What is that? And why would it be included because someone is popular instead of recommending something for that fact that it is good?

Hmm, do any of you know where I can get the cathecism of the council of Trent in bookform?

Ta da.

I didn't say it wasn't good and I'm just recommending it just because it is popular. I said JPII was popular. He and other writers such as Dietrich Von Hildebrand made use of phenomenology and someone wishing to understand their thought might want to be familiar with it.

Thanks. Ordering it as we speak

Thanks to Bonaventure and everyone to compiling this list.

Bonaventure

I know I am a newbie and have only read a handful of the books on that list but what do you think about The Way by St. Josemaria Escriva? I read it and was blown away by it.

I have that as well and I really liked it. Lots of holy wisdom and advice in there. Its a very good book IMHO.

BTW, all of St. Escriva's works can be read online here.

Thanks!

Okay. I'm rotten with gift certificates after Christmas, and want to purchase a Revised Standard Edition Bible (Catholic style, of course).

I picked up an NAB bible a few months ago, but it's tiny and not good for notes. I've also read that the footnotes are suspect. I'm going to use it as my "backup" or "compare" Bible.

Here's what I'm looking for, and I hope some of you might be able to help me find it in terms of make/model:

A sturdy paperback bible.
Good size (not huge font, but not too small for highlighting)
Preferably paper that is not tissue thin so I can highlight and make notes

Anyone have any editions they can point me toward? I'm not having much luck telling online, and the local Catholic bookstore only sells NAB. Thanks in advance!

I always recommend "Catholic Christianity" by Richard Chilson. Our RCIA class used it and I found it quite informative.

Does it really need to be a paper Bible? Because the New English Translation, an 'open source' English translation done by Internet scholars, is free, and available for download. It has excellent, completely non sectarian, translation notes too.

The Catholic Edition, featuring the 'apocrypha' is not yet finished, but will be soon.

Go here:

http://www.bible.org/netbible/

Since it is open source, it isn't copyrighted, so you can copy and paste, or revise the wording, to your heart's delight!


A similar project is the 'Free Bible' which is wiki Bible, is just getting started and looks promising.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/WS:WPWB

There is also the 'Catholic Public Domain' translation, which is going to be a translation of the Clementine Vulgate into modern English, based loosely on the Douay Rheims.

http://www.sacredbible.org/


In short, I think that free, public domain open source translations may be the wave of the future, 'official' translations sponsored by some Church or organization might be a thing of the past.

And of course the Douay-Rheims itself is freely available on the web.

There will still be lectionaries and still be the tradition of the English language to contend with.

And here is another public domain translation I have just discovered, the World English Translation, which is based on the American Standard Version of 1901, and yes it does include the 'apocrypha':

http://www.ebible.org/index.html

As far as lectionaries go, I rather think that the companies that publish them would prefer it if they DIDN'T have to pay a fee for the copyright for the translation they use, as would the consumers who pay for them. Using public domain translations means lower prices for everybody. Can't really argue with that.

Sure, but it's also bishops' conferences and the Holy See who have to approve them. They may go that way, or they may not, of course.

Exactly. Why would the USCCB approve a public domain translation when they can insist on their own translation (i.e., the NAB) being used instead?

Oh, those 'official' translations are never going to go away completely, just as traditional licensed software will never go away COMPLETELY, but when people start realizing just how good free, open source software can be, they won't buy commercial licensed software any more.

It is getting to the point where ordinary consumers are starting to EXPECT that their computer applications will be free.

Basically, I think that traditional, licensed software that you have to pay for is going to exist SOLELY for extremely technical and business applications, such as Mathematica and Microsoft Powerpoint. 50 years from now, the only people who will be paying for software will be professionals and businesses. Ordinary consumers will be getting all their software, including their operating systems 100% free.

The same is likely to be true with Bible translations. Ordinary readers will use a free, public domain translation, while the traditional copyrighted versions will be reserved exclusively for 'big' functions.

Says the Windows Vista fan!

One more quibble: There's already an open source version of PowerPoint.