The Book Of Gomorrah And St Peter Damian S Struggle Against Ecclesiastical Corruption

The most accurate and faithful English translation ever produced of St. Peter Damian's Book of Gomorrah, an impassioned denunciation of the vice of sodomy among clerics. The work carries a foreword by Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, endorsements by eminent scholars, and an account of Damian's struggle against corruption in the Catholic Church. It also includes a preface addressing and resolving certain historical controversies about the text.

The reprint you hold is, to our knowledge, one of only two book-length studies in the English language on St. Peter Damian. The other is The Theology of Peter Damian, by Prof. Emer. Patricia Ranft (Catholic University of America Press, 2012). Rev. Owen J. Blum, O.F.M. (1912-1998), a native of Indianapolis, Indiana, was orphaned at age 7 by an influenza epidemic. Under the sponsorship of a Franciscan priest, he completed seminary studies, was ordained, and then joined the Quincy, Illinois Franciscans. Father Blum's career as a historical scholar began at C.U.A. in 1941. It was thanks to Father Aloysius Ziegler that he became interested in St. Peter Damian and published the present work, his doctoral dissertation, in 1947. Apart from several years as a coeditor of the New Catholic Encyclopedia, Father Blum kept St. Peter Damian the object of his endeavors. He collaborated with Prof. Kurt Reindel on the latter's German critical edition of Damian's Letters. His own English edition of the Letters, published volume by volume by the C.U.A. Press and completed after his death, stands as a monument to his scholarship.

Some of the roots of the characteristic negative attitude to homosexuality can be found in Peter Damian’s appeal to Pope Leo IX. Though written 900 years ago by an Italian monk in a remote corner of Italy, The Book of Gomorrah is relevant to contemporary discussion of homosexuality. The Book of Gomorrah asks the Pope to take steps to halt the spread of homosexual practices among the clergy. The first part outlines the various forms of homosexual practice, the specific abuses, and the inadequacy of traditional penitential penances, and demands that offenders be removed form their ecclesiastical positions. The second part is an impassioned plea to the offenders to repent of their ways, accept due penance, and cease from homosexual activity. Payer’s is the first translation of the full tract into any language from the original Latin. In his introduction to the tract Payer places The Book of Gomorrah in its context as the first major systematic treatise in the medieval West against various homosexual acts, provides a critique of Peter Damian’s arguments, and outlines his life. The annotated translation is followed by a translation of the letter of Pope Leo IX in reply to Damian’s Treatise, an extensive bibliography, and indexes. The book will be of interest to students of medieval history and religion, to ethicists and students of social mores, and to persons generally concerned with the historical roots of present-day attitudes to homosexuality.

A much neglected field of study has been opened by the research of the author into the history of the Christian church from its apostolic origins to the close of the eighteenth century. Taking as his thesis the prominence given to the Church in the Wilderness in Bible prophecy, and the fact that “‘the Church in the Wilderness,’ and not the proud hierarchy enthroned in the world’s great capital, was the true church of Christ,” he has spent years developing this subject. In its present form, Truth Triumphant represents much arduous research in the libraries of Europe as well as in America. Excellent ancient sources are most difficult to obtain, but the author has been successful in gaining access to many of them. To crystallize the subject matter and make the historical facts live in modem times, the author also made extensive travels throughout Europe and Asia. The doctrines of the primitive Christian church spread to Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. As grains of a mustard seed they lodged in the hearts of many Godly souls in southern France and northern Italy — people known as the Albigenses and the Waldenses. The faith of Jesus was valiantly upheld by the Church of the East. This term, as used by the author, not only includes the Syrian and Assyrian Churches, but is also the term applied to the development of apostolic Christianity throughout the lands of the East. The spirit of Christ, burning in the hearts of loyal men who would not compromise with paganism, sent them forth as missionaries to lands afar. Patrick, Columbanus, Marcos, and a host of others were missionaries to distant lands. They braved the ignorance of the barbarian, the intolerance of the apostate church leaders, and the persecution of the state in order that they might win souls to God. To unfold the dangers that were ever present in the conflict of the true church against error, to reveal the sinister working of evil and the divine strength by which men of God made truth triumphant, to challenge the Remnant Church today in its final controversy against the powers of evil, and to show the holy, unchanging message of the Bible as it has been preserved for t hose who will “fear God, and keep His commandments” — these are the sincere aims of the author as he presents this book to those who know the truth. MERLIN L. NEFF.

Anyone deeply interested in converts seeks an exposition of the Catholic Faith which not only defines each article of the Creed and each doctrine of the Church, but which also gives an explanation and a reason for the doctrine,” writes Fulton J. Sheen in the Foreword to this classic of religious instruction. “Such an ideal is beautifully satisfied in a Catechism written by one of our zealous missionary Bishops, Most Reverend Louis L. R. Morrow, S.T.D., Bishop of Krishnagar. The presentation is such as to satisfy the mentality of both children and adults, and is even not beyond an excellent review for those who have studied both Dogmatic and Moral Theology.” This work is organized as follows: 1. Religion and the End of Man 2. The Apostles’ Creed 3. God the Supreme Being 4. The Perfections of God 5. Divine Providence 6. Existence of God 7. Divine Revelation 8. Holy Scripture, or The Bible 9. Divine Tradition 10. The Church and Divine Revelation 11. One God in Three Persons 12. Unity of the Blessed Trinity 13. Creation 14. Revelation and Science 15. The Angels 16. The Devils; Temptation 17. An Image of God 18. Adam and Eve: Our First Parents 19. Evolution and the Bible 20. Original Sin 21. Actual Sin 22. Mortal Sin 23. Venial Sin 24. Occasions and Sources of Sin 25. Pride, Covetousness, Lust 26. Anger, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth 27. The Promise of the Redeemer 28. The God-Man 29. Our Lord Jesus Christ 30. The Incarnation 31. The Nativity 32. The Hidden Life of Jesus Christ 33. The Public Life of Jesus Christ 34. The Passion 35. Calvary 36. The Resurrection 37. The Ascension 38. The Holy Ghost 39. Sanctifying Grace 40. Actual Grace 41. The Theological Virtues 42. Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Ghost 43. Moral Virtues 44. Humility, Liberality, Chastity 45. Meekness, Abstinence, Zeal, Brotherly Love 46. The Eight Beatitudes 47. Foundation of the Church 48. The Apostles: First Bishops of the Church 49. The Primacy of Peter 50. Marks of the True Church 51. The One True Church 52. The Catholic Church: Unity and Holiness 53. The Catholic Church: Catholicity and Apostolicity 54. The Living Church 55. The Catholic Eastern Church; Rites 56. The Bishop of Rome 57. Powers of the Pope 58. The Roman Curia 59. The Hierarchy 60. Bishops and Priests 61. The National Catholic Welfare Conference 62. The Laity 63. Catholic Action 64. Church and State 65. Services of the Church to the State 66. Authority of the Church 67. Infallibility of the Church 68. Sphere of Infallibility 69. Indefectibility of the Church 70. Salvation and the Catholic Church 71. Schism and Heresy 72. Protestant Churches 73. The Gates of Hell 74. One Body in Christ: Communion of Saints 75. The Forgiveness of Sins 76. Death 77. Particular Judgment 78. Existence of Purgatory 79. Souls in Purgatory