Canon Francis Joseph Ripley (26 August 1912 - 7 January 1998) was a Roman Catholic priest in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. He wrote several books during his lifetime, including This is The Faith. Later in life he held the position of canon

Canon (priest)

A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

.

This is The Faith was originally published in 1951 in Great Britain. It is based upon talks the author gave to people inquiring into the Catholic faith. Essentially, it discusses all of the basics of the Catholic faith. It is addressed in such a way as to appeal to non-Catholics.

TAN Books revised it and reprinted it in 2002 in a paperback edition. This edition is criticized by some as it has been edited to conform to certain changes of Vatican II. (Interestingly, the Bible quotes in the 2002 edition use much more archaic language than the quotes of the 1952 American edition.)

Sources and bibliography

All biographical and background information comes from the forewords and such of the two different editions the editor has access to.

Ripley, Francis J. This is The Faith. The Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland. 1952.

Ripley, Francis J. This is The Faith (3rd Edition). TAN Books and Publishers, Rockford, Illinois. 2002.