American books on a Roman Catholic jerk from the far South? (9)
I believe the answer is:
antarctic
'from the far south?' is the definition.
'american books on a roman catholic jerk' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'books on' becomes 'nt' (New Testament. I am not sure about the 'on' bit.**).
'roman catholic' becomes 'rc' (abbreviation for Roman Catholic).
'jerk' becomes 'tic' (I've seen this before).
'a'+'nt'+'a'+'rc'+'tic'='ANTARCTIC'
(Other definitions for antarctic that I've seen before include "Where to pick up a penguin?" , "Relating to southern polar region" , "Continent?" , "Penguin's home" , "Relating to south polar region" .)