My local Christian book store carries largely Protestant material… which is fine. It’s their business, and they should run it any way they see fit. I just come away a little sadder each time I visit the store.

The two shelves they call the Catholic ’section’ are populated with material from Protestant publishers. They print books, calendars and periodicals the way they think they should be. I found a section labeled Apologists but the author with the most books there was Max Lucado- a fine writer to be sure, but again, Protestant. There were no Catholic apologist authors in the store. Of course, the Left Behind series is still a bestselling machine, again not in line with Church doctrine.
Makes me wonder why they bother to stock rosaries and medals.

Catholic publishers print vastly different material than the bland, generic “How to be a Catholic” stuff I saw. Oh, I’ve suggested authors like Scott Hahn, but each time I return to the store there is less for me to see.
They might be surprised by how much extra business would be generated if they stocked a little more in the way of truly Catholic materials. I’m not the only person who meanders up and down the little aisle the two shelves are on… right next to the Jews for Jesus stuff, labeled ‘Messianic’. I walk past, go look at something else, and come back again… like I’ll find something new. There’s got to be more than this!

Yesterday one such woman looked to be having a hard time finding something on the two shelves, and motioned for some help from the clerk. The clerk, in turn, showed the woman a Bible. I wouldn’t have said anything, but the very one being shown the woman was the Bible I bought years ago because it said ‘Catholic’ on it, but it wasn’t. SO, just as an aside I said “Be sure it’s really a Catholic Bible and contains all the books.”
For non-Catholics: No, it’s not a huge difference, but it’s one that matters.

Slightly questioning look from clerk, which I understood to mean she was probably Southern Baptist or one of its iterations. They are famous for omitting pertinent information like that… no insult intended; I grew up Southern Baptist.
The clerk gave over care of the customer to me with a smile and “Oh, so you know; well, thanks for helping…” and went back to whatever she was doing. To her credit, when I needed her later she was glad to step in.

The customer needed 4 Catholic Bibles in easy to understand English for her nieces and nephews, who had all just joined the Church. She was on the plane to New York within a few days and had no time to order online. I had purchased my Bible on the net, of course, so that was no help at all. We went through the versions the store carried and found that most of them had the *Apocrypha. But oh, they were lacking. The text was too ugly or small, the ’study’ Bibles were hard to get around or understand. It was disappointing.

The clerk emerged with a beautiful study Bible; hard bound, fully illustrated, easy to navigate and understand. Both our mouths flew open, for it was lovely.
But it wasn’t a Catholic Bible.
I walked away, and she probably bought four of the lovely Bibles.

Thank God for the internet.

*Simply, the Apocrypha is canon because they are included in the Septuagint which is the Bible Jesus used. Protestants don’t have the Apocrypha in their Bibles because the doctrines which are taught within their pages contradict Luther’s doctrines.