Introduction to Continuing Formation

The Catholic National Library is happy to introduce a scheme called CONTINUING FORMATION. While primarily intended for priests and religious, any library member may use it. The purpose of the scheme is to facilitate using the resources of the Catholic National Library to foster spiritual and intellectual growth.

The scheme does this in two ways. First, it offers a categorised list of appropriate books available from the library. Second, it provides a quick and simple way to send an e-mail requesting the book. Books are sent by mail within the UK and Ireland only. All this can be accomplished by a few clicks of the mouse. The only requirement is that you are a member of the Library and the only charge involved is the postage required to receive and return the book.

The book list is divided into the following categories:

If you would like to see the complete list or perhaps store a copy on your computer, click FULL LIST at the right and print or save the page in your computer. If you would like to print out the checkout instructions click INSTRUCTIONS at the right and then PRINT.

Please remember that the list is a preliminary one and is dynamic. We will constantly add to it from the new acquisitions to the library collection. We will also ask those using the books to give us their opinion of the appropriateness of the book for continuing formation so that we can remove any that prove to be of limited value or interest. The list contains some books which, while not recently published, are considered to be of constant value. Others are drawn from those more recently published. We are living in a very dynamic and challenging period in the history of the Church. One of the challenges for us all is to sort through the opinions of today's best thinkers and draw conclusions based on our own experience. For this reason, the widest possible variety of books is made available.

We sincerely hope that you find the scheme useful and we are happy to receive any comments or suggestions on how to improve the scheme as well as recommendations of books to include on the list. This can be done by e-mail