A Word of Joyful News: My First Book Is on the Way

 

Dear friends,

With a full and grateful heart, I am overjoyed to announce the forthcoming publication of my first book — and I confess there is a particular delight in arriving at this milestone at the ripe old age of seventy-eight!

The Right Pope at the Right Time: An American Catholic Response to Pope Leo XIV will be published by ACTA Publications of Chicago, with publication anticipated this September.

I am moved, and not a little humbled, that ACTA has chosen to gather a selection of essays first written here at Liturgy and Truth and give them a more lasting home between two covers. Together we felt these pieces speak to precisely the moment we find ourselves in. Written across the first year of the pontificate of Robert Prevost of Chicago — our Pope Leo XIV — they take up his summons that no Catholic may stand absent from the great public questions of the day: artificial intelligence, refugees and immigration, race and gender, poverty and inequality, war and peace, and the sanctity of both human work and human life. To those already insisting that the Holy Father should “stay in his own lane,” the book offers a different and, I hope, more hopeful word.

I am especially grateful for the early and generous praise the manuscript has received:

“Careful, earnest, well-considered words… People of goodwill everywhere, please read what he has to say, especially if you don’t think you’ll agree. We cannot afford to be absent from this conversation.” — Alice Camille, author of God’s Word Is Alive and Invitation to Catholicism

“Holquin is, you might say, ‘the right priest at the right time.’ … A model for teaching and learning about the signs of the times — engaging and critical without demonizing.” — David Gibson, Director, Center on Religion and Culture, Fordham University

“His typically lucid, well-informed, and faithful observations on our beloved new pope and what he means, and will mean, for our Church and our world.” — James Martin, SJ, author of Learning to Pray

The book, a 260-page paperback, will retail for $19.95 and is available now at the pre-publication price of $15 each at www.actapublications.com or 800-397-2282. If you buy two or more copies you’ll receive free shipping as well. This offer is good through August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption.

For now, I simply want to say thank you — to ACTA, to those who lent their kind words, and above all to you, the readers of this Substack, whose engagement made this book possible. What began as a series of posts has become something I never quite imagined at seventy-eight. Deo gratias.

Blessings!

Monsignor Arthur Holquin, S.T.L.