Expert: Michael Clark, Ph.D. - 7/19/2007

Question
I am looking for excellent trustworth reading sources to the Catholic faith and teachings. There are many magazines and papers out their. Any recommendations. What are your thoughts on Our Sunday Visitor and America?
thank you, Don

Answer
If you just want the faith as it's formulated today, the best thing to turn to is the catechism. It's online and searchable.

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

But if you want to get into current issues and debates, I think you have to decide if you're a liberal, a conservative, a traditionalist, a progressive, and so on. I can't say what's "trustworthy" in this regard because it mostly boils down to opinion.

You might want to read a bit about the history of the Church to better understand just how historically relative its current formation is. "The Oxford Dictionary of Popes" is arranged chronologically, so one can read it as a concise history book (keeping in mind its Protestant bent). "A Concise History of the Catholic Church" by Thomas Bokenkotter (revised and expanded edition) is widely available and provides a good account of the Church's formation, problems about maintaining cohesion in the face of division, and subsequent developments, right up to Liberation Theology.

As for EWTN, some people absolutely love it while others think it's all gone wrong. Again, this points to whether one sees oneself as a traditionalist or a progressive. Same thing with the publications you mention, and specific articles therein.

Last, check out the links here:

http://web.ncf.ca/dy656/earthpages3/links_catholic.htm

I hope this helps.