The purpose of this book is to open up the treasury of wisdom found in the great Catholic writers over the centuries. In one sense, therefore, it is an honest effort to offer a Great Catholic Books program to the public. Certainly the books chosen for this Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan are among the outstanding in the twenty centuries of the Roman Catholic Church’s history.

But there was a deeper reason for preparing the present vol­ume. Anyone familiar with the Catholic Church in the closing years of the twentieth century knows that there is a crisis of identity in millions of once totally dedicated minds, The term “Catholic” has been used by so many people with so many dif­ferent meanings that even among the elect there is confusion. Yet, by her own claims, the Roman Catholic Church has re­mained substantially the same, since the first Pentecost Sunday to the present day. This is easier said than proved. So that a second and more-profound reason for assembling this Reading Plan was to provide factual evidence that Catholic continuity is reality and not rhetoric.

The closing words of Christ in Matthew’s Gospel are a proph­ecy and a promise. “Know that I am with you always,” He said to all future generations. “Yes, to the end of time.” (Matthew 28:20) How do we know?

We can know this by tracing the sequence of official Church teaching from apostolic times to our day. Practically speaking, this would mean going back to the earliest papal declarations outside the New Testament and then moving up to the latest pronouncement of the Bishop of Rome. It happens that we have a full-length letter of Pope Clement I to the Corinthians written somewhere between the years 88 and 97 (…).

The range of this book is the whole of Catholic literary his­tory, with stress on the term “literary.” Understood in its broadest meaning, literature is such writings as have excellence of form or expression, and express ideas of permanent and uni­versal interest. The writings may be in prose or verse, but the key factors are their beauty of expression and enduring content, appealing to every culture.

This is not a mere anthology or collection of literary master­pieces. It is a consciously planned program of self-education through systematic reading of some of the leading Catholic writers since the close of apostolic times.

A fair example of what I had in mind is St. Jerome’s On Illustri­ous Men, written at the end of the fourth century. This book is rightly credited with having founded the history of Christian literature. It has come in for more than its share of criticism for omissions, poor organization, mistakes, and partiality. Yet, after more than fifteen hundred years, it is still a valuable source of information about the hundred and thirty-five writers whom it treats, from St. Peter to the author himself!

Unlike Jerome’s work, this volume is limited to one hundred and four writers, including both men and women. Also unlike Jerome’s foundational book, which covered less than four centu­ries, the Reading Plan covers nineteen centuries.

What criteria did I apply in choosing one hundred and four writers out of thousands who have written beautifully and pro­foundly as witnesses of their Catholic heritage?

Let me begin by saying that many, and I hope most, of the writers chosen have already established a reputation as classics in their field. To assure myself of this fact, I consulted every available study of the masters of Catholic literature. In one col­lection after another, certain names kept recurring. Thus, there could be no reasonable doubt about including men like St. Au­gustine and Dante or women like Sts. Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila.

With others it was not so simple. A second criterion was what might be called a writer’s “relevance” for our age. There are issues being raised today, and ideas being challenged in and out­side the Catholic Church, that have long since been raised or explored by some of the greatest minds of history. To read what these minds have to say about God, and man, and happiness, and the purpose of our life on earth is enlightening. For one thing, it will help us to endure the upheavals to which modern society is subject, and not be shaken by the winds that threaten us today. The Church has not only weathered similar storms in the past but has become stronger than would have been hu­manly possible if she had not been periodically tested by experience.

A third criterion for choosing an author for the Reading Plan was the availability of his or her writings. This presented a real problem because the publishing trade keeps books in print only for a limited time. Whenever possible, authors were chosen whose writings are actually in print and therefore on sale when this Reading Plan was published. But there is no infallible way of predicting this. This is one difference between this and other , “great books” programs or reading plans. Every effort was made to ensure that the writers and their works here recommended are currently in print. But Catholic books, like any others, are at the mercy of a nation’s economy. The best way to make sure that booksellers will print the works of a certain author is for poten­tial readers to provide a ready market. It is hoped that this Read­ing Plan will help to stimulate the market.