New Advent is a Catholic website. It provides free online copies of important books, letters, and papers about the Catholic Church.
New Advent is a Catholic website. It provides free online copies of important books, letters, and papers about the Catholic Church.
A Catholic layman named Kevin Knight started New Advent. In 1993, Pope John Paul II visited Denver, Colorado, for World Youth Day. Knight was 26 years old at the time. The Pope's visit inspired him to start a big project. He wanted to put the original 1907–1912 Catholic Encyclopedia on the Internet.
Knight created the non-profit website New Advent for this work. Volunteers from the United States, Canada, France, and Brazil helped him type the original text. The website opened in 1995. The volunteers finished typing the whole encyclopedia in 1997.
The website has many historical documents that are in the public domain (free to use and share). These include:
The website also shares current news about the Catholic Church. The pages use many links so readers can easily click from one article to another.
Brian K. Kooy, a librarian from Georgia State University, reviewed the website. He highly recommended it. He said the text is simple to read and matches the original books perfectly. However, he also wrote that the website does not have many pictures and uses too many links.
Other media sources also praise the website. Catholic Answers Magazine called it a "Catholic Supersite" because it makes old religious texts easy to find online. Major news outlets like the National Catholic Register use the website's library to check historical facts.
The website remains very popular. It receives more than 1 million visits every month from people doing research.