Historic texts, freely given
The Josephite Ark carries the public-domain heart of the Catholic faith — Sacred Scripture in the Douay-Rheims, the catechisms of Trent and Baltimore, the Fathers and Aquinas, the great spiritual classics, and older papal encyclicals. These works are in the public domain precisely because they are not new: most of the Ark's library was written before the twentieth century, and nearly all of it predates the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) and the modern Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992).
That is the Ark's foundation and its limit, held honestly together. These texts are a true and trustworthy inheritance. They are also historic, and on some questions the Church has, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, drawn out her understanding more fully since they were written.
Where the Church's teaching has developed
The faith does not change, but the Church's articulation of it can deepen and mature over time. On a number of questions the fuller, authoritative teaching is found not in the historic texts the Ark carries but in the living Magisterium — above all the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Among these:
- the salvation of those outside the visible Church (invincible ignorance, baptism of desire);
- the Church's relation to other Christians and to non-Christian religions, and religious liberty;
- the pastoral understanding of suicide and the mercy of God toward those in grave anguish;
- the hope held out for unbaptized infants;
- the teaching on the death penalty.
On questions like these, Brother Custos is built to give what the historic texts say, then to say plainly that their wording is not the Church's last or complete word, to name the relevant teaching of the Catechism and the Council, and to send you to a priest. He is meant to know the edge of his own shelf and to hand you to the living Church.
A study aid, never the Magisterium. Brother Custos and this library are an aid to study and devotion. They are not the teaching authority of the Church and do not replace it. For anything that touches doctrine, conscience, the sacraments, or the moral life — and for the developed teaching of the Church — the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the documents of the Magisterium, and your own bishop and priest are the authority. When in doubt, consult a priest.
For clergy: report a concern
If you are a priest, deacon, religious, or theologian and you find an answer here that is doctrinally or pastorally incomplete, mistaken, or in need of the Church's developed teaching, we want to know — and to correct it. Your review is welcomed and sought.