Although this new book is a complete life of this holy pope from Poland, time is still needed to assess how his life and influence have impacted the Church and the world since it has only been five years since his death.  This book can serve as the beginning of that process, though and could also help with the pope’s canonization process that is moving forward.  Many people think the process is going too slowly, given that many at his funeral wanted him canonized at once.

Weigel reveals Pope John Paul II as one of the major forces in taking down the communists.  His election was the beginning of the end for the communist nations in Eastern Europe and other places.  He knew how to deal with the communists since he had been doing that in his native Poland before he was elected pope.  Weigel does not spare us from the sad fact that  the communists had infiltrated the Church at various levels as spies and as informers — not only in the communist countries, but even at the Vatican.  It would seem that the pope knew this and kept his own confidence with those in his inner circle, because the  communists knew how to use some churchmen against others — even at the Vatican.  This reveal how far the communists had gotten in influenced things.

Weigel examines John Paul’s works: his encyclicals, his trips, his apostolic constitutions, his speeches, his philosophy, and his teachings.  These  – in addition to his fight against communism — rightly form the basis for Venerable John Paul II to be honored with the title “the Great.”  His influence will be felt for many years to come.  Even in death he is a force to be reckoned with.  He truly led the Church into the Third Millennium.

This reviewer found it hard to put this book down, although first part is the more interesting.  The second part seems a bit loose, probably because it is dealing with material and the time period that is not too far in the past.  Still it is good and eye-opening — especially about the opposition from some high ranking churchmen to the Great Jubilee Year 2000 celebrations.  They thought it would be a horrible failure, but they were proven wrong by the great number of pilgrims to Rome and the activities throughout the world to celebrate that Holy Year.  Young people showed that the Church was very much alive.

Weigel presents the events of the September 11^th attacks and how they changed the world.  The pope had hoped for a more peaceful and life-giving century compared to the horrible 20^th century of wars and death.  Then the 2002 sexual abuse scandal hit the Church in the United States.  Weigel examines why the Church was slow in reacting to this horrible situation.  Weigel explores the last years of the pope whose life was slowly ending.  Many people kept waiting for him to die, but he soldiered on; even though his body was slowing him down, his mind never lost its brilliance.  His pilgrimage to death and new life was an example of how to suffer and meet Christ.

Weigel provides many black and white and color photos.  There are endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.  Both the scholar and general reader will enjoy this very inspiring book that shows again whythe pope deserves the title “the Great”.  (For many people JPII is “the pope” even though we have our beloved Pope Benedict, because for many young people and middle aged people he was the only pope we knew.)  His influence will be noticed for a very long time!  This book is highly recommended to those interesting in Venerable John Paul II the Great and Church history during his long and amazing pontificate.

There are some minor typos, but they do not hurt the flow of the story.  She always refers to the authority of the Catholic Church to decide what is authentic or not, and she provides a bibliography of books and websites to do further study on these topics of miracles.  This book is meant to help Catholics and non-Catholics to grow in their faith.  If a “miracle” is contrary to the Bible or Church teachings it is not a true “miracle” from God, but from the evil one or from some other source.  That is why those involved in the “miracle” must be in line with the Bible and Church teachings.  Through this entertaining and popular subject, comes both inspiration and teaching about the faith.  It is highly recommended to those interested in miracles and their relationship with the Catholic Church.

[This book is in stock now at the CE Store.]

This book would be good for priest support groups, a priest alone, or to read by others who support priests in their ministry.  He encourages priests to be more attentive and aware of what they do when celebrating the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.  He reminds them to take some time every day in prayer.  Although they should remember social justice in their ministry, it should not be the center of their ministry; that place belongs to Christ.  He encourages priests to mix Catholic social teachings with what they say and do.  He reminds priests — and all Catholics — what the identity of the priest is, that he is set apart from amongst God’s people in a special sacramental way.  A priests should not be ashamed to be identified as a priest.  This book offers encouragement and practical aids on how priests can improve  their preaching and how devotion to the Mother of God can be of great help to priests in the fulfillment of their ministry.  He also discusses the vow of chastity which is under attack again in the media.  He ends the book with a positive, noting that the priesthood is being renewed and that gradually more young men are answering the call of Jesus to the priesthood.

Fr. McBride’s book can be used in a group study setting, a retreat, or profitably read alone.  He uses quotes from various saints, popes and ordinary priests and people.  He tells stories which help to emphasize the points he is making in each chapter.  For further reflection he provides questions at the end of each chapter.  Since it is not overly deep or academic, the book can be quickly read, but and probably the best way to appreciate it is at a slow reflective, meditative pace.

Fr. Alfred McBride, O.Praem., holds a diploma in catechetics from Lumen Vitae, Brussels, Belgium, and a doctorate in religious education from the Catholic University of America.  He has written many books.  The timing of this book is good due to the re-stirring of the sexual abuse scandals and the media attacking the priesthood and the Church.  This book is highly recommended for priests, bishops, and for anyone who supports priests in their ministry.  This book is a great encouragement to priests!

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This particular book, Elizabeth’s Spymaster:  Francis Walsingham and the secret war that saved England ( New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 399 pages.  Hardback.  ISBN 978-0-312-36822-7.  $27.95) is about Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster or rather one of her secretaries of state who was responsible for foreign affairs and for safeguarding the state and the queen from being overthrown from outside forces or from inside “traitors”.  It was Sir Francis Walsingham who had this thankless job.  Many times his queen would rage and threaten him instead of praising or awarding him.  He was a staunch Protestant of the Puritan variety.  He wanted to protect his queen, but also Protestant England, from being overthrown by Catholics.

Walsingham helped to create many Catholic martyrs many of whom were later beatified and canonized.  He was in charge of capturing and convicting English and foreign priests who came to England to minister to the Catholics in England and to convert Protestants.  These priests and their many helpers had to do operate as secretly as possible, but they we always in peril of being discovered due to spies and traitors.  Hutchinson tells us in some gruesome detail what happened to those who were priests or those who helped them.

One of Walsingham’s major targets was Mary, Queen of Scots who was a Catholic and was the heir apparent to Elizabeth to the English throne.  Walsingham worked long hours to catch her in her machinations to assassinate or to overthrow Elizabeth and become Queen of England and return Catholicism to England.  Walsingham finally was able to do this by intercepting some of Queen Mary’s letters, but where he deemed evidence to thin, he was not above forging others.  His major problem, though, was that Queen Elizabeth did not want to execute her sister although eventually she gave in and did have her executed.  Later though, Elizabeth regretted this and blamed Walsingham for tricking her into having Mary executed.

One of the major foreign attempts to remove Elizabeth and return England to Catholicism was the Spanish Armada.  Hutchinson writes about how Walsingham used his network of international spies and informants to find out where the Armada was and when it was going to sail.  He was able to prevent the Armada from attacking sooner than it did by working with the English Navy to raid the Spanish fleet.  In the end though the Armada set sail, but was defeated by the English and by nature.

Francis Walsingham was not a healthy man.  He suffered from many illnesses when he served Queen Elizabeth and spent long days and nights pouring over many documents and reports.  He paid for information out of his own pocket many times due to Elizabeth’s frugality and lack of funds.  He died in debt in 1590.  He was buried quietly in old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

This book by Robert Hutchinson is a wonderful book to read.  It is exciting history!  He provides several color portraits and illustrations in the centerfold.  He quotes from many primary sources and has many endnotes, as well as a useful bibliography and an index.  He also provides a section on the main characters in Walsingham’s spy ring with short bios.  The dust jacket has an image of Queen Elizabeth and behind her is Walsingham.

Hutchinson is the author of The Last Days of Henry VIII (2005), Thomas Cromwell (2009), and The House of Treason (2009).  This present book is highly recommended to those interested in Tudor English history, Catholic Church history in England… or in spies.

The authors begin by explaining what a canonical marriage is and what is necessary for this to happen. They discuss the canonical requirements for marriage preparation. Contrary to movies and fiction, a man and a woman cannot just find a priest and ask him to marry them on the spot. Maybe in an extreme case this might happen, but this is beyond the norm. Normally there has to be a gathering of documents like baptismal certificates and such in preparing for the marriage. The two have to attend counseling to make sure they are ready for marriage.

Then Vere and Rapp present what is required for an annulment case. It takes time and is costly. Most cases are done on the local or diocesan level and the process can involve only one of the two parties or it could involve both. There is a judge and there are advocates for the various parties involved, including canon lawyers, and sometimes other persons from other professions. Vere and Rapp explain the process. They also explain the appeal process to the Vatican.

The authors elaborate on other ways a marriage can be declared invalid like the Pauline privilege and others. They also present advice on how to keep a valid marriage together.

This short book has a lot of information that will be of interest to Catholics and non-Catholics alike and is highly recommended to anyone who wants to understand the Church’s teaching on marriage and the annulment process.

Pete Vere is a canon lawyer and a professor of canon law. He is the co-author of Surprised by Canon Law: 150 Questions Catholics Ask About Canon Law (volumes 1 and 2). Jacqui Rapp is a canon lawyer who works with various dioceses in the United States.

The entries in the book for the saints start with the date, the saint’s name and what profession he or she was and their dates.  Then a short biography is given followed by a short commentary and a quote by the saint or by someone else regarding the saint.  These entries are a page and half to two pages long.  There is a table of contents arranged by month and there is an index at the end of the book.

This book includes saints and blessed that most people are familiar with like Mary, the Mother of God, St. Joseph, St. Benedict, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Therese, St. Gregory the Great, and many others.  New saints and blessed have been added to this edition like Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Blessed John XXIII, St. Josephine Bakhita, St. Katharine Drexel, St. Damien of Molokai, St. Gianna Beretta Molla, and others.

More saints and blessed could have been found to be placed on the days that this book leave empty.  Maybe the seventh edition will have a saint or blessed for each day of the year.  Despite these lacunae, what is presented in this current edition is very good and highly readable.  The biographies, comments, and quotes are very inspiring and informative.  This book is highly recommended to those interested in a down to earth book about some of the saints and blesseds.

The Templars were founded to do good and over time they became rich from the gifts given to them for their good deeds.  Many religious orders at first were poor, but then people of wealth would give them gifts of property and other things which over time grew. The Templers wealth was envied  by a number of powerful people.

Pernoud’s short history of the Templars explains how King Philip the Fair of France and other princes of temporal and spiritual realms wanted the Templars’ wealth and property for themselves.  They concocted lies to gain this.

Some of the Templars were tortured to make bizarre confessions to please their torturers.  These Templars, when they could, re-canted these confessions.  These confessions gained under duress were illegal and should not have been accepted as proof against the Templars, but  those who wanted them destroyed did not care.  King Philip and others of the Templars enemies died within a year after the Templars were suppressed and some executed.   In the end one could say that God took his vengeance on the king and others who perpetrated these crimes.

This book is highly recommended to those who are interested in the Templars and the truth about them.

Here is a great way to prepare for the readings at Mass or church services during this Church liturgical year C and for 2009-10′s calendar. This  Ancient Christian Devotional:  a year of weekly readings, lectionary cycle C (Ed. Cindy Crosby, InterVarsity Press.  296 pages, Paperback.  ISBN 978-0-8308-3528-7, $18.00.) can be used by all members of Churches that use the Common lectionary (Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, etc) to prepare for the up coming Sunday readings on their own or to use it to reflect, pray, and/or discuss with a group.  This book can also be ecumenically since more than one communion uses the Common Lectionary.

In the front, the editor, Cindy Crosby, provides a method to use this book.  It provides the Scripture reading’s citations for the Sundays of Year C, a theme, opening prayer, short reflections from various Church Fathers for each Scripture readings, and a closing prayer.

There is a bibliography, short biographies of the Church Fathers used in this book, an index of names and sources and a scripture index.  This book can be helpful to those who prepare sermons or homilies.  Cindy Crosby edited Ancient Christian Devotional for year A with Thomas Oden the general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.  This book is highly recommended!

Thomas Cromwell: The rise and fall of Henry VIII’s most notorious minister by Robert Hutchinson. (New York : St. Martin’s Press. 360 pages. Hardback. ISBN 978-0-57794-0. $29.99.) Tells the story of Cardinal Wolsey’s fall from power over his failure to obtain a divorce from the Pope for Henry VIII who wanted to put away Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn and obtain a male heir. Cromwell then rose to power to become Henry’s most important minister. He assisted Henry to get rid of Anne Boleyn and to get new wives, Jane Seymour who died and then Anne of Cleves whom Henry divorced. Cromwell also helped Henry in financial and political matters which benefitted them both. Cromwell knew that he had to stay on Henry’s good graces or he would fall like Wolsey and others had done. He also assisted Henry in religious matters, but he was too liberal for Henry who still favored many Roman Catholic practices. This and Cromwell’s failure with the marriage of Anne of Cleves led to his downfall and his execution as a traitor.

Thomas Cromwell was a great organizer and administrator. Many of the ideas and methods he installed in the English government are still used by the British government of today. Greedy for power and wealth, he used his position to advance himself and his family. He was hated by the nobility who saw him as an upstart since he came from the poor class of England. He was corrupt and willing to do favors when a bribe was paid him. He held back some of the wealth from the dissolved monasteries and used some of it as bribes for others to keep them loyal to him. He was responsible for the destruction of many pieces of English art and architecture in order to get at the precious metals and jewels they were made of. He encouraged the destruction of many shrines in England like that of St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury and St. Swithun and Winchester. He also destroyed some burial places of kings and queens, but Henry did not care as long as it brought him wealth. Cromwell was behind the martyrdom of many of the first English martyrs who are held today as saints or blessed.

Robert Hutchinson’s wonderful and entertaining book will keep the reader very interested and unwilling to put it down. Hutchinson uses quotes from various sources from Cromwell’s time period. He gives an equivalent for monetary amounts in his story so that the reader will have a better idea of how much money Cromwell was working with. There is a centerfold of color images. There are endnotes, a bibliography, and an index. There is a chronology and a list and short biography of major characters in the biography. The book jacket has an image of Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and Hampton Court.

Another wonderful book about the same time period, and by the same author, is House of Treason: the rise and fall of a Tudor Dynasty (London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009. 340 pages. Hardback. ISBN 978-0-297-84564-5. $32.77). This one is on the noble Howard family of England during the reign of the Tudors. This family was involved in the government of England because they were a high ranking family with royal blood which got some into trouble. The early dukes at times became too proud of their blood line and were seen as competitors with the King or Queen who were jealous of their prerogatives. This was because the Howards might have had a better claim to the throne than did the Tudors since they had Plantagenet connections. Some of the Dukes of Norfolk ran afoul of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and were executed for treason. Hutchinson describes all the intrigues and excitement this family got into. One of the Howards, Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, died in the Tower of London after having becoming a Catholic and was canonized a saint in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. The Howard family continued to have Catholic leanings which got some into trouble with the government. This is where the book ends, with the advent of the reign of the Stuarts and the Howard family surviving the Tudors

Robert Hutchinson is an expert on the Reformation in England and Wales and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquities. He is an associate tutor in church archaeology at the University of Sussex’s Center (England) for Continuing Education and is the author of many papers. He is the author of The Last Days of Henry VIII (2006), Elizabeth’s Spymaster (2007).

Since her conversion, Rice began writing about Christ, and now about angels. These “angels” are not like the ones imagined by New Age followers. She has studied what Christianity teaches about angels. She has consulted the works of St. Thomas Aquinas and Fr. Pascal Parente’s book The Angels to write about them. According to Christian teaching, angels are disembodied spirits. Each is his own distinct species of angel. There are also various classes of angels or heavenly persons which are mentioned in the Scriptures. St. Paul lists nine classes, or ranks (also called choirs). Only three angels called “archangels” are named in scripture: St. Gabriel, St. Michael, and St. Raphael. There are good angels and there are bad angels. The bad angels are led by Lucifer, otherwise known as the devil or Satan, and by other names.

According to Christian teaching we humans do not become angels when we die. We become disembodied souls that will have a human body again at the Resurrection.

Anne Rice’s new book is very entertaining, and contains a conversion story of its own. An assassin, Toby O’Dare, has an experience that changes his life so much that he is willing to do anything for God. He wants to make up for all the wrong he has done. That God forgives even assassins is something most of us accept with great difficulty. We humans may think that a notorious sinner is beyond forgiveness, but God does not work that way. This fictional story of Toby and an angel, Malchiah, permits Rice to present a number of teaching moments in the story, if one is alert to them. They are correct according to Christian teachings and the Scriptures, and undoubtedly reflect on Rice’s own life and her conversion (especially clear to this reviewer after reading her memoir). Although, Rice of course was not a notorious sinner her character O’Dare was.

Anne Rice researches the historical background for her books and she has done well with this one too. Since O’Dare tells God and the angel that he is willing to do anything to make up for his sins, Malchiah sends him back in time to correct a situation in 13th century England involving Catholics and Jews. One will have to read the book to find out what happens, suffice it to say that the book keeps the reader enthralled — as many reportedly were by her vampire stories, so she is now doing with her angel stories. This book is a first in a series she plans to write while works continues on her fictional series on the life of Christ. Anne Rice must be doing well with these Christian fictional books since some are bashing her for them. This new book is highly recommended to those who want to read good Christian fiction and about angels.