Book News

Brooks, Alta., author Ben Galeski’s splendid new novel, The Good Heart, chronicles a young Canadian infantryman who turns to God and his inner strength to survive the hellish crucible of the First World War.

Acclaimed and prolific Canadian Catholic author Michael O’Brien once said, “If creators of Christian culture hope to produce work that will bear good fruit, we must draw our life from the true source — our living Saviour. He is real. He is present.”

The Catholic Church Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“List of Prohibited Books”), the list of publications deemed blasphemous or morally reprehensible in the view of the Sacred Congregation of the Index, is the subject of a new deep-dive academic research novel from St. Thomas University professor Dr. Robin Vose. 

The Catholic Church throughout much of the world was shaped by the Irish diaspora, the migration of eight million Irish men and women that took place (mostly) between 1760 and 1960.

A faithful voice in Canadian politics lives on. At 95, former Senator Lois Wilson is still campaigning, not for herself or for a political party but for human rights, for a guaranteed livable income, for a full and generous welcome to refugees, for preservation of the natural world which has been central to her life of prayer.

The latest book on Pope Pius XII, the first to include material from the complete archives up to 1958, repeats a lot of old news, but adds some interesting detail about the culture and politics of the papal court during the Second World War, according to a Canadian scholar who wrote a landmark biography of the wartime pope.

Back in 2009 Douglas Beaumont issued a challenge to Christian moviegoers. The U.S. academic wrote The Message Behind the Movie: How to Engage with a Film Without Disengaging Your Faith. It implored Christians who are hardcore resisters of Hollywood, and the ones who consume all things Tinseltown without discernment, to dig deeper.

Maritime Canadian writer Anne Emery readily admits that it was the beauty of traditional sacred music that led her from an indifferent practice of the faith to a new appreciation of the eucharistic celebration and the dedication and service of priests.

From the cover art through the 175 pages that follow, Fr. Harrison Ayre’s new book is a contemplative experience.

In two decades as a Catholic convert, I am privileged to have called Holy Father two immense Popes: the unconquerable Pole, St. John Paul ll; and the scholarly German, Benedict XVI.