In my opinion, every Catholic needs a go to reference when it comes to the faith. They don’t necessarily need to own it but they should be able to access it at a local library, usually available somewhere in a big city or in a well-built parish that has a library with a good reference section. I trust physical books as opposed to electronic books of any kind (online, stored on a device, or audio) because the content can be altered electronically!!! These days we hear about all the things Artificial Intelligence (commonly referred to as just AI) or programs that can even alter photos and motion pictures/videos, undetectable by the human eye (though most if not all can be detected using extremely sophisticated means at the disposal of governments) like deepfake (see URL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepfake).
I have not yet had many chances to use it much but my go to reference, which I was finally able to track down and buy is, specifically, the 15 Volume and index of “The Catholic Encyclopedia: Special Edition, Under the Auspices of the Knights of Columbus Catholic Truth Committee,” published by The Encyclopedia Press, Inc. with a copyright of 1913. Now I specify this specific edition because, first of all my father was a knight of Colombus as am I and in my opinion, they were a good catholic organization interested in the welfare of Catholic’s both materially (through their reasonable insurance etc.) and spiritually back in the early 1900s. Second, the scourge of the modernist (heretics who have, in my opinion, in collaboration with groups, outlawed by the church through numerous papal encyclicals, like masons and communist/socialists, have infiltrated, or better yet, I think have infested, the Catholic Church at the highest levels) Pope Saint Pius X, was still pope at the time of its publication (he died August 20. 1914). I state this because he was the last pope to be canonized since, in my opinion, the modernist took over at Vatican II in 1962 (and started canonizing with the deluded notion that what they did made saints not the process of canonization being the process of determining whether someone, to the best of our ability here on Earth, had actually made it to heaven – the definition of a saint, after reducing the number of miracles needed to determine this and the practical elimination of the devil’s advocate, it has basically become a political exercise to lend credence to the vague proclamations of recent popes in order to, in my opinion subvert the faith), and that is one of the best guarantees of orthodoxy (what Jesus Christ truly wanted his church to be from its beginning, constantly, until the end of the world as is related in Hebrews 13:8) I can think of. Looking through it I could find no library of congress card number and they did not have ISBNs back then so all I could find was the amazon ID for it on the web site which was ASIN: B06XWTR7HT. Its approbations are as follows:
Nihil Obstat: March 1, 1907
Remey Lafort, S.T.D.
Censor
Imprimatur: + John Cardinal Farley
Archbishop of New York
In my opinion, the above encyclopedia is the gold standard for reference with regard to Catholic faith.
Next if you are looking for a convenient, one book, reference “The New Catholic Dictionary” published by the Universal Knowledge Foundation, New York the copyright 1929 edition, should be perfect with the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur shown below:
Nihil Obstat: John J. Wynne, S.J., S.T.D.
Censor Deputatus
Imprimatur: +Patrick Cardinal Hayes.
Archbishop New York
October 1, 1929
Finally, only for historical context, is a 3 Volume set, discussing in general the bible, biblical books, culture, times, and customs as well as (in the third volume) the Church today and how it has been influenced by things like the renaissance, the reformation and the scientific movement. Specifically, it talks about Catholic life and teaching, doctrine and church history. Volume one tells the story of The Coming of the King. Volume two tells the story of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and the Founding of the Church. Volume three deals with the church as it is today.
My suggestion is to use the following volumes only for a summarized look at cultural and situational/historical context for stories in it and not for either moral lessons, scriptural completeness or scriptural interpretation. I was reading one article (and I must confess I have only skimmed the book) on Issac and it told about the deception of Jacob to Issac pretending to be his brother Esau to get the blessing of the first born. Two things, which might have been mentioned elsewhere in this reference set, I did not see, that struck me in this, first relating of this story, was, Issac’s “almost” sacrifice was not mentioned in the section on Abraham and the fact that Esau frivolously gave his birthright of first-born blessing to Jacob, for some food earlier in the book of Genesis. Issac’s “almost” sacrifice is pivotal as a type for Jesus Christs death on the cross and how, though God did not spare his only Son, He did not want to be the direct cause of Issacs death, and to me is a solid indication of how God truly loves each and every one of us, and how he will not uselessly waste our life. For everything that God allows to happen in our life is for a reason, and as far as I can see the main reason for this particular incident was to show those reading the bible how loyal to God and trusting of Gods infinite wisdom Abraham was. God knew Abraham’s heart and except to show those future generations the way we must love God, He decreed this incident should come to past. This pointed the way forward for the great martyrs whose sacrifice was instrumental in transforming the barbaric world civilization at the time when God – Jesus Christ arrived in time, where killing people for thinking differently to the one we have now where thinking differently can get you, at the most, cancelled. Unfortunately, as we have seen with the persecution of certain former world leaders and groups like the Canadian Truckers and Traditionalist Catholics, without eternal vigilance we can slip back into those bad old days! Also, to me it showed God’s justice and the fact that when we go to Judgement, He knows our hearts. Esau was not deserving of the blessing because he gave it away and should have informed his father that this was the case. If he had truly forgotten, this is a lesson to us that God’s blessing is not only significant and therefore should not be taken lightly, but that God will make things right in the end if we trust him. It may be after life but remember Romans 12:19-21 God promises “I will repay.”
The three-volume set as a whole is entitled “The Catholic Book of Knowledge” with Editor Reverend Leonard Boase, S.J. and Assistant Editor: Mabel Quin published by the Virtue & Company Limited, London, Copyright 1963. Once again, they did not have ISBNs back then so all I could find was the amazon ID for it on the amazon.com web site which was ASIN: B000H7EMLE. The approbations were copied, evidently photographically, as is, in cursive writing and I interpret them to read as follows:
Nihil Obstat: Joannes M. T. Barten, S.T.D., L.S.S.
Imprimatur: +Peorgnis L. Craven., Epus. Sebastapolis
Vic. Cap.
22nd Maii 1963
Problems of omission as above and vagueness, to help support non-orthodox, modernist theories such as there is no such thing as a just war (Genesis 9:6), God is somehow not all-just (1 Peter 3:12, 2 Peter 2:9 and psalm 37:28) that hell may conceivably be empty or is not eternal (Matthew 25:41-46), that God is not deserving of our complete and undying worship and veneration (psalm 145), that the devil does not exist or we are capable of bringing about our own salvation without God’s help (that is, it is needed in addition to Jesus Christ sacrifice – John 15:5 ). Issues like these are why I am leery of any book with an approbation after 1962. But if the book was actually written long before the current approbation, usually in the case of the book being a translation of another language, I would cautiously accept it with the proviso that you check with your local parish priest if you know him to be orthodox. The thing that worries me is, that if a modernist is involved, they would try to push their agenda, as in the case when they tried to translate the words “pro-multis” in the consecration to “for all” instead of to the prior correct translation of “for the many.” This, I think, (though I’m not a theologian) would have invalidated the consecration and deprive Catholics of truly receiving the body and blood of Christ.
With the above warning in mind while reading, I have found many good volumes in the one hundred fifty volume set called “The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism.” I would be careful taking any lessons from the first volume Which I think was called the lessons of Vatican II (really the last volume I am trying to get hold of and, if I remember correctly, the last volume of the set written) since the jury is still out on what exactly good came out of that council and the third volume of the encyclopedia entitled “The Meaning of Tradition” by Yves Congar is also questionable since its author, I understand, I think from some of my readings, was one of the radicals at Vatican II. A better book on tradition, which I have read, in my opinion, from 1928, the following being an earlier printing of my copy of a 2008 reprint by Tan Books is “Tradition and the Church” by Msgr. George Agius, D.D., J.C.D.
Publisher : TAN Books; 2nd edition (December 1, 2005)
ISBN-10 : 0895558211
ISBN-13 : 978-0895558213
Nihil Obstat: Rev. Paul Waldron
Imprimatur: +Francis J. Beckman, D.D.
Bishop of Lincoln
March 28, 1928
“Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.” – 2 Thessalonians 2:15
Traditional Thomistic Catholic 