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Hot Book Not on San Diego Shelves

Michael Rose on Catholic Bookstores

By Robert Kumpel

Michael Rose's new book, Goodbye, Good Men (Aquinas Publishing Ltd.) documents the decline of American seminaries and exposes a systematic rejection of orthodox, heterosexual young men as candidates for the priesthood. It has reached the top 100 of amazon.com, but Catholics in San Diego can't buy the book anywhere in town.

While major chains like Barnes and Noble and Borders find the book too sectarian for their shelves, none of the local Catholic bookstores carry the book either. That comes as no surprise to author Michael Rose. "There's a sort of 'Ghetto Catholic' orthodox bookstore network, and those are the ones that go against the grain. In Cincinnati, we have one across the river in northern Kentucky, one in the northern suburbs, and one in the eastern suburbs, and these are the people going against the grain. They carry Sophia Institute books and Ignatius Press books, TAN books and some of the independent titles too. But I think for all the rest of the stores, if you mention Sophia Institute Press, they don't want anything to do with it, because it's not of their ideological thinking. They're selling the St. Anthony Messenger Press books and stuff like that. Maybe they'll carry Our Sunday Visitor -- anything that's mooshy, dissenting, or just noncontroversial."

Rose's first book, The Renovation Manipulation, (Aquinas Publishing, 2000) is a handbook on fighting unnecessary church renovations. His next volume, Ugly As Sin, (Sophia Institute Press, 2001) exposed the decline of beauty in Catholic architecture and gives practical solutions for transforming modernist churches into buildings that inspire the spirit.

Released on April 15, Goodbye, Good Men was shipping when I reached Rose. "We had quite a few orders from Amazon.com and Newsmax.com, even non-Catholic places. About half the others came through our 1-800 number or our website, because people had heard about it on the internet or seen our website or read The Wanderer's review of it. The rest came from these Catholic bookstores that I'm talking about--the 'ghetto' bookstores. We're talking about the home-schooling crowd and those who are concerned about what their kids are being taught, those people who pray the rosary every day. They're on the mailing list from Ignatius Press or subscribe to publications like the Wanderer or Catholic World Report."

O'Connors has been selling books and religious supplies since 1936. Located on El Cajon Boulevard in City Heights, O'Connors has reduced its selection of books to a few specialized shelves. Some books are by Protestant writers like Robert Schuller and Merlin Carothers. Some titles suggested a bygone era like, Justice and Peace Education: Models for College and University Faculties. Even more surprising was a stack of Reach Out, a paperback Living Bible translation of the New Testament that still had its 1970s cover. There were no books by Ignatius Press, Sophia Institute Press, or Aquinas Publishing. Bob, the clerk at the counter, said that he had read about Goodbye, Good Men in a Catholic newspaper. "I think it's called the News Notes. We don't carry it, but we can order it for you."

The Pauline Media Center on Balboa Avenue seems to have the largest collection of Catholic books. They carry some titles by Ignatius Press. There are pockets of new age spirituality in the psychology section, particularly, several books on the Enneagram, including Discovering the Enneagram and Enneagram II by Richard Rohr. I could find no books published by Aquinas, TAN, or Sophia Institute. When I asked if they carried the Faith and Life series by Ignatius Press, the woman at the counter said she was not familiar with it and could find nothing in her computer. She said that she had taken orders on Ugly As Sin and had heard about Goodbye, Good Men but had none on order and no plans to carry it. "If someone orders it, we might get some more in."

The closest thing San Diego has to a Ghetto Catholic bookstore is St. Joseph Religious Supply. Opened in 1994, St. Joseph's is located in a strip mall at the intersection of College Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard. One half of the store is filled with statues, cards, and gifts and the other half is almost entirely books. They carry books from the TAN catalogue, but also some controversial books on Medjugorje and feminist theology. The most controversial book in the store, however, is Rose's Ugly As Sin -- there were two copies on the "new releases" shelf. When asked about Goodbye, Good Men, owner Annette Brant was not familiar with it. When she was told of its subject matter, her voice turned to a disgusted tone. "Yeah, and look at the kind of scandals we've got because of that."

In spite of the lack of local marketing by Catholic bookstores, Rose says that his new book is selling briskly. "It made it into the top 100 of Amazon.com and they haven't even received their shipment! Pre-ordered shipments have been delayed until mid-May. They've ordered more than anyone and Newsmax has ordered about 500 or so. And there's been a lot of individual orders."

The demand for Rose's latest book has convinced one publisher that it is not too "sectarian" for a mainstream audience. "Regnery Publishing in Washington has picked it up. They're the ones who published Bias by Bernard Goldberg, which has sold about 250 thousand copies in the last year. They also published the Jesse Jackson exposé, Shakedown, and Barbara Olson's book about Clinton's final days in office. They've had four best-sellers in the last year. This will insure that it will be more widely distributed than just at Ghetto Catholic bookstores. We've done a limited run in paperback, and Regnery will have a hardback version out in May. They will give it great exposure and a lot of distribution."

The best marketing tool for Goodbye, Good Men may be the timing of its release. Rose: "Yesterday, my distributor got an order from a Polish monsignor in the Vatican. He ordered four copies. He promised that he would get it into the Holy Father's hands before the cardinals got there. Now I don't know if that will actually happen, but he had a Vatican address and he is a part of the Papal household. So we express-mailed it to him so he should get it no later than tomorrow."

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