Resources Week: Catholic Library

I’m used to checking the New Advent main page for a quick overview of hot topics among Catholic bloggers. And most of us also know that you can find the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia entries online there also.

However, I tend to forget what a great resource the Catholic Library is that New Advent maintains. Here’s what’s included.

• Church Documents. Get the scoop from the horse’s mouth on Church teachings. Want to know what John Paul II said in 1991 about combatting abortion and euthanasia? It’s there. What Leo XIII said on the Church in Hungary? Less likely to be a hot topic, but it’s there. Here’s a hot topic: the 1976 CDF document on women’s ordination. Most of the documents are from the late 1800’s and the 1900’s but I spotted some very old ones (On slavery in the New World – 1537). Handy and worth looking through to get perspective.
• How to Recite the Holy Rosary. Presented in PDF format, to be copied and distributed freely. Also available in Spanish.
• Quick Questions. Dozens of questions excerpted from Catholic Answers’ This Rock magazine. (It isn’t obvious, but you have to click on each year to see the actual answers to the questions listed.)
• Radio Replies. Miscellaneous questions and answers excerpted from Radio Replies by Frs. Rumble and Carty.
• The Seven Sacraments. A list of Catholic Encyclopedia articles on the seven sacraments.
• The 21 Ecumenical Councils. Capsule summaries of each of the ecumenical councils of the Catholic Church. (This is fascinating and I probably could’ve used it during RCIA when answering questions.)

There is also a bullet called New Advent’s Catholic links but it doesn’t take you anywhere that actually has links.

This is a great resource that probably isn’t accessed enough, if we go by my own tendency to forget it is there. Don’t do as I do. Do as I say! Check it out!