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L e t t e r s
FAMILY TIES
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Catholic Answers has been incredibly helpful in answering some basic (and even home more detailed) questions of mine about a faith that, for fifteen years, was presented to me solely as one mired in superstition and from which I, as a "real" Christian (Southern Baptist, born and raised, to be exact), had an obligation to free people. Because of this obligation that I felt, I decided to read up on Catholicism to convince my Catholic friends of the incorrectness of their learned doctrines. Instead I myself have been slowly converted over the last year or two. If I didn’t think that my parents would be completely mortified by my converting, I would start attending RCIA right now and plan on entering the Church this Easter. However, they (especially my mother) are firmly-rooted Baptists and fairly anti-Catholic.
In short, I am planning on forestalling any conversion until I am in college (next year). I would also like to be able to go to my First Communion with my parents sitting in the pews behind me, with at least an understanding of why I’d want to "throw away my faith that I grew up with." If you could include some ways of bringing up the subject gently and how to provide some basic information to family members that would get them interested in Catholicism and give them an open mind to pursue this interest, it would be very helpful to me and probably many other Protestants who’d love to convert, but are afraid about hurting family. I do acknowledge that whenever, however I convert, it’s going to hurt my parents and other relatives, but I think that I should be able to give them an explanation that will help them see that not only am I continuing to be a Christian, but that I am coming into the fullness of the faith they directed me toward as a child.
Thank you for all you do to help your own, already-Catholic apologists, and those of us who are Catholic apologists, but not yet Catholics.
Amanda Owens
Via the Internet
Editor’s reply:
You might want to take a look at the Catholic Convert’s Connection, a Web page hosted by Jason Brewer, a young convert from the Southern Baptist faith: www.cin.org/users/jbrewer/convert.html. Also contact Marcus Grodi at the Coming Home Network, P.O. Box 4100, Steubenville, OH 43952. His organization helps converts over the hurdles.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
We can hardly wait until the latest issue arrives. I usually read every article in two days or less. You have made a difference in our lives. We have given gift subscriptions to ten people since we began our subscription—most of them religious, priests, and deacons. One priest, who was ordained late in life, joined a Bible study held weekly in a local couple’s home. He began reading your magazine and confessed that he was taught by a well-known Jesuit seminary that hell did not exist. He was admittedly very liberal when he graduated, but your magazine gave him real excitement and joy as he found out the truth. I have had him tape record his story and I hope to type it out, have him edit it, and send it to you for publication if it meets your approval. We have made a sticker that we put on your magazine that contains twenty-three names. This Rock is systematically read by all these people before it returns to us.
Donald and Sarah Gnaedinger
Rock Falls, Illinois
Editor’s reply:
Thanks for your generosity and cleverness. Now, if each copy were read by twenty-three people, that would tally to . .
ANTI-CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS
Have you heard of a site called www.infidels.org? I happened to stumble upon it today and what I saw was very disturbing. Namely, they are the anti-Christian apologists, distributing books and excerpts that purport to answer the strongest historical claims raised by Christians. I just read an article that bit by bit responded to the claims made by Josh McDowell in Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Another book attempts to refute the prophecies in the Old Testament regarding Jesus and ancient cities like Tyre and tries to show that in fact these prophecies were wrong! Furthermore, the style of their prose is clearheaded (at least on the surface) and extensively footnoted. These guys are riding high right now—apparently they challenged Josh to a debate or at least to defend his claims, but he didn’t respond. Please direct more of your tracts and books in the future to answering people like these—surely they are even more dangerous than Fundamentalists, with whom we at least share a belief in Christ. I would be interested to know your thoughts on the matter, or if you know of any existing websites or sources that respond to these self-styled "infidels."
(I say this especially because I am currently conducting a discussion group on Christian apologetics, and one of my main sources is Josh McDowell. If he is known to be unreliable even among fellow Christians, I may want to draw from other sources instead.)
John Fitzgerald
Weymouth, Massachusetts
Editor’s reply:
McDowell makes some good points but isn’t nearly rigorous enough, thus allowing non-believers to make the Christian position seem weak. I suggest you turn instead to the Handbook of Christian Apologetics, by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, S.J. It’s more useful than Evidence That Demands a Verdict (a fair part of which is simply wrong, from a Catholic point of view).
NO DOMINICAN SCHISM
Please allow me this opportunity to commend you for the good and necessary work Catholic Answers is doing in the much-neglected field of Catholic apologetics and evangelization. Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth is having a significant impact on our local community. I believe several have entered our RCIA program because of what they read in that summary of the Catholic faith.
Our rectory also subscribes to This Rock. Again, you are doing a fine job with your monthly publication. In the interest of helping you to achieve even greater excellence, I’d like to point out a few pieces of inaccurate information in two recent articles.
First, there is a misleading point in Julie Ferraro’s article in the June 1997 issue entitled "The New Vows: Chastity, Poverty, and Disobedience." The second column on page 20 reads: "Many offshoots of the original Franciscan, Dominican, and Benedictine orders came about because of the disagreements involving interpretation of the respective rule or constitution." I am not an expert in Church history, nor even of my own order’s history, but as far as I am aware the Order of Preachers (and by this, I mean primarily the friars), has never had an official "offshoot." Franciscans and Benedictines have indeed seen officially sanctioned reform movements which have broken away from their original groups. This has never occurred among the friars of the Dominican Order. Some friars may have broken away through the centuries, but the popes have never authorized an independent reform branch of the Dominicans as they have for the other two orders in question. The division in the Order of Preachers during the Great Western Schism does not count, since the universal Church itself was in complete disarray until the issue of the authentic successor to the See of Peter was resolved. Perhaps one could say that the order was in schism with itself during this time. Nevertheless, there was not an officially recognized break with the order. Religious sisters who look to Dominic as their patron (ones who were traditionally designated as "third order") have certainly had many offshoots. These offshoots were usually "daughter" foundations under a particular bishop in a diocese rather than splinter groups who wished to obtain universal recognition as a reform movement of the original Dominican charism. The Capuchins and Trappists, for instance, were two such splinter groups that eventually obtained official and universal status as reform movements in their respective orders.
Second, there is the incorrect teaching of Kevin Brock quoted in Leslie Ryland’s article Keeping the Troops in Line in the July/August 1997 issue. Brock is quoted as saying that "Our faith teaches us that there are two types of virtues, the moral virtues and the cardinal virtues—the moral being faith, hope, and charity; the cardinal being justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude." Actually, in the Catholic theological tradition of moral theology, the moral virtues and the cardinal virtues are one and the same. Justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude are simply the four most outstanding of the moral virtues. They are the "hinge" virtues from which all the other moral virtues derive. Faith, hope, and love, on the other hand, are called theological virtues because they put us in touch with God directly. Faith, hope, and love have God as their immediate object, whereas the cardinal virtues (and therefore all the rest of the moral virtues) have as their immediate object some other good necessary for human flourishing.
Moral theology further distinguishes between the infused virtues and the acquired virtues. The infused virtues refer to those which are directly given to us by the grace of God, without whom such virtues are altogether unattainable. Without these infused virtues, human beings can still perform good actions but nothing which is "unto salvation." The acquired virtues, on the other hand, are the sorts of virtues achievable by humans without the specific aid of sanctifying grace. Here is located the virtues of the pagan. Such virtue, however, springs from human resources alone; and while the possessor of such virtue can do good, he cannot do any good which is "unto salvation."
I hope these reflections will spur you on to even greater excellence in your fine magazine.
William P. Garrott, O.P.
Zanesville, Ohio
Editor’s reply:
Thanks for the clarification in the first matter and for catching the copyediting error in the second. We were just checking to see if you were paying attention. Dominicans usually do!
CHEATING CHILDREN
The best-kept secret in the Church is that, in many places, we are cheating our children. Only the courageous Christ, bold, daring, and strong, appeals to the young. But a recent bishops’ report said that many of our religion textbooks are giving the young a weak Christ. No one is going to follow a weakling, least of all teens. Unfortunately, many parishes are too busy moving around statues to know of these tragic events. But how can a youth grow up well in our near-pagan society without Jesus but with drugs, violence, booze, and fast driving, an almost insanity about sex, crimes, teen suicides going up over 300 percent since the ’50s, drive-by shootings?
Rev. Rawley Myers
Colorado Springs, Colorado
"LITTLE EMILIO"
I am a twenty-three-year-old Catholic who works as a physician in a general hospital of our city. I am working in the department of deliveries (i.e., gynecology and obstetrics) and yesterday had a shocking experience.
I was giving primary care to a woman that had just delivered her baby when a workmate came and told me, "Someone has aborted and the fetus is in that room, come and see!" And the spectacle left me completely paralyzed. I saw a urinal in the floor, and inside there was a fetus floating in a mixture of blood and water. He was seven months old, and his body was completely formed. His mother discovered due to sonography that the baby had hydrocephalia and decided to make use of her "rights" and abort.
I remained there, thinking, and imploring mercy for our sins—but suddenly had another shock. The baby boy moved his arms and then his head . . . he was still alive! The other doctors left us alone, and I started to think rapidly, before they took him to the crematory. I thought that I should baptize him, because he was not dead. I went to the sink, took some water, and prayed God that the doctors remained in their seats. I made the sign of the cross, implored God to bless the water, and poured it three times over the boy’s head. I supposed I had to name him and was so nervous that only my own name came to my mind. I said, "Emilio, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." After that, peace returned to my soul, and I stayed praying with him. Slowly he stopped moving (perhaps he had a terrible agony!), and I guess he died.
I now believe that "Little Emilio" is in heaven with God and a good intercessor for me, a sort of guardian angel. I encourage all those who read this to pray for the end of abortions . . . I had never prayed for it, and now I’m going to do it. Please forgive my lack of English words.
Emilio Alvarez, M.D.
Holguin, Cuba
ONE OF THE RARE FEW
I can’t tell you how good it is to hear from an organization that is actually faithful to the magisterium. Unfortunately, I think you hit the nail on the head when you wrote in your letter "You are one of the rare few who cares deeply about defending the faith and saving souls." It seems like every attempt I try to make to defend the true teachings of the faith, either on my own or through our parish, is shot down. I have been feeling very alone in my faithfulness lately. Sometimes I wonder if my efforts are making any difference. I am forever writing letters to political officials, bishops, the Disney company, television stations, sponsors of anti-Catholic shows like Nothing Sacred, etc. It is so hard to continue to speak out when you don’t feel like it is getting you anywhere. That is why I was so glad to hear from you when I did. Just when I was feeling like giving up. I feel a little more like I can make a difference when I am not alone.
Connie Adamski
Rothschild, Wisconsin
Editor’s reply:
: No, you aren’t alone. There are thousands of Catholics just like you. Keep plugging away—you’re making a difference, even if you don’t perceive directly any change. We see the changes as we travel around the country.
HELP FOR SEMINARIANS
Our library at Mt. Angel Seminary in Mt. Angel, Oregon, doesn't carry your magazine. I've asked, but their budget is maxed out. We seminarians would read your magazine, and I think the guys who find it helpful would pass on the information to their future flocks. We can be great word of mouth.
I think it would be smart to send the magazine to every Catholic seminary in the U.S. in order to help shape the hearts and minds of our future clergy. Could donors supprt this cause?
Billy Kosco
Diocese of Phoenix
Editor’s reply:
Yours is an excellent idea. If only a few of This Rock's reader's donate subscriptions, all seminarians in the country can benefit from the magazine's orthodox perspective. Readers, just send us $29.95 and the name of your local seminary. While you're at it, consider giving other Catholic Answers materials, too - especially James Akin's new book, Mass Confusion: The Do's and Don'ts of Catholic Liturgy.
NOT DEFROCKED
Did you really read all of The Keys of This Blood and Windswept House? Fr. [Martin] was dispensed from his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to his Jesuit superiors when he left the order. He was not defrocked or suspended from the priesthood. He is still a priest in good standing, although be may not be incardinated in any particular diocese. You are slandering him by erroneously saying, "he has had no priestly faculties since then" ("Dragnet," July/August 1997). Please publish a retraction of this lie
Jane Collard
Alpine, California
Terrye Newkirk reply:
As mentioned in the "Dragnet" squib, our information about Martin’s priestly faculties came from a letter from the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life—the Vatican office that oversees religious. We merely cited that letter. If you or anyone has documented proof of Martin’s present priestly good standing, we will be happy to publish it. The stories as to why he retains faculties range from the assertion that Pope Paul VI gave him "special status," to the claim that he is "secretly" incardinated in an African diocese, to the contention that Martin was surreptitiously ordained a bishop by Pope John Paul II. Martin’s confusing accounts of his status as a priest do not make everything he says wrong—but they ought to alert us to be cautious in accepting all he says at face value.
PRODIGAL ROCKS
Thank you for sending me the May and June issues of This Rock in response to my fax. I received them this morning. However, I have to say that the original May copy arrived a few days after I sent the fax and the June copy about a week ago. I’ll pass on the duplicates to our friend in Bombay, India, who uses your magazine to combat the Evangelicals in that part of the world. Incidentally, I am delighted to see that Joanna Bogle is now contributing to the magazine. She is a great apologist and a prolific writer in the Catholic Press in the United Kingdom.
Geoffrey Smith
Manchester, England
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