that Amizon is not too good at deciding who is a real Catholic Author or what is Catholic content, from my own experiences, it is a place to check but with caution. Your presentation was very good for me.
Lol although I never read any of her books, I could've told you the one by Marianne Williamson was going to be no good. She ran for US president in 2020 and her views on spirituality are...strange...to put it mildly. I did look her up just now and she is a Unitarian, which explains it pretty well.
Yes- there are quite a few problematic authors out there. We removed the Jesus Calling books from the library based on what we read about the author's new age tendencies. We have not come across any of the McBrien books- thanks for the heads up about those!
Ironic that CS Lewis is more "Catholic" than many supposedly Catholic writers. I suspect if he lived nowadays he would have probably become a Catholic.
It's interesting you should say that. We recently listened to a lecture by Dr. Jospeh Pearce here, and it was fun to hear his opinion on why CS Lewis never became Catholic.
Lewis' problem with the Catholic Church resulted from his having been born Anglo Protestant in Northern Ireland. Nonetheless, I sometimes think of him as "Saint Jack".
"Creed" by Luke Timothy Johnson. He's overly critical of the Church, and sacred tradition, and had plenty of heretical things to say in there. However, he had some good things to say and some of the historical information of how the Creed developed was informative.
Interesting channel....good info to know. Thankfully, I usually only buy books recommended by EWTN bookmark or from my various Catholic newsletters or ones I know but you never know right ;-)
7:42 Ouch! Couch potatoes beware! Maybe could have been a warning to me, I would remain in or easily fall back into mortal sin, unless I exercise, but I don't think it applies to each couch potato (of which I am the chief).
I’m a traditional Roman Catholic and I’m careful about what version of the Catholic Bible I have because there are so many different versions out there, and they seem to be worded differently. I usually don’t have newer written books because they may have false information on the beautiful Catholic religion. I love buying books that were written in the mid 1950s and prior, but those can get pricey so I probably don’t have a lot of those. One can never be too careful when it comes to the Catholic books they read. God bless you all!
Just look for the “imprimatur” in the front of the book. In the Catholic Church an imprimatur is an official declaration by a Church authority that a printed work may be published; it is usually only granted to books on religious topics that are written from a Catholic perspective. Approval is given in line with canons 822 to 832 of the Code of Canon Law. The imprimatur is normally preceded by a favourable declaration (or nihil obstat) by a person who has the orthodoxy and prudence necessary for passing a judgement about anything they find in the work that would harm correct faith or good morals.
There are still a lot of very good Catholic books that don't have the imprimatur. Just look at the history books by Ignatius Press. The key is knowing how to discern which books are Catholic and are providing good Catholic thought and sensibilities.
Yes- there are definitely many books that are labeled as Catholic (or books your Catholic library might have that aren't really Catholic at all) that have major problems with doctrine and theology. Maybe in the future I will do a part 2!
“Good News About Sex & Marriage” is not as great as people think. It says something is okay and permissible even though it isn’t. I’ve heard that many lay Catholic writers/advice-givers say the same thing is permissible, which is even more alarming. It’s like they ignore Theology of the Body and the dignity and proper treatment/respect/use of specific parts, and just said it’s “permissible” because they want it to be. Very sad. Other than that it isn’t problematic.
Did a skim of some of the comments below, and didn't see any warnings on Richard Rohr. He's another one that's gone new age hugely. Roger Haight, SJ also. (These days, I'd be careful with anything SJ.)
The first book is *technically* Catholic. I haven’t read it, but Paul Wilkes has other books published by the Paulist Press which is a reputable Catholic publisher.
All Bibles have the same 27 New Testament books. The Apocrypha are interesting reading but not necessary. The few Old Testament books that a Protestant Bible is "missing" don't have doctrinal significance to my knowledge nor salvic information. Other than specific study notes and other added materials that are not strictly speaking part of the Bible is going to differ naturally. So sticking with ones that don't have added bits should be reasonably safe. If it's a new Catholic or one who hasn't been catechised properly should stick with an approved version.
As a fairly recent returnee Home, love that you're doing this, I need help navigating. The only author I recognized is M. Williams, I found that ironic since I knew her work from before my conversion lol!
message to all of our protestant brothers -- The Catholic church convened 3 councils at Hippo, Carthage and Rome to determine bible canon and they closed bible canon by 397AD -- The King James Version was published in 1611AD
I'm so sorry that happened! It is always hugely disappointing to buy a book and then find out it was not what you thought. Slowing down is great advice!
How about Bibles? Good grief, there are so many variations out now that when my CCD students, who are required to bring in a Bible, come with these different versions I don’t know how to decipher whether they’re Catholic or not.
Hello- there is a quick way to tell if your Bible is Catholic. Check in front for the Imprimatur and the Nihil Obstat. A Protestant Bible will not have these. I also have my students check for the book of Maccabees ( I and II) in the table of contents as an alternate screening tool. Lol- it is not so easy to remember Latin terms, but they can usually remember Big Mac. Again, a nonCatholic Bible will not have those. Hope that helps!