The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism

National Catholic Reporter, June 16, 1995 by Tom Fox

Open the book randomly. On page 898 is a black-and-white portrait of Jesuit Fr. John Courtney Murray. The cutline beneath the stately photo says he was "one of the leading 20th century theologians (and) the principal architect of the Second Vatican Council's 'Declaration on Religious Freedom.'" On page 899 there is an entry called "Mysteries of the Rosary" where one learns the mysteries are "15 incidents from the life of Jesus or Mary that are divided into three groups and meditated upon while reciting the rosary." Also this: "When prayed publicly, a mystery is usually announced before reciting each decade."

These are two of the some 4,500 entries in the new, attractive, one-volume Harper-Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism. It is the work of general editor Fr. Richard McBrien who was assisted in the task of putting together the volume by 17 associate editors and some 280 contributors, most faculty or doctoral students at the University of Notre Dame.

As a useful reference book, it is bound to move to the top of most English-speaking Catholics' lists, a masterful work of faith, labor and love.

McBrien likes to say "it's got everything in it from maniple to the theology of grace." This Catholic encyclopedia has entries on virtually every aspect of Catholicism: liturgy, saints, sacraments, history, art, architecture, music, literature, theology, spirituality, doctrine, devotions, canon law, religious orders, the Bible, culture, church structures, organizations, ministries. All quite tastefully presented with tables, drawings, photographs, charts and maps. Two eight-page color inserts contain reproductions of Jesus, Mary, the saints, churches, processions, sacred vessels and various important personages.

The book also has an interesting timeline at the beginning that allows the reader to see at a glance what was going on simultaneously in the church and in the secular world at 100-year intervals during the course of Catholic history.

Boasts McBrien: "And it is without a postconciliar ideological bias. This was intentional. Conservative Catholics will find this just as useful as liberals."

Entries are tightly edited, running an inch to several inches in length on two-column pages, but some 30 articles appear on wider, single-column pages, signifying special importance. They run longer, several thousand words in some cases. Among these are, God (but not the devil), Jesus Christ, sacraments, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the papacy, religious orders, Vatican Council II and women in the church.

The project began in 1989 when Harper-Collins sought a general editor for a single-volume encyclopedia. They approached McBrien. He took on the task and in turn sought associate editors. Together they began proposing entry topics, word limits and potential contributors.

The project moved into high gear in September 1991, at the beginning of McBrien's two-year Notre Dame sabbatical, after he retired as chairman of the theology department. "I spent the entire fall semester in 1991 working on the master list of entries," says McBrien. "And many more blind entries pointing elsewhere in the volume for more treatment of the topic."

He then pooled the lists of suggested topics submitted by the associate editors, adding his own topics to the lists. He took personal responsibility for two general areas of interest, ecclesiology and Mariology. Each of the associate editors was responsible for other areas of the Catholic reality. Jay Dolan, for example, was responsible for U.S. Catholic history; Jesuit Fr. Richard McCormick for moral theology and medical ethics. McBrien wrote two feature articles: the Catholic church and Vatican Council II.

Getting the information was only part of the effort; the next stage was copyediting, recalls McBrien. He says this was "the most difficult stage."

It also became more obvious at the copyediting stage -- with some 800,000 words of copy on his desk -- that a number of the entries "weren't in satisfactory form," he recalls. "Some were neither sufficiently informative nor clearly written. In some few instances I bounced entries back to the associate editors for correction. In most cases I did the work myself."

The copyediting process was nearly completed by midsummer 1994. Then came cross-referencing, "a formidable job" during which McBrien says he discovered gaps in the working master list of entries. "I wrote scores and scores of short to middle-length entries on topics that none of us had previously thought of."

McBrien says that one of the most daunting jobs of the book was putting together the table of 262 popes, which runs some 20 pages and gives one or two sentences on each pope. In this capsule history of the papacy, both the charm and treachery of the papacy become apparent.

A San Francisco company, Design Office, helped track down photographic material. "In most cases, what Design Office obtained was acceptable; in other cases, it was not," says McBrien. For example, he said, they came up with a medieval mural of the Last Supper depicting Jesus distributing communion on the tongue, with the various apostles kneeling with their hands crossed over their breasts. "Needless to say, that was rejected. Good art; bad liturgy."