The Faith of Our Fathers by Cardinal James Gibbons is about the basic tenets of the Catholic faith throughout history. It was published in Baltimore in 1876 and became a best-selling conversion manual in the United States and by 1980 was in its 111th printing. Excerpt: «My Dear Reader:—Perhaps this is the first time in your life that you have handled a book in which the doctrines of the Catholic Church are expounded by one of her sons. You have, no doubt, heard and read many things regarding our Church; but has not your information come from teachers justly liable to suspicion? You asked for bread, and they gave you a stone. You asked for fish, and they reached you a serpent. Instead of the bread of truth, they extended to you the serpent of falsehood.»
