Online text: “Popes Benedict XVI and Francis on the Sexual Abuse of Minors”, by Dr. Mariusz Biliniewicz

See this online text:

• “Popes Benedict XVI and Francis on the Sexual Abuse of Minors: Ecclesiological Perspectives”, by Mariusz Biliniewicz, Ph.D., Australasian Catholic Record, Vol. 97, No. 3 (2020), pp. 297-311. Available in pdf format at ResearchOnline@ND, which states: “Copyright © 2020 Australasian Catholic Record. All rights reserved. For personal use only. No other uses without permission”

See also these related texts:

Online text: “The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church”, by the Synod of Bishops General Secretariat

See this online text:

• “The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church”, Lineamenta by the Tenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops General Secretariat, 25 February 2004. May be read online at the Holy See.

See also the texts under sub-list IV “On the Blessed Eucharist and the Sacrifice of the Mass” on the page Sacraments, and under sub-list III.B “About the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass” on the page Liturgy; as well as:

Online text: The Priesthood of Christ according to John Paul II, by Dr. Tomasz Nawracała

See this online text:

• “The Priesthood of Christ in the Light of John Paul II’s Letters to Priests for Maundy Thursday”, by Professor Dr. Tomasz Nawracała, Forum Teologiczne, Vol. 22 (2021): pp. 191-205. Available in pdf format on this page of Platforma Czasopism.

On Holy Thursday, 2022. For other texts and ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title), the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject), the List of Worth-It Catholic Books & eBooks, and the main page of the Catholic eBooks Project.

Request/Invitation: For the Commemoration of Departed Priests & Septuagesima

Today, 13 February 2022 is Kohne Sunday or the Commemoration of Departed Priests in the Syro-Malankara church, and Septuagesima Sunday in the Latin church (Roman Rite Extraordinary Form), within the one true and Catholic Church. 

The Project is not posting an ebook link today. Instead, as thanksgiving to the Lord our God for the ministerial priesthood, in gratitude to the departed priests who became instruments of His saving work in our lives, with hope and charity for their souls (if they are now being purified for the vision of God after departing in His grace), and to prepare for Great Lent:

• We invite our readers to pray, after hearing the Holy Qurbana / Divine Liturgy / Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in His Real Presence, a devotion on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to their traditions (such as the Via Crucis of Latin Catholics), and to offer that prayer for the repose of the souls of departed priests: especially the bishops and presbyters who gave them the divine sacraments, taught and guided them, led them in the liturgy, or otherwise invited / received them into and nourished them in the grace and truth of Christ and His Mystical Body.
  • (Readers may also post in the comments the initials of departed priests for whose souls they offer prayers.)
• In addition, we invite our readers to make an extra effort today to provide material aid and spiritual comfort–starting with silent prayer and a spoken “thank you” and “God bless you”–to their living priests: beyond the support required by divine and ecclesiastical law, to the outpouring called forth by gratitude and filial love. 

Oremus:

O God, Thou didst raise Thy servant, N., to the sacred priesthood of Jesus Christ, according to the Order of Melchisedech, giving him the sublime power to offer the Eternal Sacrifice, to bring the Body and Blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ down upon the altar, and to absolve the sins of men in Thine own Holy Name.

We beseech Thee to reward his faithfulness and to forget his faults, admitting him speedily into Thy Holy Presence, there to enjoy forever the recompense of his labours. 

This we ask through Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord. Amen. (Prayer from Catholic Doors)

Online texts: Documents of the Maronite Patriarchal Synod of 2004

See these online texts:

• Documents of the Maronite Patriarchal Synod of 2003-2004. May be read online through this index of documents on Maronite Heritage (which also contains an Introduction by Archbishop Youssef Bechara of Antelias and a Preface by His Beatitude and Eminence Cardinal Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir (+), Patriarch of Antioch and the Entire East, Maronite Church)

See also the texts listed on the page Eastern Catholicism.

On the Feast of Saint Maron in the Maronite Church, within the one true and Catholic Church. May his prayers be with us. For other texts and ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title), the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject), the List of Worth-It Catholic Books & eBooks, and the main page of the Catholic eBooks Project.

Online text: Open Letter to the Catholic Bishops of the World on the German Synodal Path, by Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila

See this online text:

• “A Response to ‘Forum I’ of the German Catholic Synodal Path: An Open Letter to the Catholic Bishops of the World” by the Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila, Archbishop of Denver, May 13, 2021. Available in pdf format in English, Español, und  Deutsch, through this page of the Archdiocese of Denver and through the article “Archbishop Aquila responds to Germany’s synodal path that could impact the universal Church” at Denver Catholic.

See also the various works listed as related texts on the posts “Online text: “The Crisis of Faith and the Crisis of the Church”, by Dr. Ralph Weimann“, “Worth-it book: “A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward”, by Dr. Ralph Martin“, and “Online text: “On the Sacramental Meaning of Tradition”, by Prof. José Granados“, and “Worth-it book: “Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age”, by Bishop Athanasius Schneider“.

On the Memorial of Blessed Rabanus Maurus. For other texts and ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title), the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject), the List of Worth-It Catholic Books & eBooks, and the main page of the Catholic eBooks Project.

“But though we, or an Angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema… For I give you to understand, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man… but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Galatians i, 8, 11-12)

“[K]eep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane novelties of words and oppositions of knowledge falsely so called. Which some promising, have erred concerning the faith.” (I Timothy vi, 20-21)

“What Jesus Christ was yesterday, and is to-day, he remains for ever. Do not be carried aside from your course by a maze of new doctrines” (Hebrews xiii, 8-9)

“Dearly beloved, taking all care to write to you concerning your common salvation, I was under a necessity to write to you: to beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.” (St. Jude i, 3)

Online text: “The Theology of the Episcopacy According to St. Ignatius of Antioch”, by Dr. Kevin M. Clarke

See this online text:

• “‘Being Bishoped by’ God: The Theology of the Episcopacy According to St. Ignatius of Antioch”, by Prof. Kevin M. Clarke, Ph.D., Nova et Vetera, English Edition, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Winter 2016): pp. 227-243. Available on this page of Nova et Vetera at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology; may be read online and available in pdf format at Project Muse; and available at ResearchGate.net.

See also the ebooks listed on the page Church and Ecclesiology and Early Christianity, as well as the following texts:

• “The Bishops of History and the Catholic Faith: A Reply to Brandon Addison” by Bryan Cross, June 8, 2014. May be read online and available in pdf format at Called to Communion. 168 pages with footnotes. [N.B., This is a very thorough essay on the hierarchy of the primitive Church that refutes non-Catholic arguments rejecting her historical monoepiscopate in favor of theories of presbyterial governance.]
• [Communion with Christ through Apostolic Tradition and Succession], General Audience Addresses by Pope Benedict XVI, delivered in March-May 2006.
  • “Christ and the Church”, General Audience Address of Wednesday, 15 March 2006. May be read online on this page of Catholic Culture; on this page of the EWTN Library; and at the Holy See
  • “Witnesses of Christ” General Audience Address of Wednesday, 22 March 2006. May be read online on this page of Catholic Culture; on this page of the EWTN Library; and at the Holy See.
  • “The gift of communion”, General Audience Address of Wednesday, 29 March 2006. May be read online on this page of Catholic Culture; on this page of the EWTN Library; and at the Holy See
  • “Safeguarding the gift” (“The Church of Love Is Also the Church of Truth”), General Audience Address of Wednesday, 5 April 2006. May be read online on this page of Catholic Culture; on this page of the EWTN Library; and at the Holy See.
  • “Communion in time: Tradition”, General Audience Address of Wednesday, 26 April 2006. May be read online on this page of Catholic Culture; on this page and on this page of the EWTN Library; and at the Holy See.
  • “The Apostolic Tradition of the Church”, General Audience Address of Wednesday, 3 May 2006. May be read online on this page of Catholic Culture; on this page of the EWTN Library, and at the Holy See.
  • “Having a vision from on high” (“Apostolic Succession: Spiritual and Historical Tie to Christ”), General Audience Address of Wednesday, 10 May 2006. May be read online on this page and, under the title “Apostolic Succession: Spiritual and Historical Tie to Christ”, on this page of Catholic Culture; on this page of the EWTN Library, and at the Holy See. A different translation is provided at Catholic Online.
  • [Notes: (a) These addresses form the first part of Pope Benedict XVI’s Catechesis on the Apostles and First Disciples, which is indexed on this page and summarized on this page of the EWTN Library, and indexed on Catechesis of the Popes. They are followed by the Holy Father’s addresses on the Apostles. (b) As far as we know, these addresses have no collective label provided by the Holy See, though Catechesis of the Popes provides the title “Origins of the Church”. The label “Communion with Christ through Apostolic Tradition and Succession” is our own.]
• Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops “Apostolorum Successores”, by the Congregation for Bishops, February 22, 2004. May be read online at the Holy See.
• The Pastoral Office, by Henry Edward Cardinal Manning (London: Printed for private use only, 1883). Available at Open Library and Internet Archive. [N.B., This treatise on the office and ministry of bishops is an excellent summation of the teaching of the Church on the episcopate.]

On the Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch in the Latin church. For other texts and ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title), the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject), the List of Worth-It Catholic Books & eBooks, and the main page of the Catholic eBooks Project.

Online ebook: “The Saintly Life and Vision of Kuriakose Elias Chavaram”, by K.C. Chacko

See this online ebook:

• Lead Kindly Light: A Voyage into the Saintly Life and Vision of Kuriakose Elias Chavaram, by K.C. Chacko, edited by the Rev. Dr. George Thanchan CMI, and with Introductions by Mar Baseliose Cardinal Clemese and Bishop Mar Mathew Kavukkatt (Beth Rauma, 1959). With Imprimatur. May be read online and available in pdf format at Chavara Library.
  • [Note: The Chavara Library, and the online availability of the books on the site, appear to be authorised by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, which provides a link to the library on this page dedicated to St Charvara on its website.]

On the Memorial of Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara (Saint Chavara) in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. For other texts and ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title), the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject), the List of Worth-It Catholic Books & eBooks, and the main page of the Catholic eBooks Project.

Online text: “The Missionary Character of the Dominican Order”, by Edward Dominic Hennessy, O.P.

See this online text:

• “The Missionary Character of the Dominican Order”, by Edward Dominic Hennessy, O.P., Dominicana, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Fall 1945). Available in pdf format through this page of Dominicana.

On the anniversary of the issuance of the papal bull “Religiosam vitam”. For other texts and ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title), the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject), the List of Worth-It Catholic Books & eBooks, and the main page of the Catholic eBooks Project.

O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum, blapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti. (Antiphon of Vespers, text from Aleteia)

Livre gratuit: “Les Jésuites-martyrs du Canada”, par François-Joseph Bressani

Voir ce livre gratuit:

• Les Jésuites-martyrs du Canada: Relation abrégée de quelques missions des pères de la Compagnie de Jésus dans la Nouvelle France, nouvelle édition, par le Père François-Joseph (Francesco Giuseppe) Bressani, S.J., traduite de l’Italien par le Père Félix Martin, S.J. (Montreal: Compagnie d’Imprimerie Canadienne, 1877). Avec Imprimatur. Disponible dans Internet Archive, 1e copie, Internet Archive, 2e copie, Internet Archive, 3e copie, la Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, et Google Books.  

Pour la Fête des Saints martyrs canadiens. Pour plus de livres gratuits, vous pouvez accéder à la liste des eBooks gratuits (par titres) et la liste des eBooks gratuits (regroupées par sujet).

(And if the grammar is wrong, please correct me. Merci!)