Live Chat Software by Kayako |
|
Jan 2 |
The Top Ten Catholic Retail Stories of 2011
Posted by Ian on 02 January 2012 04:00 AM
| ||||||||
|
During 2011 we saw a lot of major stories in the retail world. These are our top ten that have an effect on Catholic retailing. 10. Catholic Digest combines with Faith and Family Magazine. Early in 2011 when Bayard announced the purchase of Faith and Family magazine there was some concern for the brand. Fortunately, Danielle Bean was kept on as the editor. Now, Catholic Digest will be merging with Faith and Family and Danielle Bean will remain as the editor of the new publication. I have high hopes for the new endeavor.
7. Digital Media. This is a huge story in the Catholic world because it isn't a story in the Catholic retail world. The Christian Booksellers Association spent two years meeting with its members and digital vendors to try and work out an industry-wide platform for digital book delivery for the Christian retail market (They couldn't). Amazon set all sorts of new benchmarks for digital sales and various e-readers like the Kindle Fire and the new Barnes and Noble Nook made headlines both for their technical specs and for the sales records they set. And where was the Catholic retail world in the midst of this? MIA. No one in the Catholic retail world from the trade organizations to the stores is discussing the impact of digital books on retail stores and many Catholic publishers are still trying to decide what to do about e-books. Hint: that ship sailed two years ago. Unfortunately, several Catholic publishers set up exclusive distribution agreements with publishers such as Ingram, effectively cutting Catholic retail stores out of the market entirely. There are some Catholic digital books available but the selection is miniscule compared to the general Christian market.
4. Acquisitions, acquisitions, acquisitions. This was a year for companies to buy others. January brought the purchase of the National Catholic Register by EWTN. In February, Bayard Magazine Group bought Faith and Family Magazine. In May, Creed Rosary was purchased by Christian Brands (formerly Autom). There are rumors of more purchases in the new year as Christian Brands continues to gobble up other manufacturers. In October, Thomas Nelson announced that it was being purchased by Harper Collins. Harper Collins purchased Thomas Nelson's primary competition, Zondervans, in 1988. A couple of thoughts about all of these mergers. The EWTN purchase of the Register will put the Register on firm financial footing, something that wasn't always a given in the past. It also gives a much larger platform to one of the few truly Catholic national newspapers. The merger of Faith and Family with Catholic Digest under Danielle Bean's leadership will bring a much more substantial publication to the market. I'm looking forward to the first issue. I'm going to be blunt about the Creed purchase. I don't like it. As soon as the purchase occurred, all of the Creed statuary was sent to China for production. Christian Brands thrives on cheap Chinese products and I am pretty sure that the rest of Creed will end up coming from China within a year. The Nelson acquisition is disturbing. Over 50% of the Christian publishing power is now in the control of a secular publisher. Nelson said they agreed to the acquisition partly because of the pressure of the e-book market. Hello! Catholic retail! Are you listening?
3. The NABRE was released. The New American Bible has gone through several partial revisions that just about need a spreadsheet to keep track of. This latest edition updates the Old Testament but keeps the previous New Testament. One of the biggest stories about this revision is that publishers are still working on printing the new edition even though it was officially released on Ash Wednesday 2011. It wasn't like this happened out of the blue. For more about publishers being caught off guard, see the number one story.
2. The Youcat was released. This new, hip, catechism-like book was released with much fanfare throughout the world and was given to all of the World Youth Day participants in Madrid. Unfortunately, its release was marred by very bad translations in Italy and France which prompted a recall and reprinting.
If stores were paying attention, they could offer dozens of Missal resources to their local parishes and customers. The biggest problem for retailers was the delay in publishing missals for individuals. Originally publishers said that the missals would be available at the beginning of November but all of them were pushed back. The Daily Roman Missal from the Midwest Theological Forum was the first to be released with some versions coming out in mid-November but other editions such as the St. Joseph Missal have been delayed until January or even March in some cases. Alright, now it's your turn. What other stories deserved attention in the Catholic retail world this year? Read more » | |||||||||
|
Dec 30 |
The Sixth Day of Christmas - The Feast of the Holy Family
Posted by Ian on 30 December 2011 02:05 AM
| ||||||||
|
The Feast of the Holy Family is dedicated to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, commemorating their life together in Nazareth and calling us to focus on Catholic family life. The feast is celebrated on the first Sunday after Christmas, unless Christmas falls on a Sunday, in which case it is celebrated on December 30. According to The Fisheaters this feast is placed where it is on the calendar “(B)ecause in Old Testament Law, a child wasn't a son of Abraham or a true part of the family until his circumcision at 8 days of age, an event of Christ's life that we celebrated on 1 January (from 25 December to 1 January are 8 days).” The feast was placed on the general calendar of the Roman Rite on October 26, 1921, by the Congregation of Rites under Pope Benedict XV. The Church presents the Holy Family to us as a model for our own family life. Joseph was the head of the Holy Family and provided for Mary and Jesus with the work of his hands. He was obedient to the angel who told him to take Mary as his wife, what to name the new child and again when told to flee with them to Egypt. He taught Jesus the carpentry trade and what it was to be a man in the society in which they lived. Mary took care of her family in the home. It was she who would have taught Jesus the Scriptures and prayers of their people when he was very young. It was through her example of managing the home that Jesus would formulate many of the examples he would later use in his teaching. Jesus saw work sanctified through the example of his earthly parents, who did all things well in the ordinary circumstances of daily life. Read More about the Holy Family and take 15% off thousands of in-stock items as well as most Catholic jewelry for the next two days (no coupon needed)! If you were a subscriber to our newsletter, you would also have gotten a free shipping coupon. Maybe you should subscribe so you can get the next one! Read more » | |||||||||
|
Dec 29 |
The Fifth Day of Christmas - Killing a Bishop
Posted by Ian on 29 December 2011 06:47 AM
| ||||||||
|
St. Thomas Becket is the OTHER St. Thomas, martyred for the Catholic Faith in England by a king named Henry over matters of Church governance. Thomas was born in London on the 21st of December in either 1117 or 1118 to Gilbert Becket and Matilda Roheise. His parents were buried in Old St. Paul's Cathedral. When Thomas was 10 he learned to read at the Merton Priory in England and then traveled to the Mainland for further studies of canon and civil law in Paris, Bologna and Auxerre. After his studies were concluded he returned to England around 1141 where he gained the attention of Theobold, Archbishop of Canterbury who sent him on several missions to Rome and ordained him a deacon in 1154. Soon after he was named Archdeacon of Canterbury. Read More about St. Thomas Becket. Read more » | |||||||||
|
Dec 28 |
The Fourth Day of Christmas - Feast of the Holy Innocents
Posted by Ian on 28 December 2011 04:00 AM
| ||||||||
![]()
Herod was the king in Judea at the time Christ was born. He was an unpopular king, working as he did for the Romans, and his cruelty knew no bounds. He feared any threat to his power, and news of this newborn king troubled him. The wise men, whom he had asked to report the whereabouts of the Christ Child, did not return to him. Thus, “Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time of which he had ascertained from the wise men” (Matthew 2:16). Little did Herod know that the new king and his parents had already escaped.This passage is the basis for the feast of the Holy Innocents. In allowing this massacre, God allowed Jeremiah’s prophecy of the Old Testament to be fulfilled in the New Testament: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more” (Jeremiah 31:15).
The Catholic Church honors those infant boys as the first martyrs of the Church on December 28th, the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Martyrs die in witness to their belief in God. What is unique about this martyrdom is that they died to save God – God as the infant Jesus. They did not know Him, so their witness was not the same as subsequent martyrs, and they died in total innocence. The pain must have been excruciating for the parents as well as for the people of the entire area. They could not have understood the senselessness of the slaughter. Children were their hope for the future, and now their boys were dead. Read more about the Holy Innocents.
Read more » | |||||||||
|
Dec 26 |
The Feast of St. Stephen, the First Martyr
Posted by aquinasandmore on 26 December 2011 03:00 AM
| ||||||||
Read more » | |||||||||







1. The Latin Rite Mass translation was changed. If you haven't noticed the changes at your parish, you haven't been to Mass since before Advent. For Catholic retailers this was both a blessing and a huge headache. 


