One of my favorite activities that I enjoy is going to Protestant Rummage Sales and finding all of the Catholic books they have. Generally, these books are cheap, seeing as Protestants don’t generally care to have Catholic books laying around. Also, a lot of times these books are old as well, but not necessarily. Many times these books came from deceased relatives or recent fallen away Catholics into this particular Protestant parish. Regardless, its a win for me, even if its a huge loss for them.

A few years ago, at one of these sales, I happened to come across a book titled “Concise Catholic Dictionary”. It’s a plain black leather bound book. It had a dollar price tag and I figured it’d be a good book to have, after all, having a book that defines all Catholic terms could prove to be quite useful.

Well, like most books I have, it sat on the bookshelf for a few years until I decided to thumb through it a couple of months ago. It was compiled in 1943 by Robert C. Broderick M.A. and published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society of St. Paul, Minnesota. After doing some searching online, you can purchase your own copy at Amazon or you can even view it online here. I *highly* suggest looking at this treasure chest of gold.

The reason I mention this book to you all, is first, it is a treasure to have. If you want great definitions for key Catholic terms, this is the book for you. It is also put together prior to Vatican 2, so it doesn’t have the lengthy definitions that are quite common these days. Secondly, I will be referencing this book a lot in the coming posts, and would like you to be aware that I am using these definitions. After going through this book, I’m saddened to see how some of the definitions of Catholic terms today have been watered down to seem unimportant.