Flannery O’Connor once wrote an essay about the rather strange experience of being a Catholic author in the Protestant South. This was back in the 1950s, when Catholics were regarded as very odd ducks indeed.

All these years later, being a Catholic writer in the South, specifically Georgia, remains definitely weird. I discovered this when my first book was published by a Catholic publisher a few years ago. The book never made its way to the shelves of local self-proclaimed “Christian” bookstores evidently because someone somewhere decided that Catholic books don’t fit under the heading of “Christian.” It seems that “Christian” has become synonymous with “Protestant,” especially in Southern bookstores.

In fact, there are still people down here in Dixieland who will ask me, in all seriousness, whether or not Catholics are Christians. A custodian even took me aside one day to find out if Catholicism was a cult. And I am not making this up!

Then there is the question of reviews. When I tried to get my subsequent books, all by Catholic publishers, reviewed in our local, quite liberal (secular) newspaper, I was told, in no uncertain terms, that the paper didn’t review “religious” books. This was an odd decision indeed, given that the same paper does review any books that tout atheism.

It seems that the secular press – in the South and elsewhere– largely overlooks books written by Catholics, unless they are titled something like, “Why I Hate the Catholic Church” or “Secrets of an Ex-Nun.” This is because the secular press, unlike many average people on the street, realizes that Catholics are indeed Christians, and there seems to be a general distrust of Christianity in liberal newspapers. Indeed, there may even be an active hatred of the Catholic faith, since Catholic teachings strongly oppose certain behaviors that the liberal press tries to present as acceptable, including divorce, homosexuality, pre-marital sex, and so forth.

When I wrote “Confessions of an Ex-Feminist,” it was reviewed by orthodox Catholic publications such as “The Catholic Answer,” “The Saint Austin Review,” and “The National Catholic Register.” The secular press completely ignored it, although I have to wonder: If it had been called “Confessions of an Ex-Catholic,” would it have received some attention?  Of course, in that case, the book most likely would have been published by a secular press, and might even have become a national best-seller.

My latest book is “Abbess of Andalusia: Flannery O’Connor’s Spiritual Journey.” The book is undeniably Catholic, having been published by Saint Benedict Press and exploring the ways Flannery lived out her faith. Although it was only published two months ago, so far the same scenario seems to be playing out. Some Catholic publications are reviewing it, while the secular press is turning a blind eye. As for local media coverage, there has been none. It is something that Flannery O’Connor herself might have predicted, since her Catholic faith was certainly not understood in her day and continues to stick in the craw of liberal critics today.

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Lorraine V. Murray’s latest books are “Death in the Choir” and “Abbess of Andalusia.” She lives in Decatur, Georgia, with her husband, Jef, and a hamster named Ignatius.