A conversation on twitter yesterday touched
on the subject of Catholics reading and studying their faith. The consensus was that Catholics in South
Africa are notoriously very bad at reading about their faith. We of course could not comment on Catholics
in the rest of the world because we don’t know, though its possible that this
trend may be a worldwide trend.
The nuns who run the Paulines Catholic
Bookstore in Kensington South, Johannesburg, have told me on more than one
occasion that their perception is that Catholics do not buy books. Catholics buy rosaries, statues and such like
items. It is the Anglicans that frequent
the bookstore who are apparently the book shoppers, not the Catholics. Although this is anecdotal I am inclined to
believe this given my personal experiences.
My wife and I have set a joint New Year’s
resolutions for 2013 that was inspired particularly by our awareness of how
reluctant Catholics seem to be to read about their Catholic faith.
The resolution is that we will only be
giving our Catholic family, friends and acquaintances, Catholic books as gifts. So, if you are Catholic and we are invited to
your birthday, anniversary or any other occasion that involves the giving of a
gift, count on it that you will be getting a Catholic book. The first book we intend handing around is entitled
“The
Faith Explained” by Leo J. Trese.
If you’re interested in getting The Faith
Explained for yourself, you can order it from Amazon
here. It is also available for
Kindle by following the same link.
I think that more of us should start doing
this. Let’s start encouraging one
another to read about our Catholic faith by giving one another Catholic books
to read. Of course it is important that
you make sure you research the author first.
It would be a disaster if you turned out to be the one who is disseminating
a book that, while it has a Catholic author, only has value in its ability
to help get the campfire started.
One sure way of ascertaining with certainty
whether a Catholic book is of such a nature that it will not be harmful to the
readers understanding of Roman Catholic Faith and Morals, is to ensure that the
book has been granted an imprimatur.
An
imprimatur is an official declaration from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church
that the book is completely free from error in matters of Roman Catholic Faith
and Morals.
Whether the book has been granted the imprimatur
is normally indicated in the front of the book, generally on the same page
where the details of the publisher and date of publication is indicated.
Enjoy handing out gifts that make a
difference.
