What to read

The Prodigal Church: Restoring Catholic Tradition in an Age of Deception
Brandon McGinley
Sophia Institute Press, 208 pages

Ecclesia semper reformanda est — “the Church is always in need of reform,” goes a truism Catholics may recognize. Many blame the Second Vatican Council for today’s problems and confusion, yet the preconciliar Church did need reform. The trick is to examine what was good and deficient about the preconciliar Church as well as where the implementation of Vatican II perhaps went off the rails. Editor and publisher Brandon McGinley offers here a roadmap for renewal that spares the baby but drains the bathwater — and it’s all centered on Christ, Catholic identity, the truths of the faith, and the great baptismal mission for which Christ sends us into the world. 101

Surprising Facts About Mary
Father David Vincent Meconi, S.J.
St. Benedict’s Press/TAN Books, 107 pages

Did you know that Mary is referenced in the third chapter of Genesis? Or that the first reported Marian apparition occurred in A.D. 40, while Mary was still living? Or that St. Thomas Aquinas did not support belief in the Immaculate Conception? Or that a severely disabled 11th century monk wrote the Salve Regina? Or why Dominicans hang rosaries from their hips? These are among the facts related to the Blessed Virgin that are related in this informative and colorfully illustrated book. Many of these should be familiar to most studious Catholics, but most will discover much to learn here that  will intrigue and — yes — certainly surprise.

The World According to God
F.X. Cronin
Sophia Institute Press, 40 pages

Following a circuitous journey through atheism and Protestantism, author F.X. Cronin returned to his Catholic faith in 2007, much to the dismay of his Evangelical friends. Here he compiles his amiable responses to their objections to Catholicism, beginning with arguments for the existence of knowable truths and refutations of common assumptions of relativism. Deftly he turns the tables on doubters who perceive faith as “blind,” or those who sometimes tout modern science over faith but in an “anti-scientific” manner. Nor is God some distant presence unconcerned with our affairs, but one who intervenes in our lives and invites us along the path to happiness. This book pulls it all together.