Tag Archives: support

Preface to De Romano Pontifice

In case anyone is wondering why I am not posting more regularly, it is because I have been hard at work on translating De Romano Pontifice. Today I am sharing an update, which I already placed on the go-fund me site, which is the full preface to the work.

It is still a work in progress, and the punctuation will be off, since when translating its natural to render the punctuation as you see it, then go back later and fix it. This isn’t so much to establish that I can do it for anyone I’m hoping will donate, as to give a preview of the work for those who have already donated (although if someone is on the fence about donating, I hope this convinces him of the former). You can read the preface here.

Aude Sapere 007 – The Bellarmine Project

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Today we talk about new publications I’m working on for Mediatrix Press, as well as the importance of the Bellarmine Project. Continue reading

Things I’m working on…

I apologize for the hiatus in regular blogging. My plan is normally to have an article every two days and a podcast every week. I had one interview that has to be redone because the program I was using spontaneously deleted all the data, can’t figure out why, thus I’m going back to the free program Audacity since I have never had a problem with that. Sometimes, the best things in life are free.

In any event, as some of you may seen, I am also the managing editor of Mediatrix Press, and I have been working double-time to get some books finished. Right now the big thing is The Life of St. Francis of Assisi, by Challipe Candide, OFM. This is a spiritual masterpiece, not merely a life of St. Francis, it interprets the events in his life in light of the Church Fathers, and also the subsequent history of the Church from St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas, and even the Council of Trent. It is a marvelous work which I have  beautified with open source images from Giotto and other artists depicting St. Francis’ life. It will truly be a beautiful work, but I have to get it done first. Using an OCR, even a professional one, is no picnic, especially when you have children climbing all over you and the original print was not that good. Other works I scanned and OCRed like the Life of St. Peter Canisius, went really quick and easy, and I only fount 3 errors when I proofed it.

The second thing I have been working on is reprinting the entire Opera Omnia of St. Thomas in Latin. This is hugely important for priests and scholars who read Latin to have affordable works of St. Thomas. It is almost impossible for a publisher to reprint major works in Latin because they will not really recoup their investment. So, if you are a print on demand publisher, your investment is time, editing, spell-checking and formatting, plus maybe $10 or $15 per volume, which is much easier. I don’t need to print 1,000 copies, I only need to respond to actual orders. Actually, I don’t even do that, the printing service I use does. Then I have various other devotional works and saints biographies which I am churning out, and Latin educational materials, but those take time. Like my blog articles, I try to get a number of things done at one time.

Third, I am working on translating St. Robert Bellarmine’s sermons on the liturgical year, with the first volume, Advent and Christmas, due out in late October. This has never been translated into English before, and I’m working on getting it done in time for the next liturgical year. That is of course, also time consuming work. What I am also looking at doing, is soliciting money to support me while I translate his entire Opera Omnia, the De Contraversiis, into English, since it is such a good apologetical work. In edition to that, I also have the three catechisms of St. Peter Canisius, and I would like to translate at least the smaller ones, if not the larger one (Summa Christinae Doctrinae) into English. I’m waiting for some of my other translations to come out so I can point out to potential donors, I’ve done these, now help me do this.

I am also still editing my older works on Sedevacantism, which eventually will become a book, but I will post them here first. That is time consuming, because it has required a lot of researching in the manuals. I do hope to get those out soon.

Last, is the finishing touches of my translation of Cardinal Franzelin’s De Divina Traditione (On Divine Tradition), which still needs about 80 pages of editing and some additional formatting before it will be done. The target date for that is for the fall, though it will be printed by another publisher. Thankfully I have two priests working on proofing the English who are proficient both in scholastic theology and Latin.

All in all, lots of work! Keep me and my family in your prayers.

Support this site

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Websites come and go, often because they are the pet projects on the side of people who find their web-time taken over by real life issues.

This was the case for me several years ago when I shut down the original Athanasius Contra Mundum. In restarting the website, I am giving my time to produce material for you that I hope you will find beneficial, not only in Ecclesial issues but also in history, politics, or whatever other work I produce.
In ancient Greece, there was a class of Philosophers called the “Sophists”, (σοφιστής in Greek) which has the sense of “Wise-guys” in Plato’s dialogues. These early philosophers were criticized by Socrates for their practice of charging money and only giving wisdom to those who could pay. For this reason they are often the antagonists of most of Plato’s dialogues. Socrates by contrast did not charge money, though he did indeed receive money from patrons, which allowed him to teach anyone who would learn.
My philosophy is the same, I am just not as smart as Socrates. I am not, however, creating a subscriber only website to provide material for those who can pay, particularly in these troubling economic times (Yes, I know troubling is a light word!). I am not looking to make bank, everything I receive will go to bills. Thus, I have put up the donation button to receive what you will, based on the quality of my work. If you give nothing, I will produce anyway. I do ask however, that if you can’t offer anything, please instead offer up prayers for my soul and my family’s well-being. Thank you for anything you can or will provide.