The Catholic Book That Outsold Everything for 63 Years

There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be. ~ Abp Fulton Sheen

From Aleteia

By Theresa Civantos Barber

Here’s the remarkable story of a book that’s largely been forgotten today but had an enormous impact on generations of Americans.

At the end of the 1800s, the U.S. was nowhere near a Catholic nation. In the year 1900, for example, only about 10 to 12 million Catholics lived in the U.S.—some 13% of the population.

But improbably, at the top of national bestseller lists was a book of Catholic apologetics—a reasoned explanation of Catholic beliefs and doctrine. And somehow, amid a very Protestant cultural milieu, it remained there for six decades.

What book was this, and how did it top the list? Here’s the remarkable story of The Faith of Our Fathers, a book that’s largely been forgotten today but had an enormous impact on generations of Americans.

A bishop trying to meet a need

James Cardinal Gibbons, who would become one of the most influential American prelates of his era, was merely a young fledgling bishop when the idea came to him to write Faith of Our Fathers. 

And we do mean young. When Gibbons was made a bishop in 1868, he was only 34 years old, making him one of the youngest Catholic bishops in the world at the time—in fact, he was nicknamed “the boy bishop.”

He was assigned to be bishop for the state of North Carolina, where he found his flock hidden like a needle in a haystack—fewer than 700 Catholics out of a population of 1 million in the whole state. He began to travel and minister to them, often giving public lectures and speeches about the Catholic faith.

Something interesting began to happen. In a time before radio or TV, many people would come to hear Gibbons speak, even if they weren’t Catholic. The Protestant Christians who came were often shocked to hear him explain the strong biblical roots of the Catholic faith. 

Many of these Protestants wanted to learn more about Catholicism, and Gibbons wanted to recommend a book to them that would address their specific concerns—but it didn’t exist. The books of apologetics he could find were not written to speak to American Protestants of his era.

What to do? In the midst of his busy schedule as a new bishop, Gibbons saw a need and sought to fill it. 

Unable to find just the right book for curious Protestant listeners, he decided to write it.

An improbable bestseller

Gibbons wrote that book, carefully and prayerfully putting together a masterwork of apologetics. The Faith of Our Fathers: A Plain Exposition and Vindication of the Church Founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ was published in 1876, and it became an instant hit.

Why was Faith of Our Fathers so popular? For one thing, Gibbons made theology accessible. He wrote in a clear, simple and logical style that makes the book still very readable today.

For another, the book offered something important both to Protestants and Catholics, bridging whatever divide existed between them at the time. For Protestant Christians who made up the cultural majority, Gibbons took pains to explain the biblical roots of Catholic beliefs. He clarified points of Catholicism that confused non-Catholics, such as the veneration of saints and the papacy, grounding his arguments in the Bible and the history of the early Church.

For Catholics, who often struggled with cultural acceptance as recent immigrants, he made clear that Catholicism could be an American faith that fit well in this new nation. Written with charity and respect for both sides, the book became a vital tool for Catholic immigrants navigating their new culture.

The book was not without its critics. Bishop Bernard McQuaid of Rochester called Gibbons “too conciliatory to Protestant-minded America,” and later on his approach was implicated in the rise of the Americanism heresy (a fascinating history as the U.S. is the only nation with a heresy named after it).

But by and large, the book did enormous good. Well-known agnostic literary critic H.L. Mencken wrote that “the best exposition of Catholic doctrine is probably The Faith of our Fathers, by the late Cardinal Gibbons.” Even today it is called “a masterpiece of apologetics, a book that Catholics must have in their libraries.”

And it sold incredibly well. From 1876 to 1939 it was the most popular book in the U.S., selling 1.4 million copies in its first four decades and being reprinted more than 110 times by 1980. It topped the bestseller lists for six decades until Gone With the Wind surpassed it in 1939. 

It is not known how many people became Catholic after reading The Faith of Our Fathers, but it certainly played a major role in making the Catholic faith accepted among the American people.

James Cardinal Gibbons was a highly influential figure in his day and advised presidents and statesmen. Not long before his death, his great friend President Theodore Roosevelt called him “the most useful citizen of our country”—and perhaps especially so for American Catholics, for whom he helped pave the way to full integration as Americans.