Christopher Sparks asked Facebook friends to finish the question: "How can you still be Catholic when ...'" The replies came swiftly and forcefully. With that, Sparks went to work. Here is the result. In this book, he addresses the biggest issues people grapple with when they think about the Catholic Church, the Inquisition, the Crusades, the Church's role in a state, homosexuality, the role of women in the Church, and many others. For skeptics and non-Catholics, this book is an invitation to understanding the faith, a way for outsiders to hear one contemporary Catholic's worldview, and to see through Catholic eyes, even if they remain unconvinced. For Catholics, this book is an introduction to an array of answers and resources for delving more deeply into and defending the faith. Book jacket.

What does it mean to be a Catholic in the modern world? At a time when the Vatican provokes hostility by its opposition to contraception, abortion and the use of condoms in fighting AIDS, how many Catholics share its views? These are among the many questions that writer and broadcaster Peter Stanford has addressed to some of Britain's Catholics.

This popular bestseller has been greatly revised and expanded to include new insights on conscience, infallibility, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Mystical Body of Christ captures the theological precision and communicative genius of Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979), whose radio and television broadcasts, including Life Is Worth Living, have reached millions of homes since the 1950s. With more than thirty of his works still in print, Sheen is one of the most beloved Catholic evangelists of all time. This full-length and fully developed work on the Church as an extension of the Incarnation reveals Sheen’s accessible and theologically astute teaching style in the early years of his ministry. First published in 1935, the book’s themes of the Eucharist as a source of unity for the Mystical Body of Christ—the Church—and the link between the liturgy and works of social justice were echoed in the Second Vatican Council several decades later.

In this provocative work, which could not be timelier, Garry Wills, one of our country's most noted writers and historians, offers a powerful statement of his Catholic faith. Beginning with a reflection on his early experience of that faith as a child and later as a Jesuit seminarian, Wills reveals the importance of Catholicism in his own life. He goes on to challenge, in clear and forceful terms, the claim that criticism or reform of the papacy is an assault on the faith itself. For Wills, a Catholic can be both loyal and critical, a loving child who stays with his father even if the parent is wrong. Wills turns outward from his personal experiences to present a sweeping narrative covering two thousand years of church history, revealing that the papacy, far from being an unchanging institution, has been transformed dramatically over the millennia -- and can be reimagined in the future. At a time when the church faces one of its most difficult crises, Garry Wills offers an important and compelling entrée into the discussion of the church's past -- and its future. Intellectually brisk and spiritually moving, Why I Am a Catholic poses urgent questions for Catholic and non-Catholic readers alike.

"An exquisitely timed book ... Code Red is a worthwhile exploration of the shared goals (and shared enemies) that unite moderates and progressives. But more than that, it is a sharp reminder that the common ground on which Dionne built his career has been badly eroded, with little prospect that it will soon be restored.” —The New York Times Book Review New York Times bestselling author and Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne, Jr. sounds the alarm in Code Red, calling for an alliance between progressives and moderates to seize the moment and restore hope to America’s future for the 2020 presidential election. Will progressives and moderates feud while America burns? Or will these natural allies take advantage of the greatest opportunity since the New Deal Era to strengthen American democracy, foster social justice, and turn back the threats of the Trump Era? The United States stands at a crossroads. Broad and principled opposition to Donald Trump’s presidency has drawn millions of previously disengaged citizens to the public square and to the ballot boxes. This inspired and growing activism for social and political change hasn’t been seen since the days of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and the Progressive and Civil Rights movements. But if progressives and moderates are unable—and unwilling—to overcome their differences, they could not only enable Trump to prevail again but also squander an occasion for launching a new era of reform. In Code Red, award-winning journalist E. J. Dionne, Jr., calls for a shared commitment to decency and a politics focused on freedom, fairness, and the future, encouraging progressives and moderates to explore common ground and expand the unity that brought about Democrat victories in the 2018 elections. He offers a unifying model for furthering progress with a Politics of Remedy, Dignity, and More: one that solves problems, resolve disputes, and moves forward; that sits at the heart of the demands for justice by both long-marginalized and recently-displaced groups; and that posits a positive future for Americans with more covered by health insurance, more with decent wages, more with good schools, more security from gun violence, more action to roll back climate change. Breaking through the partisan noise and cutting against conventional wisdom to provide a realistic look at political possibilities, Dionne offers a strategy for progressives and moderates to think more clearly and accept the responsibilities that history now imposes on them. Because at this point in our national story, change can’t wait.

Losing your religion is harder than it looks ... From devout ten-year-old performing the part of Jesus in a primary school play to blaspheming, undergraduate atheist, Monica Dux and her attitude to the Catholic Church changed profoundly over a decade. Eventually, she calmed down and was just 'lapsed'. Then, on a family trip to Rome, her young daughter expressed a desire to be baptised. Monica found herself re-examining her own childhood and how Catholicism had shaped her. Was it really out of her system or was it in her blood for life? In Lapsed, Monica sets out to find the answer. Her investigations lead her to test a miracle cure in Lourdes and visit the grave of a headless Saint who claimed to be married to Christ (and wore a wedding ring made of his foreskin to prove it). She speaks to canon lawyers, abuse survivors and even a nun who insists that the Virgin Mary starts her car every morning. With wry humour and razor-sharp observations, Lapsed is the story of one woman's attempt to exorcise her religious upbringing, and to answer the question, is Catholicism like a blood group and, if so, is it possible to get a total transfusion? 'Enlightening, forensic and laugh-out-loud funny' -- JANE CARO 'A frank, funny and heartfelt exorcism of our need to believe in a man in the sky' -- SHAUN MICALLEF