Catholic Thought discussion

Let's nominate our next read. This week for nominations, next week to vote, and the following week to acquire the book.

In our cycle of genres, we're up to any type of read we want, as long as it's Catholic. Given we have a catholic Classic genre, I would emphasize - though not restricted to - a book published within the last hundred years.

Let me start the nominations. Given we just read a novel of Catholic persecution during Elizabethan England, I'm going to follow up on that with The Quest for Shakespeare by Joseph Pearce. This book takes us back to Elizabethan England to provide the evidence of Shakespeare's Catholicism.

Ah, great choice, Manny!

I'm nominating The Spirit of the Liturgy by Pope Benedict XVI. (The link here on goodreads to Amazon takes you to an older edition and is prohibitively expensive. However, Ignatius Press has newer editions, either available directly through them or on Amazon)

Yikes, I’ve been wanting to read that too!

I wish we had a Vatican library card!!

Michelle wrote: "I wish we had a Vatican library card!!"

LOL, but we do. All church documents are free on line. Even English translations. If you know the title, you just have to search for it, either a general search on the internet or a specific search on the Vatican website.

I came across several writers claiming that there are evident traces of Catholic doctrine in the plays of Shakespeare. I would like to know where they are. My professors when I read Shakespeare never mentioned it. (Should I add "of course?")

Galicius wrote: "I came across several writers claiming that there are evident traces of Catholic doctrine in the plays of Shakespeare. I would like to know where they are. My professors when I read Shakespeare nev..."

I took several classes in Shakespeare, read lots of commentary,. and never was it mentioned that Shakespeare might even have been Catholic. This characterization of Shakespeare as a libertine and even possibly gay agnostic is complete nonsense. These modern critics are projecting themselves and our era into Shakespeare. This belief that he was gay is complete garbage. It's been a number of years since I read Joseph Pearce's book - this will be a second read for me if selected - but he pulled together all the evidence that there is a high probability that Shakespeare was Catholic. There is no smoking gun or everyone would have to acknowledge it, but when he goes through his family members, who were proven Catholics, Shakespeare's known purchases of Catholic places, the sympathy toward Catholicism in his plays, and the fact that there is no documented evidence that Shakespeare participated in Anglican services while such documentation exists for others of his status you have enough circumstantial evidence to convince me! And I didn't believe it when I started reading the book.

By the way, we're not getting that many nominations. Are we happy with the two selected or should I send out a message to the entire group asking for nominations?

What about previous nominations?

Madeleine wrote: "What about previous nominations?"

You can nominate something from previous nominations, as long as it meets this read’s criteria, which is anything anyway.

Manny wrote: "Galicius wrote: "I came across several writers claiming that there are evident traces of Catholic doctrine in the plays of Shakespeare. I would like to know where they are. My professors when I rea..."

Thank you Manny. We have the devil mentioned about a dozen times in the plays.

I forgot to close nominations and set up the poll. I'll set up the poll tonight. I'll let nominations in until 10 PM EST.

OK, nominations are closed. We have only two nominated. I'll put up the poll.

Hello group. I don't see to many voters in the poll. We normally have more than just four votes at this point. I see I did forget to post the link to the poll here as my normal custom. Perhaps you haven't seen the poll. You can vote for the book here:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/4...

Manny wrote: "Hello group. I don't see to many voters in the poll. We normally have more than just four votes at this point. I see I did forget to post the link to the poll here as my normal custom. Perhaps you ..."

I myself didn't realize it was up :) I just voted.

Thank you Michelle. I guess that was my error for not posting the link.

I just voted, but wondering if there are more who, like me, are struggling to keep up. This is our busy season for my husband's business and my daily reading time is short.

Madeleine wrote: "I just voted, but wondering if there are more who, like me, are struggling to keep up. This is our busy season for my husband's business and my daily reading time is short."

I’m struggling too to keep up! How about we make this read at an even more leisurely pace than normal?

Sounds good to me. I am wondering if the reason we fall behind so many times is because we are not pacing correctly for the group and for us moderators. There are other groups where going 10+ weeks on a single title happens on a regular basis either because of the length of the book and/or how challenging the text is.

Manny, Kerstin, I'm all for that, and I'm sure our discussions will be more meaningful as a result!

I do know some people think we go too slow as it is. I guess they don't like to juggle multiple reads. I've got a job, a family, lead parish Adult Faith Formation, and personal reads. It's a struggle for me. Before I was moderator, I could pick and choose what I read. I feel obligated to read all as moderator. It's hard to say what the right pacing is. We needed to slow down for the recent Newman book (Apologia Pro Sua Vita) but it seemed just right for the Come Rack Come Rope read.