Many times, I have heard Catholics lament the "good old days" when there were so many Catholic writers, journalists, publications, and bookstores. It's true that we lost many of those things in the nuclear winter that followed the Second Vatican Council. However, as one who has spent a lot of time looking at older books and magazines (as in: from the 1890s to the 1960s), I'm not convinced that the level of material was consistently high. There were masterpieces, to be sure; but much that is now forgotten deserves to be forgotten.
Fast forward to 2020, fifty years after the mandatory imposition of the New Order on the Church. What do we see? Contrary to all the expectations of the party of rupture, we are witnessing a veritable renaissance in traditional Catholic publishing, of a consistently high quality, both in content and in production values. Such names as Angelico Press, Arouca Press, Angelus Press, Cluny Media, Loreto Publications, Preserving Christian Publications, Cana Press, Romanitas Press, Roman Catholic Books, Sophia Institute Press, and Te Deum Press come to mind. There are more, and there will be more. It is perennial tradition, not the banality of the sixties and seventies, that excites enthusiasm and enkindles a lifelong desire to learn.