Paulist Press

[KCT]

Do they generally deal in authors and materials faithful to the teachings of the Church?

 

[triumphguy]

Yes.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulist_Fathers

 

[Rainaldo]

Do they generally deal in authors and materials faithful to the teachings of the Church?

Not necessarily. I do not recommend Paulist Press. I know the burden of proof lies with me, but I tell you, I have seen enough ambiguously orthodox works from that publishing house to ignore it.

Why do you ask?

 

[Just_Lurking]

Paulist Press is to liberal Catholicism what Ignatius Press is to conservative Catholicism.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

I think you need to evaluate each title separately no matter who publishes it. Even with an author, you may find that not all their writings are good or helpful to you.

Read reviews, get opinions of people you trust, check things out at a library or borrow from a friend. Then decide if you want to read the book and/or own the book.

 

[EasterJoy]

Paulist Press is to liberal Catholicism what Ignatius Press is to conservative Catholicism.

That is going a bit far, on both counts. I think both the Paulists and the Jesuits figure that they can’t protect readers from everything that can be taken the wrong way, they can’t protect readers from every opinion that might be spiritually unprofitable, and so on. Even if it were possible, it would limit the reading of those who can profit too much.

I am not saying that Paulist Press (or Ignatius Press or Oregon Catholic Press) never makes a mistake about what they decide to publish or that a Catholic publisher does not have a profound duty to screen what they publish for merit and fidelity to the teachings of the Church. I am saying, though, that I would never quit buying from a Catholic publisher entirely because I disagreed with some of their publishing decisions. I think I’d quickly run out of publishers.

The reader has to take some responsibility, too, I mean.

 

[Just_Lurking]

That is going a bit far, on both counts.

For example, if you want to read a book that argues against the sacramental ordination of historical deaconesses, go to Ignatius Press (e.g., Martimort’s “Deaconesses: An Historical Study”). If you want to read a book that argues for the sacramental ordination of historical deaconesses, go to Paulist Press (e.g., Ann Marie Caron’s “Women Deaconesses: Historical and Contemporary Explorations”). Both books are “orthodox” in that they are consistent with official Catholic teaching.

 

[KCT]

Not necessarily. I do not recommend Paulist Press. I know the burden of proof lies with me, but I tell you, I have seen enough ambiguously orthodox works from that publishing house to ignore it.

Why do you ask?

I know I shouldn’t generalize, but sometimes I don’t want to research every author and book. I just want to know that, in general, a publisher offers works in line with Church teaching.

 

[Rainaldo]

I know I shouldn’t generalize, but sometimes I don’t want to research every author and book. I just want to know that, in general, a publisher offers works in line with Church teaching.

Obviously it depends on the author. But their Classics of Western Spirituality are translations of approved authors (like St Athanasius of St Catherine of Siena), yet they include Muslim works in the series. I guess your answer is our resounding ambivalence!

 

[Mrs_Sally]

I know I shouldn’t generalize, but sometimes I don’t want to research every author and book. I just want to know that, in general, a publisher offers works in line with Church teaching.

How you you decide which of their books to buy then? Or are you planning on buying everything from a particular publisher?

 

[EasterJoy]

I know I shouldn’t generalize, but sometimes I don’t want to research every author and book. I just want to know that, in general, a publisher offers works in line with Church teaching.

Sorry, but we need to either research all of the authors and books we choose to read or else form our consciences well enough so that we’ll recognize questionable teachings when we read them. We can’t put that burden entirely on others.

Catholic publishing houses exist so that good books will get published, of course they have to refuse to publish books that are outside the faith, but they are not infallible and they can’t choose what to produce in a way that the faithful never have to discern whether this book or that is going to be spiritually profitable. After all, a book that a Catholic theologian or some other Catholic scholar might need is not necessarily going to be a book that any layperson can read without drawing some seriously wrong conclusions.

 

[KCT]

How you you decide which of their books to buy then? Or are you planning on buying everything from a particular publisher?

If only I had that much time to read.

In general, I know that books I buy from Ignatius Press or the bookstore at Franciscan Univ won’t be by dissenting authors. For the most part, if someone recommends their books, I feel comfortable not having to research the authors.

 

[louisak]

Some of their publications are theologically sound, some are not. It depends on the author, really.

 

[RB2]

Paulist Press is to liberal Catholicism what Ignatius Press is to conservative Catholicism.

This above says it best.
I have a Paulist Press bookstore in my area. It is stocked with good Catholic books and all of the liberal, heretical , change the church books also. Paulist Press is a publisher of many of these liberal, herectical , change the church publications.I would be very suspect of Paulist Press titles and research any you are not sure of. Google the title of the book and the word ‘liberal’ and/or the author and ‘liberal’. Read reviews on the book and author. Try a few different ideas in this direction.

Amazon is usually very good, but there are some bad Catholic authors that get raving reviews on Amazon because they are popular within the bad half, the liberal half of the Church. Read the 3 star, 2 star and 1 star reviews for balance. Fr Richard Rohr would be an example of a bad apple within the Catholic Church that gets predominantly good reviews on Amazon.

 

[RB2]

Bad Catholic Publishers:

aquinasandmore.com/catholic-articles/how-to-choose-catholic-books-and-publishers/article/90/sort/relevance/productsperpage/12/layout/grid/currentpage/1

Don’t buy anything from theses publishers unless you find it on our site. They don’t have any problem publishing heresy with a few stray orthodox titles that somehow got mixed in.

Crossroad Publishing Company - This used to be a solid company but went wrong after Vatican II. A sampling of titles: “The Reform of the Papacy” by Bishop Quinn of San Francisco fame, “The Rule of Benedict” by Joan Chittister, “She Who Is - the Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse”, numerous titles by Richard Rohr and Joyce Rupp. In spite of this you still have great books by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, Pope Benedict, and the must-have title “The Bad Catholic’s Guide to Wine, Whiskey and Song“.

Liturgical Press - One of the largest publishers of liturgical education and worship material in the US most of which is largely responsible for the current wreck the liturgy is in. If you want 70’s style Lectionaries or are interested in “Creating Uncommon Worship” where everyone stands in a circle around a table in a gym or “A Liturgist’s Guide to Inclusive Language” or perhaps how to go about “Re-pitching the Tent” in case your church still looks like one, then this is the publisher for you. They do have some good books mixed in with all this stuff but for the most part you will need to check each book for orthodoxy.

Liturgical Training Publications - The former official publishing arm of the Archdiocese of Chicago under Cardinal Bernardin is basically a sister publisher to Liturgical Press. If you want to know why your parish music is so bad or why your priest wears burlap or why your church looks like a gym, you can bet that the ideas came from here. In spite of this, there are some gems in their book list including the RCIA program that I think is a stealth project of Franciscan University of Steubenville and some good books in their Hillenbrand Books imprint.

**Paulist Press** - Apart from “Elizabeth is NOT a Saint” mentioned before, the Paulist catalog is riddled with other Faith-destroying books including Teilhard de Chardin spirituality, Hope For the Flowers - a classic of relativism, a series of Classics of Western Spirituality that includes Protestant and non-Christian writings, Bible studies by Lawrence Boadt and a backlist of questionable titles.

St. Anthony Messenger Press - They recently purchased Servant in order to have an orthodox line of books. Their titles include authors such as Andrew Greeley, Richard Rohr, (a lot of Richard Rohr), a Retreat series including a title called “Black Elk - Living in the Sacred Hoop” and Raymond Brown. Their audio book selection includes titles by Andrew Greeley, Richard Rohr, Joan Chittister and Joyce Rupp. They also publish bulletin inserts that occasionally are hazy on their orthodoxy. The do have some good titles from Scott Hahn and others in the mix.

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Yelp Review of a Paulist Press Book Center, Costa Mesa,CA

yelp.com/biz/paulist-press-book-center-costa-mesa#hridC1jAQ1Oi8mAxvaAHZCa0A

OC’s MOST DISSIDENT/LIBERAL/HERETICAL CATHOLIC BOOKSTORE:

Paulist Press is to liberal Catholicism what Ignatius Press is to orthodox Catholicism. Paulist Press, the actual book publishing arm of this chain publishes dissident ‘Catholic’ authors. Strictly speaking, the proper realm of a Catholic publisher is to publish things that are in line with the faith not opposed to it.

As to this particular location in Costa Mesa, one needs only search their ‘popular authors’ section or maybe named ‘popular books’. The top row of the section is dominated by books about or authored by Joan Chittister, a popular dissident Catholic nun who is pro-gay and pro-choice in regards to abortion. No self respecting orthodox Catholic bookstore should/would carry this author, but this one does! The bad authors that this store carries of course would not be limited to Joan Chittister of course, Here you can find books by Fr Richard Rohr a heretical priest and more, but my visit was rather short.

Also in this bookstore you’ll find a womens feminist bible(very bad), in addition to other bibles titled ‘womens bible’–not sure what a womens bible is about but it certainly sounds suspect. This was about all I can relate from my short perousal there. Be aware you parishioners of St. John the Baptist, a straight down the line orthodox parish, your local Catholic Bookstore and its publishing arm represents the dissident half of the church and works to change the church and accomodate it to the world. Our world of the culture of death, abortion and anything goes sexual mores
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