Imperative for Renewal: Our next free ebook

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 10, 2019

I have begun to collect my (still relevant) essays over the past couple of years into ebooks. These ebooks enable those new to CatholicCulture.org to acquaint themselves more easily with the commentary we have published over the years that remains relevant to our present situation. For those who have been with us for an extended period of time, the ebooks have the advantage of grouping previously-published pieces according to theme. It becomes possible to gain a better understanding of key points by reading a collection of essays in book form to see how the topic has been developed and perhaps even completed over time.

The first collection from the period mentioned is Imperative for Renewal: Essays on restoring the Church’s health. I have selected twenty-five essays which appeared on CatholicCulture.org between January of 2017 and February of 2019—well into the pontificate of Pope Francis. This means these essays were written when we were already aware of the limited potential and the significant perils of this peculiar portion of Church history.

But such an awareness should serve to emphasize a fundamental principle of all Christian reform and renewal: No matter how clearly we see the need for institutional reform we must at the same time expend a good deal of prayer and effort on our own intensely personal renewal. I like to think this is a theme which emerges in various ways in all my writings on authentic renewal. As important as it is to identify Church problems and press for change, we must always use this recognition and this passion to examine our own lives and seek the grace to become more complete (and so more effective) Catholics ourselves. Renewal is an imperative not only for the Church as a whole but for each of us, her members.

In this collection I cover topics as diverse as relativism and secularism, the problem of rightsizing the Church, the roles of doctrine and discipline and liturgy, our pro-abortion political culture, clerical abuse, Church authority, key papal themes, and the importance of that local unit of the Church which we call the parish. The range of topics alone demonstrates how widespread is the need for authentic renewal. If these commentaries on such a wide variety of topics help readers to understand the problem better, and to take it more personally to heart, then I will be more than repaid for any small effort of my own.

All CatholicCulture.org ebooks, of which there are currently seventeen ready for download, are available free of charge to registered users. You will find them in our ebooks section. To download, you will have to be recognized by a cookie, or else log in to get the cookie. If you need to log in or have not yet registered on CatholicCulture.org, you can do that here.