A new biography of our founder, Father Thomas Judge, CM, is hot off the press! Every Catholic an Apostle: A Life of Thomas A. Judge, CM, 1868-1933 is the result of many years of dedicated research by William L. Portier, the Mary Ann Spearin Chair of Catholic Theology and Ph.D. Program Director in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton.
“This is a timely book. Father Judge’s vision of the Church’s mission in 1909 corresponds closely to what we now call the ‘new evangelization.’ He was consumed with zeal- ‘charity at white heat,’ he called it- for the preservation of the Catholic faith among those who were at risk of losing it. He had a heart for baptized Catholics who did not know God’s love and who lived far from Christ and from the Church. Decades before Vatican II, he saw the importance of preparing laymen and women as ‘apostles’ (today’s ‘missionary disciples’) to embrace their baptismal vocation and take their own responsibility for the Church’s mission. This story of Father Judge’s labors, and the intrepid faith and confidence in God that sustained him through the many trials and setbacks, is important. It belongs to the Catholic Church in the United States and Puerto Rico, and it deserves to be known.”
– Sister Sara Butler, MSBT, S.T.L., Ph.D., Professor Emerita of Dogmatic Theology, University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL, and Member of the International Theological Commission (2004-2014).
