Books Published by Arouca Press

Monarchy or Plutocracy? This is the rousing question Hilaire Belloc placed before his readers in this masterly 1938 work. Belloc, grown old, saw the revolutionary dreams of his youth were naive. The great liberal insurrections, which supposedly led to Democracy, had yielded instead to secretive control by shadowy Capitalistic elites. As provocative as this thesis was in 1938, many today harbour similar suspicions of entities as varied as Wall Street, Washington, the European Union and the Wor...

Salazar and His Work is an indispensable volume that provides an in-depth overview of the life and legacy of one of Portugal's most beloved leaders. António de Oliveira Salazar was a statesman whose strong personal values guided his leadership, making him especially revered among the Portuguese citizens. He was highly intelligent, honest and dedicated to public service, working arduously with deep devotion to ensure a prosperous future for his country. Salazar and His Work is an insightful lo...

Discover the modern relevance of Pope Leo XIII's encyclicals in The Church Speaks to the Modern World by Etienne Gilson. This powerful book presents the papal pronouncements of Leo XIII as arranged and indicated by the pope himself – with each one clearly explained by Gilson's insightful introduction, notes, summarization and study. For individuals of all faiths seeking valuable spiritual instruction and guidance, this unique volume provides insights into topics including social justice, edu...

The Pastoral and Circular Letters of St. Ezequiel Moreno y Diaz St. Ezequiel Moreno-Diaz (1848-1906), bishop of Pasto, Colombia, was at heart a shepherd. This series of writings-published here for the first time in English-is a pastoral theology. Its author addresses the spiritual, philosophical, social, and political problems that he sees his people struggling with. He offers them the teachings and sacraments of the Church as a solution. Perhaps as a witness to the effects of liberalism, Mor...

Liberalism: A Critique of Its Basic Principles and Various Forms is the first book of its kind to provide a comprehensive and thorough exploration of liberalism. For decades, modernity has seen the influence of this ideology, but it hasn’t been without its fair share of criticism along the way. Seminars, debates, publications- we take stock of those who criticize liberalism right alongside those who extol its virtues, with no bias or one-sidedness. Cardinal Billot provides a deep look at what...

These pages, now collected in one small volume, have been written for the purpose of helping the faithful, ordinary souls, to attain one most important object: active participation in the holy Sacrifice of the Mass; so that, consciously and deliberately, they may offer the sacred Victim, offer themselves and be nourished by receiving the holy Eucharist. In a word: that they may live the blessed Eucharist, the sacrifice and the sacrament, in its entirety, and that by living it they may sanctif...

In 1797, Revolutionary France, with the dynamic young General Bonaparte in command of its armies, set upon the conquest of Europe, both by taking territory and by spreading the new ideology. Pope Pius VI, though firmly opposed to the Revolution, nonetheless thought he had spared Rome from its march by granting Napoleon control over the papal lands in Tuscany, where the popes had reigned for a millennium. But the accidental death of a French general, living in Rome at the residence of the Fren...

A Catholic Approach to the Natural World Do you want to deepen your understanding of Catholic teachings about the environment? Then look no further than The Glory of the Cosmos! This book provides both devout Catholics and those who may not necessarily be aware of Church doctrine with a deep exploration into authentic Catholic beliefs. With persuasive arguments from St. Thomas Aquinas, you'll be able to move beyond political issues regarding the environment and get to the heart of timeless te...

"Hence the perfection of the universe requires that there should be intellectual creatures. Now to understand cannot be the action of a body, nor of any corporeal power.... Hence the perfection of the universe requires the existence of an incorporeal creature." (St. Thomas, Summa, 1a, 50). This small devotional book was compiled from various sources and offers meditations and prayers devoted to the Holy Angels. Most of the book was originally printed in the 1940s.

Excerpt from the Introduction: Father Valuy's work gives the religious practical means of achieving detachment from their own wills in order to practice the type of charity Our Lord demands of them. He strikes at the heart of that duplicity of spirit which can so easily put on the semblance of piety but which in reality is hypocritical in its dealings with other men. Fr. Valuy asks: "Am I one of those proud spirits who expose the faults of others in order to show off their pretended virtues?"...

Why Revive the Liturgy, and How? Monsignor John O'Connor (1870-1952), an Irish parish priest in Yorkshire blessed with a solid continental education, was the inspiration for G.K. Chesterton's famous clerical sleuth, Father Brown. Though a friend of Chesterton and Eric Gill and a published writer himself, O'Connor's motives for printing his prewar tract on liturgical renewal both privately and anonymously will not be hard to fathom. His liturgical views offer an insight into the thinking of no...

God uses the most unlikely people in mysterious ways. Madeleine Mirabal was born into a poor family in 19th century Paris. She suffered throughout her whole life. Despite not being raised in the Catholic Faith, she found God and step by step surrendered herself to His love, coming to realise that the very heart and essence of the Catholic Faith is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It was to her that God gave the inspiration for the devotion of the Mass of Reparation. Saddened by the absence of ...

Homilies of the Holy Fathers on the Gospels of all the Sundays and Chief Festivals of the Eccles A collection of homilies from the Church Fathers according to the Ecclesiastical Year. Originally published in 1901. The Fathers featured in this collection are: Sts. Gregory the Great, Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Leo the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, Hilary of Poitiers, John Chrysostom, Peter Chrysologus, and Venerable Bede. Excerpt from the Foreword: Study of the authoritative commentators on Sac...

A Priest in the Prisons of Communist Albania The dissemination of Dom Simon Jubani's testimony of faith, who was a priest in our Archdiocese during his lifetime, offers everyone with good will the possibility to discover or better know the terrible experience under Enver Hoxha's communist dictatorship in Albania. Through the eyes of this priest, who was one of the most affirmed and well-known figures in our country and overseas, the reader will thoroughly understand what these years meant for...

Jesus Christ (His Life, His Teaching, and His Work): Vol. 2 In the two comprehensive volumes of his monumental work on the life of our Lord Jesus Christ Father Prat has left to the world an enduring masterpiece. In clearly intelligible phrase the author conveys to us the earthly career of our Lord and Saviour, building up from the sacred books and from all authentic sources the background of the scenes described and the deeds enacted. At the same time copious notes keep us in touch with every...

Before being published as a small book, these "counsels of perfection" and spiritual notes by Blessed Edward Poppe (1890-1924), a Belgian priest whose cause for canonization is underway, had been transcribed a hundred times by hand by those who had tasted their flavor, vigor, and supernatural wisdom. Fresh and luminous, this little book has been a tremendous success in Dutch, French, Italian, and German; it now appears at last in English. Responding well to the needs of the faithful, it will ...

The four books (Introduction to Theology, Revelation, The Channels of Revelation, The Church) conveniently gathered in this volume titled The Science of Sacred Theology, were written by the great but sorely neglected theologian, Fr. Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. (1903-1976), as abbreviated texts of his Theologia Dogmatica, a two-volume work totaling over 2,000 pages. These four books were originally published by the Notre Dame Pontifical Catechetical Institute which was founded by Msgr. Eugene Kev...

The startling assertion that "the laity must be apostolic" requires unpacking as the Church becomes more and more confined in modern society. But, as Fr. Francis Wendell shows in this short book, there is a transformative "philosophy of presence that can be exercised only by lay people since they are present in and are of the world." In this short work, Fr. Wendell shows how: - the laity must avoid a purely external living of Christianity - how there is no one-size-fits-all program for the la...

This is a new edition of Fr. Paul de Jaegher's classic work on the interior life. In these few simple pages we aim at expounding a conception of the spiritual life, which, of its very nature, seems well adapted to help the soul in its progress through these two stages on the road to sanctity. Founded on a fundamental dogma of the spiritual life, the dogma of sanctifying grace and of the divine indwelling, it helps us singularly to esteem and practice this precious intimacy with Christ, which...

Well-known in the French-speaking world for his devastating critiques of the decadence of thought in the West since Descartes's Cogito ergo sum, Marcel De Corte published Intelligence in Danger of Death as the final stage of his reflections in 1969. To grasp the profound mutation which man and society have undergone, Marcel De Corte offers a merciless analysis that relies on classical philosophy and insight from Christian Revelation. He outlines the genealogy of contemporary evils and indic...

Catholic Christendom versus Revolutionary Disorder Volume 1 (The Collected Works of Dr. John Rao) If Christ came to "bring a sword" into history, it was a sword that was meant to fight on behalf of the personal and common good of individual human beings and the communities through which they work to perfect themselves. Everywhere that sword cut, it did so to fashion a true, good, and beautiful civilization in which men could live with a freedom and a dignity that surpasses all purely natural...

"My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials(Sirach, 2)Most American Catholics who came to call themselves Traditionalists were totally unprepared for the assault on the Roman Rite manifesting itself at the Second Vatican Council and in its aftermath. Their reactions to the Liturgical Revolution were, therefore, those of a shocked incredulity, such a nightmare seeming impossible in a Church that they had considered so well-protected from error by the Papacy. There w...

Few books do so much in so little as this one. In sixteen short chapters the authors manage not only to present a key to the Traditional Missal, but also a key to the entire Church Year, as well as a key to the Sacred Liturgy. In addition to the chapters on the seasons of the Church Year, the book gives in two initial chapters authentic information on the history of the Missal and its use, concluding with three chapters on the Feasts of Our Lord, of the Mother of God, and of the Saints. May t...

On a Mission to Preserve Our Worship of the DivineSacred Music and Liturgy After Vatican II recounts the important role that Monsignor Schuler played in the post-Vatican II Church. It was his heroic commitment, through countless writings in Sacred Music magazine, and through the authentic implementation of the Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy at the Church of Saint Agnes in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that has helped keep the patrimony of Catholic sacred music and liturgy alive against...

It is to the credit of Fr. Ralph Weimann, a theologian who lives in today's world and is particularly attentive to the current challenges of the Church, but at the same time deeply rooted in the great tradition of the Church, to have made a valuable contribution in this regard with this book. The purpose of this book is to offer a guide to show the way to Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. To this end, in a first step, the common prejudices that supposedly speak against the faith and th...

Short Sermons For the Sundays of the Year on Texts from the Epistles This book consists of a series of short sermons based on the epistles throughout the Liturgical Year. Originally published in 1927, it was written by Fr. Michael Andrew Chapman, a former Episcopalian minister. Newly typeset, with new cover art, and featuring a foreword by Fr. John Hunwicke (priest of the Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham). Here is an excerpt from his foreword: Because the Bible is the Church's book, the ...

In the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries It is hoped with the second edition of the English translation of Petit's classic masterpiece that this hidden jewel of a book will become less hidden. That the people of our day might find inspiration in the amazing story and spirit of the Norbertine Order in its first centuries - the story which Fr. Petit so lovingly unpacks in these pages. And that it may contribute to keeping the Premonstratensian fire burning brightly— nine centuries after it was f...

In the last few years more and more Catholics have begun taking seriously Pope Leo XIII's teaching on the relationship between Church and state. As a result, they have come to see the fundamental deficiencies of the liberalism that has dominated Western culture for over 200 years. But if liberalism, with its doctrine that limits the concerns of the political community to merely this-worldly matters, is erroneous, what is to be put in its place? And further, how would that alternative actually...

Jesus Christ (His Life, His Teaching, and His Work): Vol. 1 In the two comprehensive volumes of his monumental work on the life of our Lord Jesus Christ Father Prat has left to the world an enduring masterpiece. In clearly intelligible phrase the author conveys to us the earthly career of our Lord and Saviour, building up from the sacred books and from all authentic sources the background of the scenes described and the deeds enacted. At the same time copious notes keep us in touch with every...

Satan is the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning. Falsity and violence— these two features are only too tragically typical of the present century. And of these two diabolical manifestations, it is arguable that falsity is the more essentially Satanic. We shall here attempt to show why this is so. Contemporary man, confronted by the problem of Satan, is divided against himself by a twofold reaction, apparently self-contradictory. He is on the one hand fascinated by this mysterious...

A Guided Reading of Pope Pius XI's Encyclical Casti Connubii (On Chaste Marriage) - 2nd Edition In 1930, Pius XI published a letter to the world to answer a fundamental question— "What is Marriage?" As even Christians began to accept divorce and remarriage, contraception, and abortion, the Pope eloquently and beautifully defended the ancient understanding of marriage as grounded in Scripture and natural law. This guided reading of the encyclical Casti Connubii will help you, your friends, and...

Understanding Marriage and Family: A Catholic Perspective looks at marriage and family through the lenses of common sense and the Catholic faith. Through those lenses, a clear and distinct understanding of marriage and family arises which harmonizes with the consensus of past generations. Using clear language, Fr. Sebastian instructs parents and teachers how to understand, explain and defend traditional marriage and family to a new generation which has lost sight of the wisdom of the ages. Fi...

A Conversation with Thomas Storck  Exploring deep probing questions, Thomas Storck takes readers through his life in Seeing the World with Catholic Eyes. This book delves deep into this public intellectual’s roots to seek out the determining factors used to shape his life. Temperamentally and politically turbulent events are woven into the journey that shaped this thought leader, allowing them to develop their own brand of Catechism-imbued morality. Storck adds a modern interpretation of Cath...

There are two reasons to rejoice at the publication of this new edition of Hugh Ross Williamson's important work on the evidence for Shakespeare's Catholicism. The first is its restoration of the author to his rightful place in the Catholic cultural conversation, a place he held for a full forty years from the 1930s to the 1970s; the second is the restoration of the present volume to its rightful place in the scholarly conversation on the nature and importance of Shakespeare's faith. -Joseph ...

Dignitatis Humanae, the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on religious liberty, remains one of the most debated texts in modern Catholic theology. Its teaching raises urgent questions: Is the Council’s doctrine on religious liberty an infallible teaching or an act of the “authentic Magisterium”? May a Catholic suspend or withhold assent, and under what conditions? And most critically, does the Council’s treatment of religious liberty contradict the Church’s earlier magisterium? As Alan Fim...

Today's world is rocked by claims and counter-claims made by the most diverse groups. The result is ideological conflict, violence, destruction and always the threat of a wider war, often based on contested land and boundaries. At bottom, all these disputes resolve themselves into conflicts about justice. But what is justice? Does it even make sense to talk about justice today, when so many use and misuse the concept for their own ends?In this ever timely book, the Belgian philosopher, Marcel...

The chequered life of Ludolph the Carthusian (c. 1295-1378) found its spiritual contentment in the writing of his colossal work on the Vita Jesu Christi in Latin. The book on the Life of Christ occupied some forty years of Ludolph's life in a charterhouse in Mainz. It has been styled as a summa evangelica and as it contains a series of meditations, spiritual instructions and prayers, it has also served to many a medieval scholar as a collation of dogmatic and moral dissertations. These are st...

My adult daughter, who still hasn't gotten confirmed, recently delivered some incisive car commentary on Catholic male radio voices. "They sound like pleasant eunuchs; not alive, self-consciously holy."As I sit here, I'm reminded of T group facilitators back in my undergrad days: gentle healers, seeped in their own goodness. The artificial smiles, the invite to come and join THAT party!Well, we're all sinners.And that's the point I want to make in these sonnets. We all reach for Jesus, and we...

Domine Exaudi is the fifth of six volumes of Denis the Carthusian’s monumental Commentary on the Davidic Psalms. Denis (1402–1471), known as the “ecstatic Doctor,” devoted himself to expounding all 150 Psalms according to the traditional fourfold sense of Scripture: literal, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical. This volume continues the effort to make his rich spiritual and theological insights available in English for the first time. Denis understood the Psalter to be the heart of Chri...

This learned book traces the course of mystical theology which led up to St John of the Cross. It studies Hugh and Richard of St Victor, St Bonaventure, important writings which long passed under his name, Hugh of Balma, a Carthusian Prior it seems of the thirteenth century, Tauler's authentic sermons and his Institutiones, a compilation by St Peter Canisius passing under his name, Ruysbroeck, Denis the Carthusian, Kastl's De Adhaerendo Deo, and finally a brief notice of Spanish writers of th...

Abbé Georges Michonneau (1899-1983) was a dedicated and zealous parish priest among the working class of Paris. In his three works of this anthology the reader will find a profound awareness of the full reality of the Church of Christ, its role in the world, and the service it must render to the people who make up the Body of Christ on earth. For that reason, and because his priestly heart was very much in the right place, and also because the pre-conciliar pastoral problems he sought to addr...

The figure of Girolamo Savonarola looms large over Italian secular and ecclesiastical history, but remains obscure to the English-speaking world. Now, as part of a larger project dedicated to the translation and study of the life and works of Savonarola, this highly accessible biography of the Friar of San Marco has been republished in the hopes of introducing faithful Catholics to a man that Pius XII called "an apostle who has a lively sense of things divine and eternal, who takes a stand ag...

We are made to be happy, to experience eternal beatitude, the face-to-face vision of God. And we attain to this happiness through our actions here below. The cardinal virtues are the key to ordering our acts to this end according to correct reasoning. Fortitude and temperance strengthen our will so that we will not succumb to fear or disordered passions. Justice regulates our relations with others. Yet, as all human acts are the fruit of the intellect and will, we need a virtue which directs ...

Each chapter in this volume was originally published as an individual pamphlet by the National Headquarters of the Holy Name Society (NYC) with ecclesiastical approval given between 1941 and 1946. They have been slightly edited for this volume.From Fr. Walter Farrell's introduction in Chapter 1:This is the introduction to a series of pamphlets on the relationship between man and God-a series based on the Summa Theologiae and designed to meet the study club needs of Holy Name Societies through...

This book will help you understand that, yes, you can study dog poetry, become the Minnesota Twins closer, run for president of the United States, become a Franciscan friar in Albuquerque, put oranges in a circle, teach courses in conflicting political theory at the University of Idaho, attend Mass literally underground in a subterranean cathedral hundreds of feet below the desert floor, play no pads tackle football on Boise State's blue turf, write tracts while sunbathing at the top of Namur...

This collection of poems verses the mystery of God and Creation. Exploring the stories and characters of Scripture, Classical history and myth, the reader confronts the glory of God and is plunged into the depths of the human condition. This work deals with the sacred and the profane, the sublime and the ridiculous. Twenty-first century readers are confronted by their own needs and greeds reflected in the foundations of western civilisation. There are also more directly personal poems, of lov...

With contributions from Leo Darroch, Fr. Gabriel Díaz-Patri, Philippe Maxence, Sebastian Morello, Matthew Schellhorn, and Erik Tonning What do Evelyn Waugh, Lanzo Del Vasto, Nancy Mitford, F.R. Leavis, Agatha Christi, Yehudi Menuhin, René Girard, and Franco Zefferelli have in common? Along with scores of others-artists, musicians, scholars, writers, actors, politicians, and business people-they signed petitions to save the Catholic Church's ancient Latin liturgy, between 1966 and 2007. This i...

The Word Incarnate,"The Whole Christ,"and the Drama of Truth God's Creation and the men and women populating it cannot help but offer us a picture of unpredictable activity. For each and every new moment of its history is in many respects unique, and not some mere monotonous repetition of what has gone before it-especially given the reality of the free will possessed by each human person. This is even more true of the Mystical Body of Christ-what St. Augustine calls "the Whole Christ"-a Body ...