Pope Francis Disappears from Ignatius Press Catalog

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In the Spring of 2014, the Catholic publisher Ignatius Press featured nine books by or about Pope Francis in their catalog, from The Way of Humility: Corruption and Sin & On Self-Accusation by Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio (Pope Francis) to Francis: Pope of a New World by Andrea Tornielli. Ignatius also advertised a "Pope Francis Portrait," the "Pope Francis Rosary" and the DVD, Who is Pope Francis: The Life and Message of Pope Francis. Here is the full list:

The Way of Humility: Corruption and Sin & On Self-Accusation by Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) 

Education for Choosing Life: Proposals for Difficult Times by Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) 

Pope Francis: A short bio of the Holy Father 

Pope Francis: Our Brother, Our Friend: Personal Recollections about the Man Who Became Pope, edited by Alejandro Bermudez 

The Light of Faith (Lumen Fidei) by Pope Francis 

Francis: Pope of a New World by Andrea Tornielli 

Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words: Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio by Francesca Ambrogietti and Sergio Rubin 

On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the Twenty-First Century by Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio & Abraham Skorka 

In Him Alone Is Our Hope: The Church According to the Heart of Pope Francis by Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) 

Pope Francis Portrait 

Pope Francis Rosary 

DVD: Who Is Pope Francis? The Life and Message of Pope Francis

As Francis was, of course, then, the Pope, this was par for the course for one of the major Catholic publishers. The first catalog to be created after Francis' election, Fall 2013, featured many items relating to the new pope. And similar large selections of works by or about Francis continued to be featured in successive catalogs up until recently.

Most of the 2014 items are still available on the Ignatius website, and, as might be expected, there are numerous additional books by or about Francis, published in the interim, also available on the site.

However, something else changed.

Pope Francis, and indeed all references to Pope Francis have almost entirely vanished from Ignatius' current (Spring 2018) sixty-four page catalog.

Now absent are all the titles listed above as are all other more recent items still available such as the Pope's four (at the time) encyclicals and exhortations, the book, Pope Francis on the Family, the DVD, Francis the Pope of Renewal, the CD Habemus Papam and so on.

Indeed, as far as I can tell from flipping through the first five pages of a website search, every single item by or about Pope Francis is now on "clearance," including the e-books and, yes, that rosary.

I wrote almost entirely, above, because the Spring 2018 catalog does still contain one book by Francis, Your First Communion, tucked away in the "Books for Children" section. Francis also apparently wrote the Preface to Teaching and Learning the Love of God by Pope Benedict XVI, as well as allegedly penning the Forwards to DoCat - a sort of sequel to the "youth catechism" YouCat - and the YouCat Bible. Francis is also mentioned in passing in the blurb for a book of essays by George Weigel, and in the blurb on Humanae Vitae, it is mentioned that Francis will later be canonizing Pope Paul VI.

These are the sum total of Catalog appearances by the Pope, even including mentions.

By contrast, the Catalog lists least fifteen books by Pope Benedict, over many pages.

There are also two books by Cardinal Sarah.

And there are numerous additional forwards, endorsements, mentions and the like by or about Benedict, Sarah, Cardinals Burke and Müller and various other prelates.

Ignatius has long been a booster of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, at least four of whose books are featured in the current Catalog.

And, of course, as always, the Catalog features hundreds of works by other Catholic laypersons and religious, ranging from G.K. Chesterton to Mother Angelica.

Thus, the Ignatius Catalog looks about like it always has. With one glaring exception:

The current Pope has gone missing.

Except from the Children's section.