Category: Apologetics

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On Being Catholic

Did you catch the piece in the Washington Post last Saturday called “On Faith”? It featured an interview with a woman writing a book on Catholics on the Supreme Court. If Judge Sotomayor is confirmed there will be six Catholic justices. The author, Barbara Perry, opines that the number of Catholics is related to liberal and conservative politics more than religion. When asked how she thinks Judge Sotomayor’s Catholicism will play into her decisions if confirmed, she describes Judge Sotomayor as someone who attends church for family and special occasions, guessing she will be more liberal—a social justice type of Catholic. Whereas justices like Scalia and Roberts are conservative on issues such as abortion and church and state matters.


This kind of conversation is so common in political discussions and in church conversation and it is really misguided. There is only one kind of Catholic; the person who is baptized saved by God’s grace and called to share in the very mission of Jesus Christ. Happily, once baptized a Catholic, or baptized in another Christian community and later received into the Church through Confirmation, one is forever a Catholic.

The only real Catholic is the one who daily strives to love God through prayer, love the people God sends into one’s life, and regularly receive the sacraments, beginning with Sunday Mass. The sacraments are not magic and though Baptism is forever, one must continually grow in faith and love, one’s faith needs to mature in much the same way we mature physically, psychologically and socially.


Unhappily, we know that there is a wide range of ways in which people stop growing in the faith. In the field of Evangelization we try to identify (one might say label) stages in the practice of the faith in hopes that we can call all Catholics to full and active participation in the faith.


We speak of unchurched Catholics who were Baptized and maybe received Eucharist and confirmation but were not raised in the faith and so have no real understanding of what it means to be Catholic. We also speak of inactive Catholics, those Catholics who identify themselves as Catholics but go to Mass no more than a few times a year outside of weddings or funerals. A third group is called alienated Catholics and they are Catholics who though they call themselves Catholic, they stay away from participation in the church because of a negative experience of some sort. In many case there is a desire for reconciliation and healing in order to feel welcomed or at home in the Church.


Like a family, all of these people are Catholics and considered part of the Catholic family. We who are fellow Catholics or work for the Church have a responsibility for seeking out, listening, inviting, and encouraging these sisters and brothers to deepen their faith and rediscover the gift of the Catholic tradition.


Labels like liberal, conservative, cultural, or radical Catholic tend to suggest that it’s possible for an individual Catholic to decide what it means to be Catholic. When I think of some of the American Catholic saints, life Mother Katherine Drexel or Elizabeth Seton I discover women who would defy all of our popular labels. They were passionate in their love of God, their love of the Church and their love for others, especially the poor and the marginalized. Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., once Master General of the Jesuits captures the passion that faith brings to life in this prayer.


“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love

in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination,

will affect everything.

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,

what you will do with your evenings,

how you will spend your weekends,

what you read, who you know,

what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything.”


Who is a Catholic? Enjoy this video displaying the rich Tapestry of the Catholic Church!

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Einstein on the Problem of Evil

I first saw this video at Patrick Madrid‘s Website. Many have struggled with the problem of evil. Now evil is often thought of as an existing reality when in fact is is really a privation, that is, a lack of something that should be there. To sin is to lack justice, to lack truth, to lack love, mercy etc. God did not create evil, evil is a lack of something God intends.

You’ll need to watch this video closely. It is in German with subtitles but it is well worth the work. It depicts how the youthful Einstein once debated a professor on the problem of evil.

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Call to Unity

The video below was produced by www.calledtocommunion.com and presents some thoughtful questions to ponder. Questions such as, Did Jesus intend all this disunity among Christians? Do we tend to “paper-over” our disunity and minimize its seriousness?. If Christ intended only one Church then how can we determine the one True Church? At points the video is a bit hard to hear but it surely gives a lot to think about. The truth be told, the disunity among Christians is a grave and serious scandal. It is certainly opposed to the will of Jesus who said:  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:21-22) The website mentioned above is thoughtful and scholarly and I recommend it to your attention.

Another Hat tip to Canterbury Tales

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Beware of the Soloists!

There are a lot of “Solos” sung by our Protestant brethren: Sola Fide (saved by faith alone); Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone is the rule of faith); sola gratia(grace works alone). (See the Protestant Logo to the right). Generally one ought to be suspicious and careful of claims that things work alone. It is our usual experience that things work together in harmony with other things and are interrelated.

Hence faith alone is rejected by the Bible itself as an unreality. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26) It is not really faith at all since faith does not exist all by itself but always present with and works through love. Galatians 5:6 says: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love. Hence faith works not alone, but through love. Further as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 13:2 if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. Hence faith alone is a null set, it is nothing in that it does not exist. True faith is never alone, it bears the fruit of love and works of holiness. Beware the soloists who cry “faith alone” and ask where faith, all by itself can be found.

As for grace alone, this too is a puzzling claim since grace builds on nature. You and I may have grace, but it works through our human nature to have its effects. Hence one who has the grace to preach must use his mind, voice, lungs etc. One who sings well must do the same. Even the grace of holiness builds on our nature since we called to be holy in a human way. It is our humanity that must be transformed: our mind, heart, attitudes and behavior. Even to the extent that we manifest the holiness of God we cannot forget that we are made in the image and likeness of God. So again beware the soloists. Human nature is not depraved but wounded and grace is not alone, it works with and builds on our nature and heals it.

Finally beware the soloists who say Sola Scriptura! Namely the claimthat Scripture alone is the measure of faith and the sole authority for the Christian. There are several problems with this. First, Scripture as we know it (with the full New Testament) was not fully assembled and agreed upon until the 4th Century and it was Catholic Bishops in union with the Pope who made the decision as to what books belonged in the Bible. The early Christians could not possibly live by sola scriptura. Secondly, until recently most peoplecould not read. Kind of strange that God would make a book the sole rule of faith. Even today large numbers of people in the world still cannot read well. Thirdly, and most importantly, if all you have is a book that book still needs to be interpreted accurately. Without a valid and recognized interpreter the book can well serve to divide more than unite. It this not the experience of Protestantism which now has tens of thousands of denominations all claiming to read the same Bible but interpreting it in rather different manners? The problem is if no one is Pope everyone is Pope!  Protestantism claims that everyone alone with a Bible and the Holy Spirit can authentically interpret Scripture. Well then why does the Holy Spirit tell some that baptism is necessary for salvation and to others no.  Why the Holy Spirit tell some that the Eucharist really is Christ body and blood and others only a symbol? Why does the Holy Spirit say to some Protestants “Once saved always saved” and to others, “No” ?? So you see Scripture is not meant to be alone. Scripture itself says this in 2 Peter 3:16 our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, also wrote to you, Our Brother Paul speaking of these things [the Last things] as he does in all his letters. In them there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures.So Scripture warns that it is quite possible to mis-interpret Scripture. Well then, were is the truth to be found? The Scriptures once again answer this: you should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth. (1 Tim 3:15) Hence Scriptures are not to be read alone. They are a document of the Lord through the Church and must be read in the context of the Church and withthe Church’s authoritative interpretation and Tradition. As this quote says, The CHURCH is the pillar and foundation of the truth.

So beware of the soloists. Scripture is the most authoritative and precious document of the Church but it emanates from the Church’s Tradition and must be understood in the light of it. Further, faith is not alone but works through love, grace is not alone but builds on nature.

Here is a brief video where Pope Benedict reminds us that we must read Scripture not alone, but in union with the Living Tradition of the Church.

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Jewish and Catholic Discussions

The latest edition of the Gloria.tv news contains a report about a rather startling but growing phenomnenon, that of Jewish leaders insisting that the Pope should acknowledge that Jews do not need to accept Christ in order to be saved.  The Jerusalem Post reports  that Deborah Weissman, co-chairwoman of the Interreligious Coordination Council in Jerusalem (a commission that, among other things is preparing for the Pope’s visit to the Holy Land), said she hoped an alleged “ambivalence” of the Pope on theological issues affecting Jews would be clarified. She said the Pope still had not made it absolutely clear that Jews did not need to embrace the belief that Jesus was the Messiah to be redeemed.

Why is this notion being insisted upon by her and an increasing number of Jewish leaders?  That Jesus alone can save us is a clear and essential dogma of Christian Faith. There is no exemption of any group, nation, or people in the mandate Jesus gave us to make disciples of all nations and baptize them (Matt 28:19 inter al.) For someone to insist that we set aside one of our most fundamentalal teachings and abandon the mandate of Christ to go unto all the world is astonishing in its boldness and displays remarkable insensitivity. I want to stipulate that not all or even many Jewish leaders are insisting on this but those that are simply ask too much.

It is also necessary to state that the Catholic position on salvation is not mechanistic. We do not teach that only  “card-carrying”  Christians go to heaven.  But neither do we teach that accepting or not accepting Christ is just some incidental formality. We are under a mandate of Jesus Christ to go unto all the nations, to summon everyone to explicit faith in Jesus Christ. We do this respectfully, but we must do it. We do it because we love and seek union with all in Christ Jesus. We do not presume that non-Christians have nothing to offer or are in a hopeless situation. Rather respecting the dignity and gift of every human person we seek union with them in Christ and acknowledge that everyone, every nation, every people bring great richness to the Church. But the truth is that everyone needs Jesus Christ. To ask us to deny this is to ask us to deny our faith and our Lord. 

Again let me emphasize that the Catholic position on the salvation of anyone who is unbaptized is nuanced.  We hold that Baptism is necessary for salvation and that outside the Church there is no salvation. But these truths are not understood in a simplistic or merely mechanistic way. There are some who have not fully come to understand their need to accept Christ and enter the Church. Perhaps it is because they were not effectively evangelized. Perhaps it is due to cultural factors that prevent them from accepting the claims of Christ and the Church. Perhaps they were exposed to poor examples of Christianity or Christians. But if they have sincerely sought the truth, God will surely acknowledge their sincerity. However. this acknowledgement of the patience and mercy of God cannot allow us to become weakened in our resolve to obey Jesus’ mandate that we bring every nation and individualal to explicit discipleship.

It is probably best to let the Catechism of the Catholic Church speak for itself:

Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men. (CCC # 848)

And now to the video that sparked these reflections! Gloria TV news provides a wonderful service in bringing worldwide Catholic news to our attention in a short and accessible way. Almost everyday they provide these wonderful updates on the Church throughout the world

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What is Distinctive About the Biblical Revelation of God?

There is much talk today about how we, despite our theological differences are all really worshipping the same God. Is that true? We might like to think that under all this diversity is really a unity but the fact is that there are some pretty radical differences in the understanding of God. So radical that I do not think we can really affirm wishful slogans like the one above. There is only one true God but many have imagined other gods who are not God, surely not God as he reveals Himself in the Bible.

Another common problem today is to presume that the Biblical insights about God are not really unique but merely borrowed from other ancient cultures. Zeitgeist the movie makes this claim. But the truth is that the Biblical tradition, while having some similarities to other things ancient, departs radically from most ancient and modern philosophies. The Biblical Revelation really IS unique and transcends many Ancient and modern errors.

Here are two videos by Fr. Robert Barron that make these points well.

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Authority to Forgive Sins

The Gospel for this Sunday is from John 20:19ff clearly shows him bestowing the authority to forgive sins to his first priests, the Apostles. He breathed on them and said, ‘Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven them. Whose sins you retain, they are retained.’  This passage should not be lightly set aside. According to John it is the among the very first things that Jesus did after He rose from the dead. First he says, Peace be with you. Then he commisions them: As the Father has sent me so I send you. Well the Father sent Jesus to reconcile sinners with the Father. So these sent one (Apostles) would have the same power, to reconcile sinners. It is an essential hallmark of the Church that she be able to reconcile sinners through the ministry of priests. If you’re a good Bible believeing Catholic you ought to get to confession frequently. Afterall Jesus set it up this way himself. Now don’t go an reinvent religion. Just practice what Jesus set forth. Central to the practice of the true and Biblical faith is confession.

So here are some other resources to study moreon this:

  1. I have put together a PDF flyer on the Biblical roots of Confession and you can read it here:  Confession in Biblical
  2. I preached a sermon on today’s Gospel which covers among other things the Authority to forgive sins you can listen or right click to download here: Sermon on Divine Mercy Sunday
  3. Here is a two minute Video Apologetical primer on Confession:

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Humble Pie

I had thought I’d be prolific and come up with 40 reasons for coming home to the Catholic Church, one for each day of Lent. Well, Lent is over and you can see I haven’t quite finished (but will!). And I experienced more humility when I found this:

 150 Reasons Why I am Catholic (and you should be too)

So here I am left in the dust! If you visit the site the author, Dave Armstrong, lists all these many reasons. They are primarily in an apologetical vein distinguishing Catholicism from Protestantism. That is  related to my work here but a little more doctrinally specific that I have chosen to be. Nevertheless, a hat tip to Dave Armstrong for his work!