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These are exciting days to be a Catholic. Many lay apostolates have been founded which help us to live and grow in our faith. One especially exciting development is the number of lay initiatives designed to help us as family members. Exodus 90 is a men’s apostolate which helps men to be better husbands and fathers through becoming more focused on prayer and self-discipline. Fraternus is an apostolate which helps fathers and sons grow together in fellowship and faith, and its sister organization, Fidelis, helps mothers and daughters to bond in the love of God and neighbor.
One apostolate which has proved especially dynamic and has experienced exponential growth is Well-Read Mom, the mission of which is to help “women read more and read well” and “to deepen the awareness of meaning hidden in each woman’s daily life, elevate the cultural conversation, and revitalize reading literature from books.” One of Well-Read Mom’s stated goals is “to encourage intentional family life, reading in the home, and all mothers’ awareness of their unique presence in the heart of the family.”
Founded in 2012 by Marcie Stokman in a small town in northern Minnesota, the first meeting took place in the living room of her home with twenty women in attendance. Now, there are over 1,000 groups across the United States and in several other countries.
First book in a new publishing adventure
Over the years, Well-Read Mom has supported the Ignatius Critical Editions series of great literary works by assigning them for discussion. This year, partnering with Wiseblood Books, another Catholic publisher, the ladies have launched their own publishing initiative. The first title selected for publication is Pinocchio, the children’s classic, which, alongside Dante’s Divine Comedy and Manzoni’s The Betrothed, is probably the best-loved of all works of Italian literature.
The reason that this particular book was selected for Well-Read Mom’s first adventure in publishing is given by Marcie Stokman in a short prefatory note. She explains that when she first opened the pages of Pinocchio, she was “lost in wonder.” She realized, as with all great children’s literature, Pinocchio was not just for children: “Surprisingly, the commentary was not for children; it was for me. Somehow, this tale of a wooden puppet illuminated the journey of my life.”
Another reason for selecting Pinocchio for publication was that most Americans only know the Disney feature film and do not know Collodi’s classic. “While Italians know this beloved novel well,” Stokman writes, “most Americans are only vaguely familiar with the children’s version of the tale and have never read the original classic.”
Revealing “the true nature of the universe”
A second prefatory note by Colleen Hutt, Well-Read Mom’s Director of Vision and Outreach, goes a little deeper. She explains that Pinocchio’s very being is changed by his loving acts of self-sacrifice and quotes from the book to illustrate the point:
He went to look at himself in the glass, and he thought he was someone else. For he no longer saw the usual reflection of a wooden puppet; he was greeted instead by the image of a bright intelligent boy with chestnut hair, blue eyes, and looking as happy and joyful as if it were the Easter holidays.
The late, great Archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Giacomo Biffi was always an indefatigable champion of Pinocchio, and this new edition quotes his description of the impact that the deeper spiritual dimension of the story had on him in his youth:
I saw the light. I discovered that the story contained an announcement – an announcement that was not, as I had thought until then, a vaguely moralistic and instructional one. No. The book, rather than suggesting rules of conduct, actually revealed the true nature of the universe…. Under the veneer of the fairytale, a clear and well-defined doctrine shines through, which the humble people of this world had always known and loved.
Pinocchio: a primer of Catholic Orthodoxy
Cardinal Biffi, who authored a book, “a theological commentary,” on Pinocchio, is effusive in his estimation of its merits. It was the “most satisfying, richest and simplest, most whimsical and logical vision of things that has ever been offered to the human mind.” Such is its congruence with the teaching of the Church, that the good Cardinal concluded that “Pinocchio might also have been called On Catholic Orthodoxy.”
No wonder the good ladies at Well-Read Mom have published a new edition! Prompted by their example, we might hope that many more people will be moved to read it. Well-read moms, and well-read dads for that matter, are well aware that nobody is too young to have classic children’s literature read to them and that nobody is too old to read it themselves. Grown-ups enjoy children’s literature; it is only those who refuse to grow up, like Peter Pan, who think that they are too grown up for it.
We should all be grateful that these well-read moms have published this fine new edition of this well-read classic.
And today we celebrate...