Books and Other Publications
The Life & Ministry of Catholic Sisters in Africa
This book strives to capture the fruit of recent research reports from CARA at Georgetown University, CERRA-Africa at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, and the African Sisters Education Collaborative that are a significant resource in understanding the impact of Catholic sisters on education, healthcare, social development, and spiritual life across the many nations of Africa.
Buy now from CARA
Faith and Spiritual Life of Young Adult Catholics in a Rising Hispanic Church
Mark Gray, Michal Kramarek, Claudia Avila Cosnahan, Allan Figueroa Deck, SJ, Hosffman Ospino, Darius Villalobos, Patricia Wittberg, SC, and Thomas P. Gaunt, SJ
This book carefully explores the claim that young adults (18 to 35) are leaving Catholicism in the United States. According to primary empirical research, many young adults stay and do so living their faith in engaged ways. Most, however, do not do it in the traditional context of the parish. Young adult Catholics are living their faith and spiritual life largely in small faith communities, ecclesial movements, faith-based affinity groups, at home, and through individual practice. The description of research findings is supplemented by commentaries from leaders in evangelization and young adult ministry, from both a theological and a sociological perspective. In a Church that is more culturally diverse and increasingly Hispanic, this book offers key insights to better understand the spirituality of young adult Catholics today.
Buy now from Liturgical Press
Migration for Mission: International Catholic Sisters in the United States
Mary Johnson, S.N.D. de N., Mary Gautier, Patricia Wittberg, S.C., and Thu T. Do, L.H.C
Catholic sisters from many countries around the world come to the United States to minister and to study. Sociologists from Trinity Washington University and CARA at Georgetown University located more than 4,000 “international sisters” who are currently in the United States for formation, studies, or ministry, from 83 countries. Through surveys, focus groups, and interviews, they heard the stories of these sisters and learned of their joys and satisfactions as well as their struggles and challenges.
Buy now from Oxford University Press (Promotion code: AAFLYG6 to save 30%)
Pathways to Religious Life
Edited by Thomas Gaunt, SJ
Grounded in current social science research
Utilizes extensive data on the associates of religious institutes and the emergence of new religious institutes in the US since 1965
Observations and conclusions drawing on survey data from dozens of research studies
Buy now from Oxford University Press (Promotion code: AAFLYG6 to save 30%)
Catholic Parishes of the 21st Century
Charles E. Zech, Mary L. Gautier, Mark M. Gray, Jonathon L. Wiggins, and Thomas P. Gaunt
Updates and expands the trends explored in the Notre Dame Study of Catholic Parish Life and provides 21st century analyses of the Catholic population, pastoral leadership, and characteristics of parish life.
Describes the challenges and opportunities Catholic parishes face with a growing and increasingly diverse population in a time with fewer priests and religious sisters and more permanent deacons and lay ministers.
Buy now from Oxford University Press
Bridging the Gap: The Opportunities and Challenges of International Priests Ministering in the United States
Mary L. Gautier, Mark M. Gray, Paul M. Perl, Melissa A. Cidade
Through in-depth research and data from a variety of sources, researchers from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) provide insight into:
The history of international priests serving the United States
The current situation and emerging trends
How and why these decisions are made about bringing priests from outside the United States to serve in parishes here
The highs and lows of their acculturation and ministry
How to welcome and ease the transition for these men and the parishes they serve
Buy now from Our Sunday Visitor
Best Practices of Catholic Pastoral and Finance Councils
Charles E. Zech, Mary L. Gautier, Robert J. Miller, and Mary E. Bendyna, RSM
In an unprecedented research effort, author Charles Zech explores the very function of these councils in an effort to lay the groundwork for best practices at every parish. It systematically fills the void as both Church leaders and laity strive to better understand the structure and processes needed to improve their effectiveness. Zech’s common-sense, straightforward writing style unpacks the extensive data to cover critical issues such as:
Parish Leadership
Education/Formation Programs
Communication with Parish and Parish Staff
Council Guideline Manuals
Internal Controls
Long-Term Planning
Prayer and Faith-Sharing
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2017 Global Directory of Catholic Seminaries
Michal J. Kramarek, Thomas P. Gaunt, S.J., Santiago Sordo-Palacios
The most current and comprehensive directory of Catholic seminaries through the world.
Includes 3,341 seminary records from 143 countries.
Contains information about seminary’s name, location, contact, students, faculty, and data source.
Access it for free (thanks to generous funding from the John Templeton Foundation) here:
Links:
Part I. General Overview
Part II. Africa
Part III. Central America
Part IV. North America
Part V. South America
Part VI. Asia
Part VII. Europe
Part VIII. Oceania
Guadalupe Publications from CARA available as PDF files
The Apparitions of Guadalupe as Historical Events, Fr. Luis Medina Ascensio, SJ, 1979, CARA Studies on Popular Devotion, Vol. II: Guadalupan Studies, Monograph no. 1, pp. 29
A Major Guadalupan Question Resolved: Did General Scott Seize the Valeriano Account of the Guadalupan Apparitions? By Fr, Ernest J. Burrus, SJ, 1979, CARA Studies on Popular Devotion, Vol. II: Guadalupan Studies, Monograph no. 2, pp. 75
The Tilma Under Infra-Red Radiation by Philip Serna Callahan, 1981, CARA Studies on Popular Devotion, Vol. II: Guadalupan Studies, Monograph no. 3, pp. 45
The Oldest Copy of the Nican Mopohua by Fr. Ernest J. Burrus, SJ, 1981, CARA Studies on Popular Devotion, Vol. II: Guadalupan Studies, Monograph no. 4, pp. 39
The Basic Bibliography of the Guadalupan Apparitions (1531-1723) by Fr. Ernest J. Burrus, SJ, 1981, CARA Studies on Popular Devotion, Vol. II: Guadalupan Studies, Monograph no. 5, pp. 35
Guadalupe: From the Aztec Language, 1983, CARA Studies on Popular Devotion, Vol. II: Guadalupan Studies, Monograph no. 6, pp. 30
Anthology of Early Guadalupan Literature by Fr. Martinus Cawley, 1984, CARA Studies on Popular Devotion, Vol. II: Guadalupan Studies, Monograph no. 8, pp. 88
New Faces, New Possibilities
Cultural Diversity and Structural Change in Institutes of Women Religious
Edited by Thomas P. Gaunt, SJ, and Thu T. Do, LHC
Religious sisters have created educational and healthcare systems over the past two hundred years that have transformed the Catholic community in the United States. Through their ministry, sisters have served waves of immigrants and those pushed to the margins. The growing cultural diversity of newer sisters and the diminishing number of older sisters, therefore, is both a challenge and a creative moment to be critically examined. This book examines these changes in culture and ethnicity among sisters, the structural impact of diminishing numbers, and the creative response to this new reality for religious life in the United States. In it, sisters from a variety of generations, cultures, and institutes join with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) researchers to examine and reflect on CARA's recent research findings and their impact on the life and ministry of sisters today.
Buy now from Liturgical Press
Catholic Bishops in the United States
Church Leadership in the Third Millennium
Stephen J. Fichter, Thomas P. Gaunt, SJ, Catherine Hoegeman, CSJ, and Paul M. Perl
The last research-based book to study the bishops of the United States came out in 1989, since which time the Church has gone from Pope John Paul II to Benedict XVI to Pope Francis and undergone dramatic shifts. Catholic Bishops in the United States presents the results of a 2016 survey conducted by the Center of Applied Research for the Apostolate (CARA). It reveals the U.S. bishops’ individual experiences, their day-to-day activities, their challenges and satisfactions as Church leaders, and their strategies for managing their dioceses and speaking out on public issues.
Buy now from Oxford University Press (Promotion code: AAFLYG6 to save 30%)
Word, Liturgy, Charity
The diaconate in the U.S. Catholic Church, 1968-2018
Thu T. Do, LHC; Thomas P. Gaunt, SJ; Mary L. Gautier; Mark M. Gray; Michal J. Kramarek and Jonahon L. Wiggins
This book explores trends in the diaconate as well as current and emerging opportunities and challenges in the ministry. Deacons and their wives, diaconate directors, and bishops share insights about how those trends impact diaconal ministry today and into the future.
Buy now from Rowman & Littlefield (Promotion code: LEX30AUTH18 to save 30%)
New Generations of Catholic Sisters
The Challenge of Diversity
Mary Johnson, S.N.D. de N., Patricia Wittberg, S.C., and Mary L. Gautier
Highlights the voice of those generations who entered religious life after 1965
Includes survey data and archival material
Buy now from Oxford University Press
Same Call, Different Men
The Evolution of the Priesthood since Vatican II
Mary L. Gautier, Paul M. Perl, and Rev. Stephen J. Fichter
Far-reaching changes continue to take place in the American priesthood. Building on insights gained from four previous surveys, Same Call, Different Men uses fresh data from a 2009 survey-jointly implemented by the National Federation of Priest’s Councils and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate-in which 900 priests shared attitudes and stories about their lives and ministry. Among topics covered are the challenges of ministry with fewer ordinations and larger parishes, ministering to an increasingly multicultural laity, collaboration with lay leaders, and personal reflections on the sexual abuse issue. It also relates the many satisfactions of being a priest, one who brings Christ to others and who is invited into many profound moments of individual lives.
Buy now from Liturgical Press
Emerging U.S. Communities of Consecrated Life Since Vatican II Third Edition
What is the future of consecrated life in the United States?
What will religious institutes and societies of apostolic life look like?
What new lay movements and associations of the faithful are emerging?
The directory explores characteristics of 159 existing communities that have been established in the United States since 1965 and provides information about their mission, spiritual traditions and spiritual practices. It looks at trends in the communities that have survived.
Price: $35 per book, plus $4.95 for shipping and handling.
The Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees and Travelers Worship Site Inventory and Demographic Study
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Subcommittee on the Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees and Travelers (PCMRT) designed a Catholic Worship Site Inventory to be distributed to all 19,785 Catholic worship sites (i.e., cathedrals, basilicas, shrines, parishes, missions, chapels, etc.) in the United States. This inventory asked for basic parish information such as numbers of registered households, Mass attendance, church seating capacities, numbers of Masses and in what languages these were celebrated. The primary section of the inventory asked pastors, or someone they designated to respond, to provide information about the presence immigrant communities within their site’s boundaries. Among communities where there was awareness, the inventory asked the respondent to indicate how the parish served the needs of these communities. The inventory also inquired about the presence of migrants, refugees, and other itinerant communities (e.g., migrant farmworkers, long-haul truck drivers, tourists, traveling entertainment shows or events, airport communities). The inventory also asked about what the sites were doing to serve the needs of these communities. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) distributed an invitation to respond to the worship site inventory to 15,404 sites by email, 2,126 sites by fax, and 2,345 sites by mail beginning in June 2017. Multiple rounds of follow-up were performed by CARA and PCMRT. Ninety-five percent of respondents chose to provide their information to CARA through an online survey. Five percent returned their responses by paper. These paper responses were then entered into the online database by CARA researchers. Data collection ended in November 2020. Overall 2,391 worship sites responded.