Who Are We?

The Library of Catholic Authors is a non-profit organization working to rescue Roman Catholic books and to promote and celebrate the culture which they contain.

Rescuing Books

CatholicAuthors.com was founded in 2001 by several young traditional Catholics who awoke to a startling revelation;

Since the startling changes have swept the Catholic Church in the past 30 years, including a new liturgy, a new Code of Canon Law, the abandonment of the Latin language and popular modern theologies, many Catholics have completely abandoned the books on which they were reared in the faith. A mainstream thinking has declared that all books written before Ecumenical Vatican Council II are obsolete -- belonging to the past. Since this council we have seen entire Catholic libraries gutted and discarded. Individual Catholics, too, having been taught that there old methods of prayer, and those of their ancestors, were inferior, threw into the trash goes their Latin missals, prayer books and other such "obsolete" literature.

The past two centuries have been the most vibrant time in the history of Catholic literature. Countless priceless books have been written by and for Catholics in all fields of life, catechism books to help the young learn the basics of their faith, books to train and educate solid priests and religious, books to help Catholics in married life stay true to their vocation, prayer books that gave consolation to soldiers in countless wars...

All of this, obsolete?

Facing the fact that these books are being destroyed at an alarming rate, the founders of the Library realized they had to do something, and something quickly, to preserve this important part of our Catholic heritage. They soon started the website, CatholicAuthors.com and issued an appeal for any and all unwanted or discarded Catholic books.

The first year, the staff of the Library rescued thousands of books from certain destruction. Their first call was from a concerned Catholic who had discovered an entire convent library had been hauled to the local dump. People have answered the appeal, and Library staff continue to wade through dumpsters and scour dusty basements recovering books to be preserved and recirculated.

The Old for the Young

We do not recover books to simply lock them up again. Our plan is to return these old books to a new generation of readers in a variety of ways. A whole generation of Catholics have grown up, somewhat disillusioned with the feel-good Catholicism of their parents and are searching for the truth, and are realizing that there is honor in being a Christian, and a Catholic and are searching in earnest for the culture that has been robbed from them. These books are for them, and their children - the future of the Church. We have placed many books into the hands of solid young priests and seminarians, to strengthen the collections of thriving traditional Catholic seminaries and even destitute Catholic schools in South America and Africa who are desperate for good Catholic books.

Our first project involved creating a comprehensive biographical database of Catholic Authors. The database will, when completed, contain biographies of over 1,000 writers from all veins. Many of our recovered books have been reprinted in connection with some fine non-profit Catholic publishers, and many of our older, deteriorating books are being transcribed and will be available, forever, on the Internet.

Future plans include lecture series, writers' workshops, a bookshop, visitor's center and more. However, our first concern is saving books, and this is only possible with your help. Please consult the how you can help page to learn more.