NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA

Preface to the Jubilee Volume

In two important ways this volume initiates a new stage in the development of the New Catholic Encyclopedia. The original 15-volume edition was published in 1967 and after more than three decades continues to be a standard reference guide for the general public, especially readers who have a special interest in Roman Catholic history, teachings, and practice. Subsequently in 1972, 1978, 1988, and 1995 the editors prepared supplements aimed at keeping the encyclopedia current. This Jubilee Volume, however, is designed not so much as a supplement to the original edition as a propaedia, a preamble, to the revised edition of the NCE that will follow in due course.

 It is called the Jubilee Volume because its publication-date coincides with the beginning of a new century and new millennium. Pope John Paul II designated the year 2000 as a AJubilee Year@ in the spirit of the jubilee years of ancient Israel that were seen as a time  for taking stock, redressing old grievances, and beginning anew. In focusing on the pontificate of John Paul and events in the last decades of the twentieth century, this Jubilee Volume is a registry of people and issues that shaped the Church in the period after the Second Vatican Council. Their importance lies in the influence they have had on the future of the Church as it crosses the threshold (a favorite metaphor of John Paul) from one millennium to the next.

 The Jubilee Volume has two distinctive parts. The first is a series of interpretative essays that survey developments and analyze the principles that have determined church policy in the years of Pope John Paul=s pontificate. They trace political and cultural influences that fashioned the outlook and formed the values which Karol Wojty»a brought with him from Poland to Rome and to the world. Each of the authors fastens on a particular aspect: his personalist philosophy, approach to theology, social thought, implementation of Vatican II, and ecumenical concerns. The essays show that Pope Wojty»a=s sphere of vision and influence transcends theological issues and extends well beyond the institutional Church to basic human rights and family values, to the arts and sciences, to economics and geopolitics.

 Part two of the Jubilee Volume reports the hard data that one expects to find in a reference work: dates, place names, information about people, institutions, and events. A major section of this second part presents thumb-nail sketches of hundreds of the saints and beati declared by Pope John Paul II. These brief accounts provide information that is not readily available in most hagiographies, and, taken together, they illustrate how the Jubilee Volume continues in the best tradition of encyclopedias. It presents a Acircle of learning@ with one article and entry referencing and enhancing another. The hagiographies, though brief, include men and women from every continent. They include married and single, old and young, academics and illiterate. They are from every walk of life from prelates to bankers, social workers to journalists. John Paul II has used the process of canonization and beatification to highlight the catholicity of the church and give new meaning to the universal call to holiness. For him the saints and beati underscore the virtues and values that he advocates for society as a whole.

 There is a second important way that this Jubilee Volume marks the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA. In addition to serving as a preamble to a revised edition of the NCE, it introduces a new publisher. Gale Group, based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and The Catholic University of America Press have entered into a working relationship designed to insure the existence and enhance the quality of the encyclopedia for years to come. As publisher the Gale Group, whose name is well known in academic circles and by librarians will oversee the production and marketing of the NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, and The Catholic University of America Press will continue to be responsible for the editorial content.

 BERARD L. MARTHALER, ofmconv.

last updated: 04/22/2002