Catholic Truth Society - News

Has your Catholic
school seen The Way,
The Truth & The Life?

 

Has your local Catholic school seen the programme?

> Send us an e-mail to orders@cts-online.org.uk and we’ll send a brochure and a free sample to any named contact
> Order the books from our website www.cts-online.org.uk
> Read more about the programme and view supplementary resources at www.tere.org 

One year on - How is God’s Name represented in CTS’s publications?

Almost one year after the directive from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments setting out new rules as to how ‘The Name of God’ can be reproduced in print, many enquirers are keen to know how CTS is managing.

The Church now requires that the word ‘Yahweh’ must no longer be used, and must be replaced by the word ‘Lord’. The name ‘Yahweh’ is now forbidden from being read, sung or prayed in the Liturgy or at other times of prayer. This version of the Name was used in recent decades among Christians as a speculative way of pronouncing the Hebrew letters YHWH, which are used in the Scriptures to represent God’s Name. However pronouncing the Divine Name is considered disrespectful to the Jewish people, our older brothers in faith. The Church has traditionally translated the Divine Name as ‘Lord’, and it is to this version that the Holy See is now asking publishers such as ourselves to return.

All new and re-printed publications issuing from the CTS now use this version. CTS has made considerable progress in the last 12 months to eliminate the use of the term ‘Yahweh’ from its publications. This work continues as a thorough search of the Society’s nearly 500 publications draws to a conclusion. CTS is proud to say that even before the official decree was made public, its new CTS New Catholic Bible was published in November 2007 and abided fully with the new guidelines, replacing the word ‘Yahweh’ for ‘Lord’ throughout the entire translation.

For more information on the CTS New Catholic Bible, a new edition prepared specifically to assist Catholics in living and praying with the Scriptures in their daily lives and worship, follow this link. 

CTS delighted to hear of praise for our recently published marriage preparation course

The Most Rev. Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, has written personally to the Right Rev Patrick O’Donoghue, the recently retired Bishop of Lancaster, warmly congratulating Bishop O’Donoghue on his recent publication - Fit for Mission? Marriage - A Preparation Course.

I have received with pleasure Fit for Mission? Marriage - A Preparation Course produced after your competent and sound authorship … the main text and accompanying Couple’s book provide an excellent pathway for the preparation of couples that intend living marriage truly and fully.

For more details of the Fit for Mission? Marriage Preparation Course, please visit the Catholic Truth Society website, publishers of the Fit for Mission series:

http://www.cts-online.org.uk/acatalog/info_Do812.html 

Samples can be viewed through the CTS website:

DOWNLOAD SAMPLES:
> Introduction from Presenter’s Book
> Session 4 (standard course) from Couple’s Book
> Session 4 (standard course) notes from Presenter’s Book
> Session 4 (Preparation Plus course) from Couple’s Book
> Session 4 (PreparationPlus course) notes from Presenter’s Book

EVANGELIUM CONFERENCE 2009 - Explaining the Catholic Faith in the Modern World

7 - 9 August 2009, The Oratory School near Reading

> World-class speakers

> Great socialising

> Inspiring prayer and worship

A big spiritual buzz was felt by those who attended last summer’s Evangelium conference. The speakers were powerful, the company was excellent and the mixture of talks, discussion, prayer, worship and socialising gave a sense of renewal in faith to the young adults attending.

If you are aged 18 to 35, you are invited to attend the second Evangelium weekend residential conference on ways of explaining the Catholic faith in the modern world. The Conference is organised by the Evangelium Project and is being sponsored by CTS.

We’re also encouraging parishes to sponsor young people from their parish to attend, especially teachers, youth leaders and catechists, or any young adults whether professionals or students who are interested in ways to share their faith in the modern world.

“The best weekend of my life”

“Very high quality of speakers”

“I’m leaving here rejuvenated both in my own faith and feel more equipped in sharing the riches of the Catholic faith.”

For more information, click here

Download Brochure (PDF file)

At the close of the Papal General Audience on Wednesday 15th April, Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue (who retires from Lancaster diocese at the end of April) had the opportunity to present Pope Benedict XVI with his two ground-breaking documents – Fit for Mission? Schools and Fit for Mission? Church, both published in an expanded form by CTS and now joined by Fit for Mission? Marriage Preparation course.

The Holy Father departed from the usual protocol and spent quite some time going through both documents with Bishop Patrick, expressing his obvious delight at the wide­-ranging scope of the work.

Bishop Patrick explained to Pope Benedict that these were diocesan documents that concentrated on fostering an authentic Catholic identity in our schools and a correct interpretation of the Second Vatican Council in our parishes. The Bishop stressed that the initiative was an attempt to encourage all to think clearly about what it is to be Catholic today.

He went on to say that the overall objective of Fit for Mission? was to propose practical ways of balancing continuity, in the life of faith, with change in the midst of an increasingly secular world.

Towards the end of their meeting the Holy Father thanked the Bishop for all his work of renewal in the Lancaster Diocese.

Bishop Patrick also presented the Holy Father with a letter briefly introducing the third and final document in the Fit for Mission? series – Fit for Mission? A Marriage Preparation course, which was published by the Catholic Truth Society on the very same day as their meeting in St Peter’s Square.

Bishop O’Donoghue made the following comment:

I am so grateful for having the opportunity to personally explain to the Holy Father what we have being attempting to achieve through our Fit for Mission? initiative in the Diocese of Lancaster. His obvious interest and enthusiasm confirms me in my conviction that over the past two years – despite the difficulties and controversies – we have been on the right track, through the aid of the Holy Spirit.

CTS is delighted to be working again with Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue to publish the final instalment of the acclaimed Fit for Mission? series.

Bishop O’Donoghue, soon to retire from his diocese of Lancaster, recently met with Pope Benedict XVI and was praised by him for this work; this praise has followed that given previously to this series by a number of Vatican congregations.

The new Marriage Preparation Course seeks to combine the wisdom of the Church’s teaching, including recent advances in understanding made under John Paul II, with the experience offered by married couples who live out that teaching. It is also published in 2 forms allowing the course to be adapted both to regular churchgoers, and to those who are less involved with the faith or have little or no knowledge of it.

Samples can be viewed through the CTS website:

DOWNLOAD SAMPLES:
> Introduction from Presenter’s Book
> Session 4 (standard course) from Couple’s Book
> Session 4 (standard course) notes from Presenter’s Book
> Session 4 (Preparation Plus course) from Couple’s Book
> Session 4 (PreparationPlus course) notes from Presenter’s Book

Bishop O’Donoghue commented:

In the weeks leading up to the launch of my new document, Fit for Mission? Marriage: A Preparation Course I have been greatly encouraged by Cardinal Llovera’s commendation of my previous work on Liturgy. The Sacred Liturgy is always the life-blood of the Church, which must always be treated as a precious encounter between the life of God and the life of His people.

My concern is that in a Church where many lapsed and even non-believing Catholics present themselves and their children for the sacraments - for whatever reason - that the sacraments should not be cheapened or treated with disrespect, no matter how unintentionally.

Fit for Mission? Marriage sets out to respect the divine truths communicated by the Rite of Marriage and to respect the couple’s stage of Faith development. It is my hope that the approach pioneered in my Marriage Preparation Course might serve as a template for future sacramental preparation programmes that seek to meet the challenges of the New Evangelisation.

Together we’ve helped to change the lives of prisoners

 We were truly overwhelmed by the generous response to our recent appeal to send Bibles to prisoners!

In just a few months we received gifts to enable us to send over 3000 Bibles to UK prison chaplains; and as you can see from the message below, they are truly grateful for your assistance.

The Bibles for Prisoners appeal is now closed, but we welcome suggestions for future appeals to help specific groups of people who would benefit from sponsored copies of CTS publications. You can also support the full range of CTS’s work by joining as a CTS Member.

Pictured: Mgr Malachy Keegan, Principal Roman Catholic Chaplain with HM Prison Service, with Fergal Martin of CTS and some of the Bibles which donors have sponsored.

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From the Principal Roman Catholic Chaplain, HM Prison Service

Dear CTS,

I would like to thank all the CTS members who have, very generously, donated bibles to men and women serving sentences in our prisons. The Word of God has the power to connect us with the Lord of love and truth and forgiveness. Our brothers and sisters in prison deperately need to meet our Lord in his tenderness and wisdom. Reading and reflecting on the Word of God brings new hope and new life.

Recently I met a serving prisoner who had received a free copy of the CTS New Catholic Bible. He had just read Chapter 23 of St Luke’s Gospel and spoke to me about it. He was visibly moved and close to tears because the Word of God written there had just entered his heart and soul. He couldn’t contain his joy after reading the response of Jesus to the good thief, “Indeed, I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

There are almost 83,000 people held in our prisons in England and Wales. Many are people of Faith. Normally about 16,000 are Catholics. Prison Chaplains care for the needs of prisoners, especially their Faith needs. Increasingly, we are trying to organise support structures for former prisoners, when they leave prison, in the outside world.

If you would like to know more about our work and how you might be able to help, please contact me.
My email address is: malachy.keegan@hmps.gsi.gov.uk

Thank you for all your kindness and support.

Mgr Malachy Keegan

CTS is pleased to be sponsoring once again in 2009 a writing competition for children in primary schools, organised by the Association of Catholic Women (ACW). This is a wonderful opportunity for children to write creatively on their faith: this year’s theme is “What I see in Church”.

The competition is open to children in Catholic schools or to Catholic children in non-Catholic schools, and prizes will be awarded for the best entries. Many schools make entering the competition into a piece of project work, so it’s a great chance to get the children more involved in R.E. lessons.

For more details, please download the competition leaflet.

To read more about ACW’s reasons for running the competition, and to view last year’s winners and some sample entries, please visit ACW’s website:
http://www.associationofcatholicwomen.co.uk/html/re_project.html

We’re delighted to share the good news that CTS supporters have donated more than 2000 Bibles to our appeal. Our appeal, begun before Christmas, is assisting Catholic prison chaplains in their very important task of offering spiritual guidance to inmates.

Here are some examples of the grateful responses we have had from the prisons:

Just a line to thank you so much for the Bibles you sent to this Young Offenders Institution just before Christmas. We do a lot of catechetical work with our young people here, and these will help immensely with that. It is particularly good in a world dominated by the Gideon Bibles to have full Catholic bibles with study guides as a resource we can use which is so appropriate to our needs.

So, please pass my grateful thanks on to all who have generously supported your appeal for Catholic Bibles for prisoners.

With every blessing for 2009,

- A Catholic Prison Chaplain

 Another chaplain writes:

Many thanks for your generosity!!  I came into work today and wondered what the 2 boxes were on the desk.  What a lovely surprise, thank you so much.  The men will treasure these bibles.  I will be giving them out soon.

Please pass on my thanks to all who gave so generously.

The Bible we’ve been sending to the chaplains is the CTS New Catholic Bible, the same edition we presented to the Pope last year.

If you would like to read more about this appeal, please follow this link.

The CTS Christmas Appeal 2008
This year for the first time we’re running a Christmas appeal. Through this appeal we want to reach out to people who might not ordinarily be able to pick up a CTS publication, but who would really benefit from reading the word of God.

“I was in prison and you visited me”
Over the years CTS has received many requests from those in prison for free copies of our books, and we’ve always been pleased to help them. This set us thinking that maybe we could develop an outreach to prisoners to supply them with the books that they need.

As a result we met earlier this year with many prison chaplains from around the UK and offered to supply them with free copies of the CTS’s New Catholic Bible.

Naturally they were delighted: they have very little budget for resources and no other charities are offering to supply them with free Catholic Bibles. To date we’ve received requests for over 500 Bibles, with more coming in all the time.

Here are some examples of what the chaplains are saying:

“If you could donate bibles to us, we would be very grateful! It would be especially good to have some for our study groups which up to 12 boys attend.”

“Our allowance in the Chaplaincy budget for Catholic materials is only £100 per year. As you can imagine this is hopeless and as a result our resources are few.”

“I would like to have half or a dozen Bibles to use in study groups as we have no Catholic Bibles available at the prison I work for.”

As I am sure you will appreciate, a prisoner’s time in jail can be a time of crisis for them. They are separated from friends and family, and have a lot of time to reflect on their life. In this way it can also be a time of grace for them, a time to be open to the word of God. Prison chaplains try to help prisoners through this time, and if they can offer them a Bible, this can help them come closer to God and help them renew their lives.

Can you help?
CTS is committed to supplying as many Bibles to prison chaplains as we can, but we need gifts from people like you to make this happen.
If you would like to donate Bibles to be sent to prisoners, then please follow this link: instructions on how to donate are given on the page.

Thank you for your generous support for this Christmas appeal.

Fergal Martin
General Secretary of the CTS