Books Archives

EWTN host explores the backstory of the ‘Good Thief’

Feb 22, 2021

Raymond Arroyo admits, and he suspects many other Catholics are in the same boat, that for a long time all he knew of Dismas, also known as the Good Thief, was that he was one of the men that walked with and was crucified next to Jesus.

After digging deeper into Dismas’ story, however, the EWTN host realized there was more to it than that final act, and decided to share the backstory in the form of a picture book for families.

By John Lavenburg

New Vatican thriller captures the cost of scandal

Feb 17, 2021

Pietro Caliceti’s novel L’Opzione di Dio (“The Option of God”) describes a Vatican every bit as corrupt and vengeful as the legal outfit memorably presented by John Grisham in his 1991 thriller The Firm.

By John L. Allen Jr.

Father James Martin’s new book looks at how to pray

Feb 4, 2021

Father James Martin infrequently prayed until his late twenties. And even when he did pray, as he recalls, it was asking for God’s help on things like acing a test, hitting a home run in little league, or getting a raise at work.

By John Lavenburg

New book helps parents during ‘Long Lent’ of COVID pandemic

Feb 3, 2021

Maria C. Morrow is Adjunct Professor of Catholic Studies at Seton Hall University. Her new book is ‘A Busy Parent’s Guide to a Meaningful Lent.’

By Charles C. Camosy

Focolare movement offers lessons on women’s leadership in the Church

Jan 21, 2021

Peter Casarella is a Professor at Duke Divinity School with expertise in Latinx Theology and Pneumatology.

By Charles C. Camosy

Children’s book chronicling saints’ lives shows they were ‘relentlessly human’

Jan 17, 2021

Carey Wallace’s new children’s book, “Stories of the Saints: Bold and Inspiring Tales of Adventure, Grace and Courage,” shows that holy men and women — whose miraculous deeds, charitable works and battles with armies, beasts and demons she chronicles with gusto — also were what Wallace calls “relentlessly human.”

By George P. Matysek Jr.

‘Words can be kisses,’ but also ‘swords,’ pope writes in new book

Jan 15, 2021

Silence, like words, can be a love language, Pope Francis wrote in a very short introduction to a new book in Italian.

By Catholic News Service

Butler: Catholics must work together to make church ‘a place of mercy, love’

Jan 2, 2021

In Frank J. Butler’s life, the roads he has traveled in philanthropy, social justice and the desire for reform all lead back to his deep devotion to the Catholic faith, which was fostered prominently in his eight years at the former St. John Seminary in Little Rock.

By Aprille Hanson