Introduction

Library of Congress Classification

Materials in Reference Collection

General Reference

Saints

Papal Documents

Ecumenical Council Documents

Bishops Documents

Roman Curia Documents

Indexes and Databases

Internet Resources

Citing Sources

Introduction

Catholic documents are made up of two categories: 1) those issued by the Vatican, i.e., popes, ecumenical councils and the Roman Curia; and 2) those issued by the bishops, either as a group, such as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, or as individuals who are leaders of dioceses.

The official language of the Catholic Church is Latin, so documents issued by the Vatican are written in Latin. Most Vatican documents are now translated into English soon after publication. Commentaries on church documents, also in English, can also be found soon after the publication of the documents.

Library Of Congress Classification

Library materials are organized by a system created by the Library of Congress that groups materials based on what they are about. This LC system uses letters and numbers to determine the call number of a book, which serves as that book’s address within the collection. The advantage of this system is that books about the same subject, say the French Revolution, should be in the same area. Find a good book on your subject and you should be able to find others in the same area.

The Library of Congress system places all books on the Catholic Church in class BX. This class is further broken down into subclasses that define more specific subjects. Some important subclasses are listed below. Click here for a more complete look at the Library of Congress Class B.

Specific books and other library materials can be found by searching the Online Catalog. This is a catalog that not only lists the collection of the Rockhurst University Greenlease Library, but can also be used to see the collections of the other MOBIUS libraries. For more information about the MOBIUS consortium, visit their website at https://mco.mobius.umsystem.edu/. One can search by title, author, subject and keyword to find books owned by the library. A good research strategy is called subject heading tracing. This strategy involves first doing a keyword search to find books relevant to a topic. Once a ‘good’ book is found, look at its subject headings. Then do a subject search and type in that subject heading. You should find other books on your topic this way.

Materials In Reference Collection

The library’s reference collection contains materials that are quite useful to students studying the Catholic Church, including dictionaries, encyclopedias and other sources. These reference items include:

General Reference

The Catholic Encyclopedia
(Ref. BX 841 N441 1907)

New Catholic Encyclopedia
(Ref. BX 841 N44)

Papacy: An Encyclopedia
(Ref. BX 955.2 D53 2002)

Catholic Almanac
(Ref. AY 81 R6 N3)

Critical Guide to Catholic Reference Books
(Ref. Z 674 R4 no. 20)

Official Catholic Directory
(Ref. BX 845 C5)

Handbook of Catholic Theology
(Ref. BX 1745.5 L4913 1995)

Cassell's New Latin Dictionary: Latin-English, English-Latin.
(Ref. PA 2365 L3 C3 1960)

Saints

Butler’s Lives of the Saints
(Ref. BX 4654 B8 1925)

Encyclopedia of Catholic Saints
(Ref. BX4655.2 .E5 1966)

To search for books about a specific saint in the online catalog, search by subject under the specific saint name, i.e., Gregory of Nyssa. If the specific name isn't known, search using just the first name, i.e., Gregory. Do not search under Saint Gregory or Gregory, Saint.

Papal Documents

To find documents by a particular pope in the online catalog choose an author/keyword search and enter the pope's name, i.e. "John Paul II" or search by author and enter "Catholic Church Pope".

Encyclicals (letters written by the pope on important topics and addressed to bishops heading dioceses of the whole Church) can be found in the following:

The Papal Encyclicals (1740-1981).
(Ref. BX 860 C3)

For other papal documents, try:

Papal Pronouncements, a Guide, 1740-1978.
(Ref. BX 850 C37 1990)

Bulls (important letters issued by the Pope and sealed with a disk of lead called a "bulla"), as well as less important documents, can be found by using the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index. Look under the pope's name in the subject index, then look under the subheading of "letters" or "speeches".

Ecumenical Council Documents

Ecumenical Councils are meetings of the bishops of all countries. The Pope calls these meetings and presides over them. Ecumenical Councils decide issues on faith, morals, worship and church discipline. Some sources for these documents include:

The Sources of Catholic Dogma.
(BX 1749 D412)

Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils.
(BX 825 A1990)

The Documents of Vatican II.
(BX 830 1962 A3 G3)

Other Ecumenical Council documents can be found by looking in the online catalog under the name of the council as author, subject or keyword. In the Catholic Periodicals and Literature Index look under the name of the council.

Bishops Documents

To identify letters written by bishops to their congregations, search the online catalog using the National Conference of Catholic Bishops as the author.

In the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index use the same author search.

One of the books in the library which contains letters written by the bishops is:

Pastoral Letters of the United States Catholic Bishops.
(BX 874 A2 N4)

Roman Curia Documents

The Roman Curia is made up of many offices which administer church affairs, including the Secretariat of State and the Council for Public Affairs of the Church. To find these documents search in the online catalog under "Catholic Church" and the Latin name of the congregation or secretariat which issued the document. In The Catholic Periodical and Literature Index search under the English name of the office which issued the document.

Example: Search the Congregation for Catholic Education.

In the online catalog search "Catholic Church Congregatio".

In the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index search "Congregation for Catholic Education".

Canon Law, the code of laws governing the Church, is issued by a pontifical commission. Use the subject "Canon law" in the online catalog to find materials such as these:

Code of Canon Law: A Text and Commentary.
(Ref. BX 1935 C3 1985)

Indexes And Databases

Indexes and databases are tools used to find journal articles about a particular topic. Some are used primarily for academic research, while others can be used to find popular articles to practice one’s reading skills. Some are available only in print, while others will be electronic and may even contain the full-text of the article. See our Electronic Resources page for more information.

English translations and commentaries of church documents can be found in these journals in our library:

Origins

National Catholic Reporter

L'Osservatore Romano

The Pope Speaks

Acta Apostoliciae Sedis, 1915-1994
Original latin versions of many documents.

The Catholic Periodical and Literature Index
(INDEX AREA Ref AI3 C3)
This index provides indexing to currently significant Catholic periodicals of permanent value. Indexing consists of subject, author/editor entries, a book title index and book review index. Papal documents and other church documents are also indexed. Also available online via EBSCOhost, with coverage back to 1981. Some journals have the full text of articles is available in the database.

Connect to Catholic Periodical and Literature Index via EBSCOhost

Religion Index One
(INDEX AREA Ref AI3 A4)
This is a subject index to religion periodical literature including an author/editor index and a scripture index. Its purpose is to index those articles in the field of religion and religious scholarship, particularly in the west, which are germane to research in and serve to document that field. Although it contains few Catholic publications it does offer supporting literature for religious research. It is published annually. Also available online in ATLAS Religion Index and Serials via EBSCOhost.

Full text is included for selected journal titles.

Connect now to ATLAS via EBSCOhost.

Humanities Index
(INDEX AREA Ref AI3 R492) 1974-2004
This is a cumulative index to humanities periodicals in the English language. Some religious periodicals are included.

FirstSearch
FirstSearch is actually a cluster of almost 40 databases and requires a training session to access. But the training session is well worth it! Some of the databases useful to researchers of religion include:

Clase and Periodica
WorldCat

Connect now to FirstSearch (password protected).

JSTOR
This database provides electronic access to back issues of selected journals in the humanities, social sciences and sciences. It is full text and some titles go back to the 19^th century. JSTOR will not include the last 2-5 years of the journal.

Internet Sources

Metasites

Catholic Net
http://www.catholic.net/
Catholic Information Center, with links to church documents and other websites.

New Advent Catholic
http://www.newadvent.org/
Links to many Catholic websites and to the text of Catholic publications, including the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Publications

List of Catholic Publications
http://www.cathcom.com/publications.html
Links to newspapers, newsletters and some of the major Catholic periodicals.

Catholic Key
http://catholickey.org
Newspaper of the diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph, Missouri.

Leaven
http://www.theleaven.com
The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas.

National Catholic Reporter
http://www.natcath.com/ncr_onli.htm
The independent Catholic newspaper with a focus on the Catholic Church in the United States.

L-Osservatore Romano
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/or/home_eng.html
The newspaper of the Vatican.

Papal Documents

Encyclicals, Pronouncements
http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Indices/subs/documents.html
Text of some of some church documents, including Council of Trent and Vatican II documents.

Bishops

Bishops Statements
http://www.nccbuscc.org/
Statements issued by the United States Catholic Bishops' Conference (National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference).

Saints

Saints, Martyrs and Other Holy Persons
http://www.cin.org/saints.html
List of saints, modern martyrs, a description of the canonization process via the Catholic Information Network.

Saints and Angels
http://saints.catholic.org/index.shtml
Promoted as the "exhaustive list of Saints" on the web, via Catholic Online.

Citing Sources

For information on citing resources in a research paper, see Citing Print and Electronic Resources in Research Papers.