This book, first published in 1835, is one of the all-time great anti-Catholic diatribes of recent history. And despite the fact that Miss Monk was proved beyond any reasonable doubt to be a fraud and to have completely fabricated this work, Books for Alert Protestants reprints it as factual history. Read about the lurid abuse of the confessional; the sexual abuse heaped upon poor Miss Monk by priest and abbess alike; the horrible methods of punishment applied; the infanticide of unwanted babies and, last but not least, the general corruption of the Roman Catholic Church—a Catholic Protocols of the Elders of Zion but with rampant sex and cruelty. If only Catholic nuns were brutal vixens like Ilse, She-Wolf of the SS! Alas most nuns only sacrifice their lives to education without any pay or such benefits as Social Security. This was one of the first American mass market anti-religious propagandist tracts. As an imaginative, titillating fantasy of the Catholic Church, it’s great but as an influential piece of anti-religious propaganda, Maria Monk’s disclosures may have paved the way but are not on a par with the aforementioned Protocols. MM/ES

Publisher: Ozark
Paperback: 125 pages

“This book presents an orthodox Catholic perspective on how to counsel homosexual persons to lead chaste lives. Father Harvey, the founder of Courage, has done 35 years of pastoral work with homosexuals. He discusses the teachings of the Church on homosexuality, outlines theories about the origins of homosexuality and discusses the possibility of a change of orientation for homosexual persons as well as pastoral perspectives and programs offered to them.”

Publisher: Ignatius
Paperback: 255 pages

Account of Junipero Serra’s notorious establishment of the California missions, his work for the Holy Inquisition, his masochism, and the conversion of the Indians of California to Christianity.

Publisher: Ism
Paperback: 219 pages
Illustrated

“Only Malachi Martin, consummate Vatican insider and intelligence expert, could reveal the untold story behind the Vatican’s role in today’s winner-take-all race against time to establish, maintain and control the first one-world government… It is not too much to say, in fact, that the chosen purpose of John Paul’s papacy—the engine that drives his papal grand policy and determines his day-to-day, year-by-year strategies—is to be the victor in that competition, now well under way. For the fact is that the stakes John Paul has placed in the arena of geopolitical contention include everything—himself, his papal persona, the age-old Petrine Office he now embodies, and his entire Church Universal, both as an institutional organization unparalleled in the world and as a body of believers united by a bond of mystical communion.”

Publisher: Touchstone
Paperback: 734 pages

“In the decade of 1982 to 1992, approximately 400 priests were reported to Church or civil authorities for molesting youths. By 1992, the Church’s financial losses—in victim’s settlements, legal expenses and medical treatment of clergy—had reached an estimated $400 million. Reports of these cases—and how bishops handled them—raise stark questions about the psychological dynamics of clerical governing. For seven years it has been my strange lot to travel long distances, interviewing countless sources, gathering legal documents and church reports, reading theology, psychology and studies of human sexuality. In my travels I sought an objective account of changes tearing at the central nervous system of the Church. In time this line of inquiry ran up against an older memory of faith, and the tension caused me quite a struggle. It has left the Catholic in me with a sense of urgency.”

Publisher: Doubleday
Paperback: 407 pages

“Nuns and ex-nuns describe their individual stories and journey in discovering, facing and experiencing the truth about themselves: that she is a lesbian nun.” “My favorite part of the book are the before-and-after pictures of Sister So-and-so. First you see her smiling in a habit, and then you see her in overalls looking like Johnny Cash.”—John Waters

Publisher: Naiad
Paperback: 383 pages
Illustrated

Like the Blues Brothers, Mother Teresa (née Agnes Bojaxhiu) is on a mission from God—so don’t question how her sainthood was all but guaranteed by public opinion shaped from an early BBC documentary and book, or how she endorsed fascist reapportionment of her native Albania in exchange for being allowed a highly publicized homecoming there, or why she didn’t return Charles Keating’s $1.25 million when asked by Judge Ito’s court. Hitchens presents hard-hitting testimonials by doctors and nurses of total medical ineptitude at her clinics, and shows how the Reagan and Thatcher governments used Mother Teresa and her good name as a political ringer for anti-abortion conservative causes. Contains the classic photo of Mother Teresa and John Rutger (Ariana Huffington’s guru) in a studio superimposed over another picture of children in the Calcutta ghetto. Mother Teresa on not giving morphine to a terminal patient: “You are suffering like Christ on the cross. So Jesus must be kissing you.” The sufferer’s reply: “Then please tell him to stop kissing me.” MS

Publisher: Verso
Hardback: 98 pages
Illustrated

“The most dramatic and bloody account of the incredible plots, deaths and murders inside and outside the Vatican. Spectacular disclosures of rigged papal elections, bribed cardinals, bugged conclaves and the most-secret operations of the KGB and the CIA in Washington, Moscow and Vatican City.”

Publisher: Ozark
Paperback: 274 pages

Rius, the cartoonist responsible for this booklet, is described on the back cover as the Mexican equivalent of Doonesbury. Don’t let this scare you away. Rius attempts to destroy the story of the alleged miraculous appearance of the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) on a piece of cloth on December 9, 1531. The alleged relic is still on display and has become a unifying symbol of the Mexican people, as well as a favorite tattoo image for for Hispanics in prison.
Rius makes his case, for the most part, not by attacking the image itself, as others have done. Instead, the bulk of his argument is the lack of historical record supporting the origin of the artifact. He shows that a number of attempts to verify the timeline of the relic have come to the same negative conclusion, regardless of the religious feelings of the investigators. In the end, Rius makes a strong case to doubt the artifact’s authenticity without even having to examine the image in question. The entire booklet is written in longhand and profusely illustrated with Rius’ cartoon illustrations. Although the style is meant to be informal, after a while it becomes distracting and feels like you are reading a friend’s way-too-long letter about his summer vacation. Perhaps the most annoying part is when he prints a long account of the appearance of the image, and interrupts the telling every few lines to belittle the story. Here he comes off like Courtney Love reading Kurt Cobain’s suicide note. The booklet is published by the fundamentalist atheist publishing house American Atheist Press, the publishing arm of the mysteriously missing Atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair. TC

Publisher: American Atheist
Paperback: 69 pages
Illustrated

A short account of one man’s visit to a site in Yugoslavia where the Virgin Mary was reported to be appearing in the late 1980s. A non-Catholic, Grady made daily observations over the period of a week and recounts the experience of witnessing the apparition. Of interest to followers of Marian phenomena is the bibliography which lists books pertaining to the Virgin Mary appearances worldwide. AS

Publisher: Tan Sal
Pamphlet: 24 pages