Books published by Arouca Press

Monsignor John O'Connor (1870-1952), an Irish parish priest in Yorkshire blessed with a solid continental education, was the inspiration for G K Chesterton's famous clerical sleuth, Father Brown. Though a friend of Chesterton and Eric Gill and a published writer himself, O'Connor's motives for printing his prewar tract on liturgical renewal both privately and anonymously will not be hard to fathom. His liturgical views offer an insight into the thinking of non-specialist advocates of the Liturgical Movement in the late 1930s. Always strident, his liturgical opinions are sometimes prophetic and often confounding. Immune to neat categorisation, this liturgical manifesto from the real "Father Brown" may surprise many admirers of the beloved character he inspired.

The task of condensing the History of the Church within a few hundred pages is a delicate one. We have undertaken it in the hope that our efforts will benefit both seminarians and college students. Our chief concern throughout has been clearness, precision, and brevity, and for this reason we have carefully eliminated unnecessary details. On the other hand, we have thought it our duty to stress the dogmatic controversies as well as the development of Christian institutions, and hence we have attached more importance to certain decisive epochs in the history of dogma. In this matter we willingly subscribe to the opinion of a very competent judge, who writes: "The history of the second and third centuries of the Church has its special interest, because of the sublime heights reached by so many holy emotions and passions, and because of the early confusion that reigned among a host of new and fecund ideas. But we must confess that the period of one hundred and twenty-five years, extending from the Council of Nicaea to the Council of Chalcedon (325-451), is far more important to one who would obtain a comprehensive view of Christianity, and that ignorance concerning the spirit of that time might lead one into serious error. In those days, in the midst of incredibly bitter doctrinal struggles, the authentic formulas of the great Trinitarian and Christological dogmas, which constitute the nucleus of present-day Catholic belief, took on explicit and definitive form." - Dom Charles Poulet, OSB, Monk of Solesmes, From the Preface

The task of condensing the History of the Church within a few hundred pages is a delicate one. We have undertaken it in the hope that our efforts will benefit both seminarians and college students. Our chief concern throughout has been clearness, precision, and brevity, and for this reason we have carefully eliminated unnecessary details. On the other hand, we have thought it our duty to stress the dogmatic controversies as well as the development of Christian institutions, and hence we have attached more importance to certain decisive epochs in the history of dogma. In this matter we willingly subscribe to the opinion of a very competent judge, who writes: "The history of the second and third centuries of the Church has its special interest, because of the sublime heights reached by so many holy emotions and passions, and because of the early confusion that reigned among a host of new and fecund ideas. But we must confess that the period of one hundred and twenty-five years, extending from the Council of Nicaea to the Council of Chalcedon (325-451), is far more important to one who would obtain a comprehensive view of Christianity, and that ignorance concerning the spirit of that time might lead one into serious error. In those days, in the midst of incredibly bitter doctrinal struggles, the authentic formulas of the great Trinitarian and Christological dogmas, which constitute the nucleus of present-day Catholic belief, took on explicit and definitive form." - Dom Charles Poulet, OSB, Monk of Solesmes, From the Preface

Separating the occasional high points of the formal sessions of Vatican II were long stretches of procedural tedium and usually ponderous Latin speeches. Some of the anglophone council fathers found fleeting relief in recording their reactions, frustrations and opinions in limerick form. Many of these were collected in a typed manuscript together with their translations into Latin by Bishop Bernard Wall of Brentwood. The English limericks are a whimsical primary source for the history of Vatican II which add a little extra humour, colour and insight to the formal record of the council's proceedings; their contemporary Latin translations remind us that Latin is far from being a dead language. The editor has provided notes that situate the limericks in a clearer context.From the Preface: As I am preparing to research matters relating to the Council, it seemed to me a pity that these limericks (with concluding verse not of the limerick form) were not more widely known. They offer an insight into the experience of at least some of the anglophone bishops at the Council, as well as their humanity, wit and creativity. In Bishop Wall's case, they show a knowledge of Latin of which we see far less in these enlightened days. They also offer a contemporaneous micro-commentary on some of the personalities and issues of the Council, adding a dash of colour to later and more conventional, wider-ranging commentary. The limericks reveal that bishops were exercised most, not surprisingly, by matters affecting themselves.