Preface and Introduction to All Ye Lands

Preface

Dear....

Many years ago, when embarking upon a career as an educator, I was confronted with only two options in teaching history: beautifully designed secular texts with a definite anti-Catholic bias, or photocopied versions of old Catholic texts, which were outdated and, in many respects, overly parochial. I realized that Catholic schools were forced by default to use one option or the other. This was not serving our students. I was not satisfied with this limitation, and I found others, teachers and parents, who were not satisfied either. The Church has always been a blend of heaven and earth, the material and the spiritual; and we dreamed of a textbook that combined the beauty of secular texts with the expansive and hopeful vision of history that is truly Catholic.

For more than a decade we have been working to make this dream a reality, to answer the prayers of countless teachers and parets. Now educators and families can have both beautiful illustrations and accurate text that is true to the Catholic vision of history as set forth in the Second Vatican Council's guiding document: Lumen Gentium.

The Catholic Schools Textbook Project fills the void in the historical education of youth who know little of the accomplishments and contributions of their parents and grandparents, and even less about the men and women who have given us our civilization, our country and, most importantly, our Catholic Faith. This vacuum of historical knowledge is not our true heritage. Ours is a culture of life and of hope, of faith, vast and deep, and rich achievements for the common good.

The Catholic Schools Textbook Project restores what has been lost in the secular texts and offers beautiful illustrations to accomany the story. We extend to teachers and students the first distinctively Catholic history textbooks since the 1960s.