CATHOLIC PRESS SHINES LIGHT ON NEW BOOKS THAT BRING THE FAITH TO LIFE
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Religion, at its best, helps people see reality with new eyes. A good
spiritual book reveals in the hearts and imaginations of its readers
how God is at work in the world. The results of the recent Catholic
Press Association awards competition highlight two books that were
recognized for making what might seem dry elements of the faith come
alive to modern audiences.

In A Jesuit Off-Broadway (Loyola Press), James Martin, SJ chronicles
his experience working behind the scenes as theological consultant to
an Off-Broadway theater troupe on Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Last Days
of Judas Iscariot. Martin tells how he was challenged by the profound
and urgent questions the script raised among the cast and crew, and
as he engaged in impassioned dialogue on thorny theological issues
such as guilt, forgiveness, justice, and despair, he found himself a
being a pastor in an unlikely place.

In selecting A Jesuit Off-Broadway as first place winner in the
Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith category, the contest
judges said, "What more popular presentation of the faith can there
be than an engaging story such as this by one of America's best
Catholic writers about his experience as adviser to... a Broadway
company doing a play about Jesus and Judas?" The judges said, "This
is a charming, highly readable book about our faith in the modern
world, brightened by humor and warmed by the author's... keen
understanding of the lives Catholics lead in the world we inhabit."

Miguel Arias and Fr. Arturo Perez Rodriguez also won top honors for
Santos Americanos (Loyola Press), an innovative presentation of
imagined conversations with thirty saints from fifteen countries in
South America, Central America, North America and the Caribbean.
These martyrs and monks, laypeople and clergy, mystics and activists
are honored for their holiness and remembered for their extraordinary
accomplishments. Saints featured include Catherine Drexel and
Elizabeth Ann Seton, who built schools and hospitals in the United
States; martyr Oscar Romero from El Salvador, Venezuelan physician
and healer Jose Gregorio Hernandez and Peruvian Rose of Lima, the
first saint of the Americas.

The judges who awarded Santos Americanos first place winner among
Spanish language titles commended its unique conversational approach,
saying, "This kind of creative, engaging theological writing, from
the (broadly understood) American perspective, is quite necessary and
most welcome in the Spanish-speaking community in the U.S."