Skip to main contentAccessibility feedback

A Bishop with an Attitude

Bishop Colin Campbell of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, wrote a column titled “Do You Remember Apologetics?” for his diocesan newspaper. “Very few Catholics under age 30 have a clue about this word,” he said. But now “there is a new interest and a new drive given to an old topic.” 

Bishop Campbell noted that “when I was in university, we had to take four religion or theology courses. The first of the four was called apologetics. In it, we did not apologize to anyone. Rather, we learned something about the defense of our faith and Church.” 

Among the proofs for the divinity of the Church was its history, “one of the best proofs. So many people for so many centuries have messed up the Church, and yet it prospers. That should surely tell us something about Divine protection.” 

So how did Bishop Campbell profit from the course in apologetics? “If the course left anything with me, it was an attitude. We should not be timid about the faith. If we are serious about the decade of evangelization, we should be serious about defending the faith against constant attack. 

“These attacks are against the institution of the Church. They are also against faith in all of its manifestations. We need to have the guts to challenge those who attack us. However, we also need to have the wisdom to see when we are being attacked.” 

The column ends with an encomium we especially appreciate: 

“I want to bring to your attention a group in the United States. It is called Catholic Answers. Its whole mission is to do just that. It answers all the objections and put downs of the faith and the Church. 

“One of the group’s great ministries is to lapsed Catholics who have left the Church because they could not understand or defend their faith. They have put on outstanding seminars that have drawn packed houses. They have standing invitations to debate any person or group that attacks the Church. I think they are wonderful, for they give us a sense of pride again.” 

Thanks, Bishop Campbell. 


 

Steve Durkee is studying for the priesthood at St. Charles Borromeo seminary in Philadelphia. On the side he markets prolife polo shirts featuring an embroidered rose. When you order a shirt (through JMJ Life Center, 603 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803) you get a free copy of Humanae Vitae or Casti Connubii, either of which, if taken to heart nationally, would eliminate the market for the shirt. 


 

Boris Yeltsin isn’t a believer, but he’s okayed a Mass from Fatima on Russian television. It’s something of a quid pro quo. When he was holed up in the Russian parliament building, fending off the coup, he made an appeal over a Catholic radio station which had escaped control by the plotters. Who’d have thunk it–the most powerful man in the Soviet Union (or whatever it’s now called) indirectly promoting the Fatima message, which, of course, has something to say about the country of which he is now president. 


 

The Plains Baptist Challenger, published monthly by Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas, bills itself as “fundamental, premillennial, missionary, independent.” 

It advertises books such as William Cathcart’s The Papal System (“clearly demolishes the Papal system of religion . . . can be used to refute the many false doctrines of Catholicism”), Wendell Holmes Rone’s The Baptist Faith and Roman Catholicism (“much needed in an ecumenical age when many are striving to ignore the heresies of Rome”), and Peter Allix’s The Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont and of the Albigenses (“a comprehensive history of the Waldenses and Albigenses from apostolic times to the seventeenth century”). 

The last book is recommended “in an age when many people think that the Baptists came out of the Roman Catholic Church via the Reformation,” which, of course, is true, but E. L. Bynum, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church, doesn’t know that. 

Apparently he really believes the Waldenses and Albigenses were descended from the first Christians and were essentially Baptists. Perhaps he would like to explain in a book of his own how he accommodates the peculiar beliefs of, say, the Albigenses with his brand of Christianity. 

Does he, like they, believe all matter is evil, that matrimony is evil, that fornication is no sin (since what we do with our bodies–mere matter–is immaterial [no pun intended]), that “assisted suicide” (even when the victim is unwilling) is a positive good? The Albigenses believed all those things, because they were Manichees, not Christians, which is why the Catholic Church opposed them. 

Bynum sides with the Albigenses not because he knows anything about them, but on the principle that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” We need to understand the motivating force here–antipathy to Catholicism–so we won’t waste time speaking around the real issue. To deal effectively with folks like Bynum, you have to bypass the fluff and get right to the key issue. 


 

If you can, make use of the system. Radio stations are licensed to use particular frequencies on the airwaves. Periodically the licenses come up for review. If the station is found not to be operating in the public interest, its license may be granted to another outfit. 

That’s what St. Joseph Catholic Radio of Orange County, California hopes will happen. It has applied to the Federal Communications Commission to take over the license to station KLON (FM 88.5), which now broadcasts jazz from California State University at Long Beach. A hearing is set for January 10. 

The challenger says it will air “educational and religious programming.” It does so now, one hour weekly, over station KGER (AM 1390). Frequently its call-in program features staffers from Catholic Answers. 

If you would like to see St. Joseph Catholic Radio’s application succeed (if successful, this would indirectly help Catholic Answers expands its work on radio), please send a short note of support to the Federal Communications Commission, 1919 M Street N.W. Room 230, Washington, DC 20554. 


 

Less than a year to go–again. “October 28, 1992 Jesus is coming in the air.” So says a flyer from Mission for the Coming Days, which lists for itself six phone numbers, three in New York State, one in Los Angeles, and two in Seoul, South Korea, from which we conclude Mission for the Coming Days is one of those rapidly- growing Protestant sects from Korea. (The largest single church in the world, by way of weekly attendance at one facility, is in South Korea.) 

Like many other groups destined to do much damage before losing members through failed prophecies, Mission for the Coming Days says the seven years of tribulation (like the rapture, not a Catholic doctrine) will begin in 1993 with World War III. 

(An aside: During the tribulation there supposedly will be no rain anywhere in the world. Good-bye rain forests?) 

In 1999 will come Armageddon, with “big earthquake, explosion of volcanoes, big famine, various plagues, hail, and big disasters from heaven . . . human history will end in 1999.” At the midpoint of the tribulation the Antichrist will force everyone to bear his mark, which is the number 666. The flyer illustrates the mark: a tattoo in the form of a bar code on the forehead. (The Antichrist will use modern methods.) 


 

Seminarian Immanuel Tabi Mensah sent us a note from Ghana, where he’s serving his pastoral year under the cathedral parish in Kumasi. He’s having trouble organizing neighboring areas into parishes because of constant proselytizing by sectarians. 

“Our efforts seem to be thwarted by some sects like the Seventh-day Adventists, the Seventh-day Pentecostal Church, and the reviving Jehovah’s Witnesses. These sects not only mount public gatherings to attack the Catholic Church and each other, but even make house-to- house visitations to convince our people to join them. It is not a healthy spectacle.” 

He asks for books and tapes. We’ve sent him a selection, and perhaps you can do the same, especially if you have items you’ve read or listened to and probably won’t read or listen to again. 

You may write to Rev. Mr. Mensah in care of Rev. Cosmos Osei Amponsah, St. Peter’s Cathedral Parish, P.O. Box 99, Kumasi, Ghana. 


 

She used to be known as “the most hated woman in America,” and she loved it. But Madalyn Murray O’Hair is no longer at the top of anyone’s enemies list. Perhaps you hadn’t heard about her for some years and might have thought she was dead, much as you thought her brand of militant atheism was dead. 

Well, it’s not and neither is she, but neither seems especially robust. The militant atheist movement has seen better days (even Albania is no longer dedicated to strict atheism), and O’Hair, now 72, gets around with the help of a cane. 

Still, she and her family empire are worth noting because the principles which underlie her kind of atheism are accepted tacitly by millions, some of whom may vaguely consider themselves religious, but all of whom act as if God doesn’t exist. 

The flagship of O’Hair’s group, American Atheists, is called, appropriately enough, American Atheist magazine. The monthly “publishes a variety of Atheist, agnostic, and freethought material. All Christian quotations are from the King James Version, unless otherwise noted. This magazine is printed on recycled paper.” 

O’Hair’s organization distributes several tracts. One is called An Invitation to the Intellectual Elite. It promotes atheism through snob appeal. The cover lists seven distinguishing attitudes of the atheist:” 

(1) God is a myth. Humankind’s future is in its own hands.” 

(2) Prayers are what you say to yourself. Success in life depends on human effort.” 

(3) Humans are a part of nature and developed in it. What purpose there is in life, humans make.” 

(4) When you die, your life is over forever. Only your ideas can survive.” 

(5) The church and the clergy are in business for themselves. They have no more special knowledge about life than the average person.” 

(6) Humankind is responsible for what it does. There are no sins; crimes cannot be forgiven by religious rites, holy water, or doing penance.” 

(7) The time to live is now, the place to live is here, and the way to be happy is to make yourself and others happy.” (The last statement seems a little circular: If you want to be happy, be happy.) 

Another brochure, American Atheists–An Introduction, explains that atheists are “positive,” “eclectic,” “inner-directed” [which makes sense, since they don’t think there is an Other to be directed toward], “independent,” “concerned with the preservation of freedom,” and “happy.” (Be wary of people who constantly tell you how happy they are.) 

If you want to learn the latest news in the world of atheism, you can call the dial-an-atheist lines associated with, or at least approved by, American Atheists. 

We tried the one in San Diego. The message was cryptic. “Thank you for calling the Atheist Hotline. Well, the debate was a farce, as these things usually are. The religious believer . . . couldn’t even define what he meant by the word god.” The message didn’t say when the debate took place, what the topic was, or who the participants were, but clearly the bad guy lost. The voice on the telephone said the message was sponsored by the local Atheist Coalition. 

American Atheists distribute a flyer listing 27 regular dial-an- atheists numbers, including the one at the group’s Austin, Texas headquarters (called Dial-The– Atheist, (512) 458-5731), plus three dial-a-gay-atheist numbers (Buffalo Grove, Illinois; New York City; and Houston). 

National headquarters of the American Gay/Lesbian Atheists, a separate but cooperating organization, is in Houston. Texas seems to have a real concentration of atheists. 

Not surprisingly, these atheists don’t like the Catholic Church. 

For one thing, its holdings “exceed the total assets of the five largest American corporations (General Motors, Exxon, Ford, Mobil, and Texaco),” which, we hope, is true, since the Church ministers to 900 million people worldwide and needs church buildings, schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages, and even chancery buildings to do so. 

Another problem is that the Church is, you know, obscurantist–it’s opposed to sexual license, openmindedness, sexual license, freedom of thought, sexual license, independence, sexual license, and different things like that.

Did you like this content? Please help keep us ad-free
Enjoying this content?  Please support our mission!Donatewww.catholic.com/support-us