News Item: : Evangelization - Some Helps and Hindrances - (Part 2 of 4)
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Monday 09 March 2015 - 13:09:11

We'd like to get back today, to our ongoing discussion about some of the things which, in light of our own past experiences of conversion to the One True Faith, might help or hinder evangelization in these times. 

During his homily at Second Vespers, for the close of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18 -25), Pope Francis suggested: 'So many past controversies between Christians can be overcome when we put aside all polemical or apologetic approaches... Christian unity - we are convinced - will not be the fruit of subtle theoretical discussions in which each party tries to convince the other of the soundness of their opinions.'

In light of the 2,000 year Tradition of the Catholic Church, this appears to be quite a singular claim for a pontiff to make! 

Let us not forget, either, that Catholic dogma and doctrine is Divine Revelation and not merely human thinking. 

In terms of natural logic, it is also worth noticing, at the very outset, that this call to set aside apologetics is itself a form of apologetic: the papal homily in question, appears to represent an apologia for an end to traditional apologias! Strict logicians might be inclined to view this as an example of the self-refuting idea.

Perhaps we can agree that it is not always the time and season for polemics. For example, gathering with local Anglicans, to provide food and shelter for the homeless, might not be the most opportune time to get into a heated discussion of King Henry VIII's attempts to usurp papal supremacy; although even here, it is amazing what might be accomplished with a touch of humour!

Still, polemic is not always the correct approach. 

To give another example: Some Traditionalist friends might be shocked, but I readily admit that, when I was still a Protestant, the discovery of paragraph 3 of Unitatis Redintegratio helped me to begin to listen to Catholic truth claims. This is the paragraph that acknowledges that, during the history of the Church, men from both sides in rifts were often to blame for dissensions that lead to subsequent separations from the Church. 

As a Catholic, I understand that this is not the same as saying that Catholic dogma/doctrine was ever wrong; only that some Catholics did not live or present it as well as they might have done. When I was still a Protestant in the late 80's - early 90's though, that acknowledgement was enough to get my attention. It seemed reasonable and made me think that I would be unreasonable and stubborn to reject it on the supposed grounds that all former Protestants had always been right. I began to think, ''Well, if the Catholics can be big enough to say that, maybe I'll listen to what else they have to say.'' It aided a small, but important, opening of my mind. 

None of this is to deny the value of polemics in due season. Rather would I be the first to say that we are now immersed in a time when polemic is a necessary part of the arsenal to defend the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacrament of Confession, the Sacrament of Marriage, and even the very nature of the Church from the Kasper-Bergoglio imbroglio! 

But charity must always be the watchword. As much as we detest the present modernistic attack, we cannot abide some author's use of the most foul language to describe the actual person of Cardinal Reinhard Marx. It is always best to stick to the issues and to see the polemical opponent/enemy of the Church as a sinner in danger of Hell. As my confessor reminds me, by the grace of God go all of us.

So much for polemics, but what of apologetics? 

Apologetics describes the use of logic, reason and debate to clear away false opinions and ideas which hinder people from seeing the reasonableness of Catholic Truth. It is a science that meets objections head-on to solidly demonstrate, with conclusive points from reason, the divine authority of the Catholic Church.  

Some great Catholic apologists include the Early Church Fathers, Blessed Cardinal J.H. Newman, Ludwig Ott, Archbishop Michael Sheehan, G.K. Chesterton, Frank Sheed and more recent writers like Dr. Scott Hahn.

I cannot overstate how important Catholic Apologetics were in clearing away the false notions which hindered the conversion of my parents and I to the One, True, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

I would suggest that, whilst there may be a time and a place for polemics, it is always the right season for apologetics.

As Protestants we subscribed to the - let us be honest, ridiculous - notion of Sola Scriptura. Catholic Apologetics helped us to learn that Sola Scriptura was itself un-scriptural! It also helped us to see that the Catholic Church and Her Tradition existed before the writing of the New Testament, was the context for that writing, and provided the Magisterial authority to interpret that writing and approve it's place in the Canon of Sacred Scripture. 

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen famously said: ''There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church - which is, of course, quite a different thing.''

Catholic Apologetics, drawing from that very quote, helped us to see that what we hated was not Catholicism, but a hideous caricature of it. In our ignorance we thought that Catholics worshipped statues as idols and worshipped Mary instead of Jesus Christ. Apologetics helped us to grasp the true meaning of images in devotion and the essential difference between honouring Our Lady and adoring God. Apologetics also helped to clear up our misunderstandings, by demonstrating that the more we love the Mother, the more we love Her Son. 

Through apologetics - often employed with a smattering of wit by an elderly priest - we saw how reasonable it was for the Church that Christ founded to continue with a traceable lineage throughout human history. Through this, we learned more of the true roots of Protestantism in England; and how the True Faith had been gradually extinguished here through the hunting of priests and those who harboured them, executions, imprisonments, heavy fines and the objective theft of Catholic cathedrals, monasteries and churches. Apologetics demonstrated that the religion of 'Good Queen Bess' was not that of St. Augustine of Canterbury, St. King Edward the Confessor, or the venerable St. Bede; nor was it that of the Apostles or the Early Fathers. 

Apologetics taught us that Catholics do not believe that Christ is slain every day, but that Holy Mass is the One, True, Sacrifice of Calvary, made present in an unbloody manner on our altars. It showed us that primitive Christianity was not akin to a contemporary house-church singing pentecostal choruses, but was the religion of the Didache, the Episcopate and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; in other words the religion of the Catholic Church handed down from the Apostles to the Pope and Bishops of our own day.  

Apologetics focuses primarily on reason, but it also has wider and often unseen implications. For example, from childhood, I had developed a squeamish fear of the phenomenon of stigmata. In addition to my flawed theological objections to the Catholic Church, this had contributed an irrational fear of any contact with Catholicism. 

The mere mention of the Catholic Church would set off a negative internal response in my emotions. Growing up, I never articulated this to myself or to other people. Still, it was a real interior barrier to my conversion. It is the kind of thing that the devil, observing our characters and responses, might possibly work out and irritate to hinder our conversion.

Apologetics helped me to understand the true nature, meaning - and rarity! - of stigmata. With my reason finding balance and right-understanding on the issue, my emotions were then able to gradually follow suit. I began to grow in self-knowledge about my internal responses to this matter and how they had subtly hindered my conversion. Jesus Christ came to save, heal and sanctify the whole human person. This includes our memory, intellect, will and our emotional life. Interestingly, I later developed a great love and devotion for the great stigmatic priest St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, who has helped me so much in my life!

Apologetics can also help the potential convert to understand how the behaviour of scandalous Catholics and also how their own personal sins might be preventing their conversion. But these are issues I would like to discuss further in the next article.

This article has demonstrated a little of the timeless quality of apologetics as an aid to conversion. Let us conclude for today with the following thought: Surely, if we really are interested in saving souls, and in Christian unity worthy of the name, it is time to give up the apologies - but never the apologetics!   

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This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.894 )