False Teachers

Final Verdict (Mike Daley & Rosie Fernandez Legal Series) by Sheldon Siegel

Paperback: Fate throws a curveball at the San Francisco ex-husband-and-wife legal team of Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez, when Mike picks up the phone and hears the voice of Leon Walker. This is not good news-because Walker was the one who ruined their marriage. Years ago, he and his brother participated in a stickup that left a man dead. Through a series of (some said) questionable manoeuvres, Mike got the charges dropped, but he and Rosie fought about it all the time and it finally drove a wedge between them.

Now, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist has been found dead in a dumpster on San Francisco's skid row. The new murder has been pinned on Walker, but he not only tells Mike he is innocent, he says he is a dying man and does not want to go to his grave proclaimed a murderer. 

Dogged investigation, courtroom nimbleness, and a healthy dose of luck usually have helped Mike before, but it looks like it will take more than that to prevail this time, and his time is running out-both on his client and, just maybe, on his partnership.

Final Verdict (2003) is the fourth instalment in the supremely entertaining legal thriller series set in San Francisco.

About the author: Sheldon Siegel is a New York Times Bestselling novelist and author best known for his works of modern legal courtroom drama.

Siegel was born on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. He attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, and later went on to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an Accounting major. He graduated with a Juris Doctor from Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley in 1983. He has been in private practice in San Francisco, California for over twenty years and specializes in corporate and securities law with the law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. 

His books have been translated into a dozen languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. He currently resides in Larkspur, California, with his wife, Linda, and twin sons, Alan and Stephen.

Rating: 5/5

Unwanted Priest: The Autobiography Of A Latin Mass Exile by Bryan Houghton

Paperback: Father Bryan Houghton’s life was fraught with momentous transitions. 

As a Protestant child educated in a Catholic school, he gradually awakened to the truth of the Faith and eventually converted. He responded to the call to priesthood, which he understood in its traditional sense as an office of offering sacrifice, reconciling sinners, feeding the spiritually hungry, and preaching divinely revealed truths. 

When the Second Vatican Council hit, and even more the successive waves of liturgical reform in the 1960s, Father Houghton was brought to a crisis of conscience: how was all this lust for change compatible with the rock-solid Faith to which he had given his life? Why must the Church’s noble, ample, orthodox rites of worship be hacked to pieces? 

A man who placed great store by the maxim lex orandi, lex credendi, Houghton watched the dismantling of liturgical tradition with growing dismay, and when the substance of the Mass was changed beyond recognition and he could not bring himself to say a rite that belied his faith, he resigned his curacy and drove to southern France, where he bought a house in which to live, pray, offer the Tridentine Mass - and, fortunately for us, compile his memoirs. 

The never-published English manuscript of the resulting book, unique in its blend of entertaining stories and precise critiques, was long thought to be lost, with only its authorized French translation still in print; but the recent discovery of the original manuscript allows us access to this masterpiece decades later, when the situation in the Church is eerily like the one that faced its author in his time. 

A stable priest contented with tradition in the midst of mandated modernizations, Father Houghton offers us in his autobiography, Unwanted Priest (Prêtre rejeté, 2022), a moving and insightful account of why a priest would choose rather to be “unwanted” than to betray his innermost convictions. 

Fr Houghton’s touching account of his personal journey in the Faith is accompanied by a spiritual insight of enormous value into the crisis of the modern Church. I recommend this book to everyone. - Joseph Shaw, President, International Una Voce Federation, and Chairman, Latin Mass Society of England & Wales

About the author: Bryan Houghton (1911–1992), of Anglican background, was received into the Catholic Church in Paris in 1934 and ordained a priest on 30 March 1940. Throughout the 1960s, he found himself increasingly at odds with the self-styled “reformers” who, in the name of Vatican II, were wreaking havoc in the Church. On the day the Novus Ordo Missae went into effect - 30 November 1969, the first Sunday of Advent - he resigned from his pastorship at Bury St Edmunds, refusing to celebrate with the new missal. 

Drawing on his inheritance, he purchased a property with a chapel in the region of Viviers in the south of France and, with his bishop’s consent, continued to offer the Tridentine Mass for a small congregation until his death on 19 November 1992. He wrote two novels, Mitre and Crook and Judith’s Marriage, a collection of essays, Unwanted Priest, and a children’s book, Saint Edmund, King and Martyr.

St John Chrysostom (d 407AD)

 

The Boldest Efforts

The Heart Of A Child

Let's Go Brandon

 

Catholic History For Today's Church: How Our Past Illuminates Our Present by John W O'Malley SJ

Hardback: The past is not dead. It's not even past. - William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun

We cannot understand the issues swirling in today’s Catholic church without understanding the past. 

In Catholic History for Today’s Church (2015), acclaimed historian John W O’Malley, SJ, illuminates some of today’s most contentious issues - from celibacy to the role of the pope - through their history. 

In his characteristically engaging style, O’Malley’s essays provide readers with an overview of each theme in history then explore how that past connects with life today. Many of the essays highlight his expertise on the papacy and the papal curia, as well as the significance and legacies of the Council of Trent and Vatican II. 

By taking a historical approach, O’Malley shows how contemporary issues arose, assesses where they are today, and suggests how they might be changed for the better. 

Catholic History for Today’s Church takes an invaluable long view on topics that too often find us shortsighted. 

About the author: John W O’Malley, SJ, is a Roman Catholic priest and professor in the department of theology at Georgetown University. He is the author of a number of books, including A History of the Popes, The First Jesuits, What Happened at Vatican II, and The Jesuits: A History from Ignatius to the Present. 

Besides other honours, he has received six best book awards as well as lifetime achievement awards from the Society for Italian Historical Studies, the Renaissance Society of America, and the American Catholic Historical Association. In 1995, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he is past president of the American Catholic Historical Association and the Renaissance Society of America.

New Short History Of The Catholic Church by Norman Tanner

Paperback: Here is a one-volume history of the Christian people from Pentecost to the present day, with principal focus on the Catholic Church. Having passed AD 2000 it seems appropriate and necessary to have a new short history of the first two millennia of the Christian era.

In the last half century there has been a massive amount of research into Church history, published in learned articles and in multi-volume works. Full notice is taken of these recent scholarly initiatives in writing this short account, which is also eminently readable.

In each section of New Short History Of The Catholic Church (2011), there is a balance between the institutional and the more directly religious dimensions of the Church - here are some of the elements: bishops, canon law, charity, councils crusades, devotions, heresies, laity, liturgy, martyrs, missionaries, parishes, pilgrimages, popes, prayer, priesthood, religious orders, sacraments, schools, theologians, universities and the vita consacrata.

The scope in this book is wide and the pace of the narrative is attractive.

About the author: Dr Norman Tanner is a Jesuit priest and Professor of Church History at The Gregorian University in Rome, Italy.

Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin

Paperback: The Institutes of the Christian Religion (2011) are Calvin’s single most important work, and one of the key texts to emerge from the Reformation of the sixteenth century. The book accompanied the Reformer throughout his life, growing in size from what was essentially an expanded catechism in 1536 to a full-scale work of biblical theology in 1559-1560.

Among the intermediate editions of the Institutes, none deserves to be better known than the first French edition of 1541. Avoiding the technical details and much of the polemics of the final work, the Institutes of 1541 offer a clear and comprehensive account of the work of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in creation, revelation and redemption, in the life of the individual Christian and in the worship and witness of the church.

Not doctrine only but its practical use is Calvin’s abiding concern. The author of the Institutes invites us both to know and to live the truth, and thus allow God’s Spirit to transform us.''

This copy of the Institutes of the Christian Religion was translated into English by Henry Beveridge (who died in 1929) and was first published in 1845. 

A more readable translation can be found in Robert White's transcription (2014) which has been designed and annotated with the needs of a wide readership in mind.

About the author: John Calvin (1509-1564), Martin Luther's successor as the preeminent Protestant theologian, made a powerful impact on the fundamental doctrines of Protestantism. Calvin is widely credited as the most important figure in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation. He died in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1564.

Born on July 10, 1509, in Noyon, Picardy, France, John Calvin was a law student at the University of Orléans when he first joined the cause of the Reformation. In 1536, he published the landmark text Institutes of the Christian Religion, an early attempt to standardize the theories of Protestantism. Calvin's religious teachings emphasized the sovereignty of the scriptures and divine predestination - a doctrine holding that God chooses those who will enter Heaven based His omnipotence and grace. 

Calvin lived in Geneva briefly, until anti-Protestant authorities in 1538 forced him to leave. He was invited back again in 1541, and upon his return from Germany, where he had been living, he became an important spiritual and political leader. Calvin used Protestant principles to establish a religious government; and in 1555, he was given absolute supremacy as leader in Geneva.

As Martin Luther's successor as the preeminent Protestant theologian, Calvin was known for an intellectual, unemotional approach to faith that provided Protestantism's theological underpinnings, whereas Luther brought passion and populism to his religious cause.

The Secret Of La Salette Revealed

Booklet: The Secret of La Salette Revealed (2015) is a story and message giving warning to the Church and society of the evil forthcoming that we had to face up to. 

On the evening of Saturday, 19 September 1846, Maximin Giraud and Mélanie Calvat returned from the mountain where they had been minding cows and reported seeing “a beautiful lady” on Mount Sous-Les Baisses, weeping bitterly. They described her as sitting with her elbows resting on her knees and her face buried in her hands. She was clothed in a white robe studded with pearls; and a gold coloured apron; white shoes and roses about her feet and high headdress. Around her neck she wore a crucifix suspended from a small chain. 

According to their account, she continued to weep even as she spoke to them, first in French, then in their own dialect of Occitan. After giving a secret to each child, the apparition walked up a hill and vanished. 

On 19 September 1851, Pope Pius IX formally approved the public devotion and prayers to Our Lady of La Salette, referring to its messages of apparition as “secrets”. 

On 24 August 1852, Pope Pius IX once again mentioned the construction of the altar to La Salette. The same papal bull granted the foundation of the Association of Our Lady of La Salette, formalised on 7 September. 

On 21 August 1879, Pope Leo XIII formally granted a Canonical Coronation to the image at the Basilica of Our Lady of La Salette. A Russian style tiara was granted to the image, instead of the solar-type tiara used in its traditional depictions of Virgin Mary during her apparitions. There is also a sanctuary in Porto Metropolitan Area (Portugal), specifically in Oliveira de Azeméis, and a shrine in Attleboro, Massachusetts, known for its Christmas lights. 

If the warning of Our Lady of La Salette had been taken more seriously, it might have avoided a lot of evil that has occurred since.

Criminal Intent (Mike Daley & Rosie Fernandez Legal Series) by Sheldon Siegel

Hardback: Sheldon Siegel made an immediate impact with his first two novels, Special Circumstances (2000) and Incriminating Evidence (2001), garnering high critical praise ("a page-turner of the finger-burning kind," said the San Francisco Chronicle) and leaping onto bestseller lists. Siegel has saved his best, however, for Criminal Intent (2002), a simmering stew of murder, graft, sex and high-stakes financial manipulation - and it is all in the family.

You can pick your friends, they say, but you cannot pick your family. And lately, Mike Daley's family has been keeping him very busy. An ex-priest, ex-public defender and ex-corporate lawyer, Daley and his former wife, Rosie Fernandez, run their own San Francisco criminal defense firm - they were not so good at being married, they discovered, but they are a pretty good legal team.

Most of their cases are fairly small-time, which is why it is surprising for the person accused of murdering movie director Richard (Big Dic) MacArthur to be calling them - except that the accused is Rosie's own niece Angelina.

That case is bad enough, but the family problems do not end there: Rosie's brother, Tony, may be on the wrong end of a strongarm graft proposal; the son of one of the firm's lawyers has just been busted on a drug charge; Mike is hafving a clandestine affair with a woman judge and Rosie herself has a dark secret that may make all of it seem irrelevant.

An intricate plot, immensely likeable characters, powerful suspense, and more than a touch of humour - these have already become Siegel's hallmarks, and Criminal Intent will keep the reader turning pages until its final, surprising end. If you have not read Sheldon Siegel yet, there is no better place to start. 

Criminal Intent (2002) is the brilliant third instalment in the superb Mike Daley & Rosie Fernandez legal series set in San Francisco, USA. 

About the author: Sheldon Siegel is a New York Times Bestselling novelist and author best known for his works of modern legal courtroom drama.

Siegel was born on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. He attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, and later went on to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an Accounting major. He graduated with a Juris Doctor from Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley in 1983. He has been in private practice in San Francisco, California for over twenty years and specializes in corporate and securities law with the law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. 

His books have been translated into a dozen languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. He currently resides in Larkspur, California, with his wife, Linda, and twin sons, Alan and Stephen.

Rating: 5/5

Free Society

From Ecumenism To Silent Apostasy: An Analysis Compiled by The Society of Saint Pius X

Paperback: European culture gives the impression of "silent apostasy" on the part of people who have all that they need and who live as if God does not exist. - Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia in Europa

In 2004, The SSPX sent a letter to all the Cardinals of the Church. This letter was accompanied by a hard hitting, but short and concise, analysis of Ecumenism. Recently, the SSPX has sent this same study to EVERY Catholic bishop in the world.

We have put the letter and study together in this booklet and included a short interview with Bishop Fellay and two appendices: one, a not-so-Catholic (to say the least!) speech by Cardinal Kasper on Ecumenism and, two, a pertinent excerpt from the writings of the great Cardinal Pie (1815-80), "On the Duties of Priests," which stands in stark contrast to the ecumenical-babble of Cardinal Kasper!

The Study itself, entitled From Ecumenism to Silent Apostasy (2006), is masterful and is divided into three main parts with the following subdivisions:

Analysis of Ecumenical Thought:

-The Unity of the Human Race and Interreligious Dialogue

-The Church of Christ and Ecumenism

-The Recomposition of Visible Unity

The Doctrinal Problems Posed by Ecumenism:

-The Church of Christ is the Catholic Church

-Belonging to the Church by a Triple Unity

-Outside of the Church There is No Salvation

The Pastoral Problems Posed by Ecumenism:

-Ecumenism Begets Doctrinal Relativism

-Ecumenism Turns Souls Away from the Church

About the Society: Pius X (SSPX), is an apostolic Catholic organization founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991) on 1 November 1970. The SSPX continued its apostolate despite the death of its founder. 

In 1994, Bishop Bernard Fellay was elected Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X. Notably, in the jubilee year 2000, he led all of his priests, religious, and seminarians on a pilgrimage to Rome, hoping thereby to express love and respect for the Holy Father, for whom the Society prays and recognizes as the Vicar of Christ on earth. Pope Benedict XVI later decided to free the traditional Roman Mass in a 2007 motu proprio entitled Summorum Pontificum and in 2009, lifted the “excommunications” issued against the four SSPX bishops. 

Today, from its main seminary headquartered in Menzingen, Switzerland, the Society has grown to over 600 priests and close to half a million faithful spread throughout the world.