Critical Mass is an in depth look at what happened in the Catholic Church during the first generation after the Second Vatican Council, a period corresponding to the pontificates of Paul VI through John Paul II. The book starts with a close look at some key conciliar documents. Other chapters study how Tradition was systematically dismantled; the roles of the clergy and laity in the post-Vatican II Church; the mindsets of liberal, traditional, and conservative Catholics; how the Church became a turgid bureaucracy all the way down to the parish level; the dumbing down of religious education; the Church's post-Vatican II approach to social justice issues; the influence of Radical Feminism on the Church. The book concludes with an interesting - even radical - prognosis for the future.

Meditations of an Exile is a collection of essays on a wide variety of unique religious topics, some of which have rarely been covered anywhere else. These include: why the Roman Empire and slavery are not condemned in Scripture; seeming conflict between the two natures of Christ; intriguing parallels between the history of Biblical Israel that reflect in reverse the past, present, and possible future of Christianity; why the modern state of Israel is not the Israel foretold in Biblical prophecy; the Eternal Design; why the Church tolerates and even supports pro-abortion politicians; why evangelization will not work in the West; who were the "giants" so often referred to in the Old Testament; is it evident from Scripture that intelligent life does not exist beyond earth? Meditations concludes with a commentary on the passion and death of Jesus that analyzes why the Jewish authorities arrested Jesus in the way they did and why the Romans never considered Jesus a political threat even after Palm Sunday.

This book identifies and analyzes twenty cultural "choke points" that have each contributed to cultural decline in America. The book defines how these choke points have contributed to the destruction of our foundational institutions. We will study these foundational institutions and why they are essential to a healthy national culture. When they collapse, so does the culture. Based upon this analysis we can assign the exact year cultural disintegration began in America.

The Pope, the Council, and the Mass, the definitive response to ?Traditionalist? Catholics when first published in 1981, has been updated to include the developments from the time of the first publication up to, and including, the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. In addressing the concerns raised by the followers of the late Archbishop Lefebvre and other ?Traditionalists?, the authors give a truly Catholic understanding of Tradition, the Second Vatican Council and its implementation, and the nature of true liturgical reform. This book not only provides the reader with a sound perspective on the past, it also offers insight into the present state of the Church and the outlook for the future. History, canon law, ecclesiastical and papal documents, and Scripture are mined in this solid apologetic for a faith that is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.

In 1869, some seven hundred Catholic bishops traveled to Rome to participate in the first church-wide council in three hundred years. The French Revolution had shaken the foundations of the church. Pope Pius IX was determined to set things right through a declaration by the council that the pope was infallible. John W. O’Malley brings to life the bitter, schism-threatening conflicts that erupted at Vatican I. The pope’s zeal in pressing for infallibility raised questions about the legitimacy of the council, at the same time as Italian forces under Garibaldi seized the Papal States and were threatening to take control of Rome itself. Gladstone and Bismarck entered the fray. As its temporal dominion shrank, the Catholic Church became more pope-centered than ever before, with lasting consequences. “O’Malley’s account of the debate over infallibility is masterful.” —Commonweal “[O’Malley] excels in describing the ways in which the council initiated deep changes that still affect the everyday lives of Catholics.” —First Things “An eminent scholar of modern Catholicism...O’Malley...invit[es] us to see Catholicism’s recent history as profoundly shaped by and against the imposing legacy of Pius IX.” —Wall Street Journal “Gripping...O’Malley continues to engage us with a past that remains vitally present.” —The Tablet “The worldwide dean of church historians has completed his trinity of works on church councils...[A] masterclass in church history...telling us as much about the church now as then.” —America

The Catholic Church in recent years, particularly in Europe, the USA and Australia, has suffered a series of crises. Catholics have been forced, whether willing or not, to perform collective examinations of conscience, and to investigate the causes of these problems. In the many books and articles written on this subject, authors have tried to point the blame one way or another. Turmoil and Truth takes a different approach. Drawing on his years of experience as a Catholic writer, Philip Trower offers a long view of how the Church arrived in its present situation. Whereas many analyses take the Second Vatican Council as their starting point, Trower turns his gaze back towards the previous centuries, searching out the roots of modern conflicts over authority within the Church, the nature of Scripture, the relationship with the secular world, and more. His central thesis is that the positive movement for reform, and the negative movements of rebellion against the Church's authority and elements of her teaching, grew up intertwined in the years preceding Vatican II, and that it was only really in the period following the Council that the division between the two became clearer. His analysis introduces the reader to a host of persons and movements who may be unfamiliar today, but whose legacy endures. Philip Trower's accessible style of writing and his attention to detail offer the reader a clear understanding of where the Church has come from in its recent past. Turmoil and Truth is essential reading for all who wish to understand the present and future direction of the Catholic Church Book jacket.