The Ministry of the Printed Word: scholar-priests of the twentieth century
EDITED BY JOHN BROADLEY AND PETER PHILLIPS

The editors of this book aim to show that scholarly publication is a legitimate and honourable form of ministry for a priest, whether secular or regular. The authority of Pope Pius XI is cited to the effect “that fine scholarship is in the modern world the most efficacious of all apostolic work”.

Such was not always the view of the ­superiors of the portrayed priests. When the historian Philip Hughes gave a copy of one of his books to his diocesan, the Bishop of Salford, the response amounted to “so this is what you have been wasting your time on”. Many of the admirable people whose lives are here told received little encouragement in their scholarship.

It is not altogether clear on what principle the 11 biographees have been selected. There are four Jesuits, three Benedictines and four secular priests. Dominicans are excluded on the grounds that their priest-scholars were adequately depicted by Aidan Nichols in Dominican Gallery. Only five of the priests have merited an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, while two of the most famous Jesuits of the twentieth century, Martin D’Arcy and C.C. Martindale, who do have entries, are absent.