Dive-Bombing for Jesus
The November 1993 article on Denver was most interesting. It reminds me of the time some leaflets were dropped from a plane onto our annual church festival. The wind blew them onto the next lot and the distributors were arrested for littering. The angels were certainly with you in Denver.
Pauline Moulder
Pensacola, Florida
Iniquitous You
Please send a copy of Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth to us. My daughter and I went to World Youth Day in Denver, but somehow neither of us got a copy. It sounds like a booklet we need.
Incidentally, the only protesters we met were some who called us “daughters of iniquity” and carried signs which read “God hates daughters of iniquity.” I just ignored them, but my daughter told them, “God hates liars too!”
Debi Blakely
Minco, Oklahoma
No Longer AWOL
Thanks to your apostolate I now have a spine to confront the cults with the full Catholic gospel. The knowledge I have received from your magazine, tapes, books, and seminars has given me the drive to evangelize and to contend for the faith (Jude 3).
Most people that know me wonder if I’m a Protestant “born-again” Christian. I respond to them that I was born again two months after my birth (at my sacramental baptism), but it took me 26 years to come to a full appreciation and realization of that fact. I have called myself a “born-again Catholic” to some (as in a book by Fr. Robert Fox). I have called myself an “evangelical Catholic” to others (as in a book by Keith Fournier). Whatever I have become by God’s grace, I know I was an AWOL Catholic (once lost), but now I am a Catholic Christian (now found) in the Church of Rome. You will never imagine in your wildest dreams how many lives you are touching.
Jesus O. Romero
Lakeview Terrace, California
Whole-istic Reality
The original meaning of the Greek word Katholikos wasn’t “general” or “universal”; “Catholic” comes from the Greek words kata (“according to”) and holon (“the whole”). When Ignatius of Antioch used the term in his letter to the Church at Smyrna around the turn of the first century, he must have used it to refer to a local church that was acting “according to the whole” Church, as opposed to the heterodox he was condemning. These “catholic” churches, presumably, were the ones that stayed in communion with “the Church also which holds the presidency in the place of the country of the Romans,” as he addressed them in another letter.
Around 350 we find Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catechetical Lectures, using “catholic” in the sense of “general” or “universal” to define the whole Church, as we do today. After going over the various ways in which the Church is “universal” and “complete,” he adds, “If ever you are visiting in cities, do not inquire simply where `the House of the Lord’ is (for the others, sects of the impious, attempt to call their dens `the House of the Lord’), nor ask merely where `the Church’ is, but where is the Catholic Church. This is the name particular to this holy Church, the Mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The important thing is that you can’t be “Catholic” without being “according to the whole.”
Don Schenk
Allentown, Pennsylvania
The Real Trouble’s Inside
I am writing with a suggestion. I think now the real thrust of apologetics has to be among our fellow Catholics, unfortunately. I work frequently with Evangelical Protestants in pro-life activities and find that I have more beliefs in common with them than with other Catholics.
We recently had a wonderful visit from the missionary image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a Human Life International conference with nationally-known speakers, and both events were ignored in our diocese, from the highest levels on down. It was heart-breaking–I’m sure you’ve heard similar horror stories.
Have you ever thought of a series of leaflets like the ones you have for defending the faith against Fundamentalists, but aimed at Catholics who think we should have women priests, married clergy, accept homosexuality, ignore confession, practice Eastern meditation, get rid of the habits and collars, ad lib the liturgy, and all the rest of the destruction from within?
We have a small group here which would like to distribute material on these subjects to Catholics who seem completely oblivious to any of these dangers, but we are having a hard time finding material except in book form. Please give it some thought. Poor Mother Church is being attacked from all sides.
Christina Brundage
St. Petersburg, Florida
Jailhouse Rock
Thank you for your permission to reproduce your Tract Sampler for use in my jail visitation program at RAF Lakenheath, England. They are excellent “starters” for further dialogue with lapsed and non-Catholics. During the school year of 1992-93, our local short-term detention facility averaged about 15 prisoners who were continually coming and going due to the nature of the facility. I averaged about two men per session once a week.
One I saw for the full nine months of that year. He was an Evangelical and dug the most deeply into the content of the tracts in comparing them with his Bible. After going through many of the tracts, we spent several weeks on the origins of the Church (pre-Constantine) and what the Church Fathers had to say about it and its practices. This required additional materials supplied by me for him to study. This area of study appeared to be where the bottom line lay with him.
During this second school year (I am a teacher and tend to measure time against my occupation) the facility averaged only four or five inmates, and very few have come out to talk with me. The few who have were not of a mind to discuss the details of Scripture; they were searching for the meaning of life and where God fit into theirs. My discussions with them were more a personal witness on my part as to the beauty and love of God and how I derive strength from him in my daily affairs.
C. J. Christopher
Lakenheath, England
Outside Bad, Inside Good
I just wanted you to know I don’t appreciate your recent back covers. However, what’s in between the covers is useful, so I’ll renew for another year at least.
Ed Rackus
Westmont, Illinois
Another Freebie Renewal
I thank you very much for the magazine entitled This Rock, which I have been receiving since last year. As a matter of fact, this magazine is helping me a lot in my homilies (now as a deacon), catechetical lessons, conferences, to mention a few! So, I wish to renew my subscription for two years. Unfortunately, I don’t have U.S. dollars. This is due to my stay in a third world country. I ask you to understand my poor situation and continue to send such a precious magazine. May the good Lord bless you a hundred fold in this life and in the life to come.
Jude Lutaaya
Maputo, Mozambique
Editor’s reply: Through the generosity of Catholic Answers’ donors, we have been able to grant every such request from overseas missionaries.
No Theological Illiterate
I had kept away from the Catholic Church for more than 20 years, after being exposed, in college in the Philippines, to humanist and leftist ideas. Later, feeling spiritually empty, I tried the Campus Crusade for Christ. The emptiness remained.
After I emigrated to the U.S. years later, a “born-again Christian” (who was training me for my new job) subjected me to his Fundamentalist beliefs, particularly on the Catholic Church’s “non-biblical” doctrines.
I was scripturally illiterate at the time, so he nearly “got me.” But God had his hand on my shoulder, to push and pull when he deemed necessary. He pulled.
The push came right in my own home, in the direction of my wife’s Catholic faith. She had converted from the Philippine Independent Church when she was 17 and had clung to [her faith] tenaciously in spite of my derisive comments.
While my relationship with my wife led to my second look at our faith, it was Catholicism and Fundamentalism which put me firmly and solidly on the road back. The excellent, witty, and orthodox expositions of Catholic teachings developed my abiding interest in rebuilding my faith and learning apologetics.
I can never forget my “born-again Christian” friend’s reaction when, after he launched an attack on celibacy, using Scripture, I counter-attacked, using Scripture. Although the discussion was amicable, he has never brought up the subject again. I am now more educated in Catholic doctrines, more knowledgeable of Scripture, and more involved in the sacraments. After 20 years, on Holy Thursday last year, I went to confession. Never had I felt more at peace.
Reggie M. Romero
San Diego, California
Valley Girl Returns
Hiya! I’m back. I just received the December 1993 issue and just finished reading the letters section. I am disturbed by the letters written by Mr. Dan Ward and Mr. James Lancaster.
First, Mr. Dan Ward: He said that This Rock was childish, immature, and unprofessional in the August issue and that “intellectual apologetics can and should be carried out with sincerity, simplicity, respect, and love.”
Well, if Mr. Dan has ever been to a Catholic Answers debate, he would know that the apologists go far beyond his expectations. As for “Dragnet,” that is the section I look forward to every month; it’s hilarious–even for 17-year-old high school seniors.
Okay, Mr. James Lancaster, your turn. You call yourself a saint; however, you address [Fr. Mateo] as “sir, minister of Satan.” Why the heck would a saint call a minister of Satan “sir”? According to Webster’s dictionary, “sir” is defined as “a word of respect in addressing a man.” I am confused, Mr. James; you call us liars, ministers of Satan, Antichrist, yet you respect us?
Some of us real saints, the saints who belong to Christ’s Church, will never! never! never! stop defending (not fighting) it. Ditto for my teenage friends (we all read This Rock). You can bet on it, sir!
Well for those of you out there who want to join my friends and me at World Youth Day 1995 in the Philippines, please write to me in care of This Rock. Let’s all defend the Church against anti-Catholics like Mr. James Lancaster.
Please remember that teenagers are converting from Fundamentalism to Catholicism like crazy and are getting sucked in like ants under a vacuum cleaner! The Church could really use some more teen apologists.
Janice T.
Fountain Valley, California
Time to Straighten Up
I am responding to the practicing homosexual whose letter appeared in the November 1993 issue. By Scripture and the Church, we are called upon to love the sinner but hate the sin. There is much proof that God condemns homosexual acts, and I am talking about the New Testament alone.
Here are verses I found: Romans 1:24-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9, 18; Galatians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:5-6; 1Timothy 1:10; Ephesians 5:3, 5; Hebrews 13:4; and Revelation 21:8, 22:15.
These passages are proof enough. If practicing homosexuals do not listen to the teaching authority of the Church and the Bible, they have already chosen hell–it’s their own condemnation, not God’s. How can the letter writer claim to be a Catholic and say he has a “lover” and still receives Communion daily?
If you are actively engaged in homosexual acts then you are committing sacrilege of the Holy Eucharist without first receiving the sacrament of reconciliation–mortal sin compounded daily each time you receive Communion. Please read the Pope’s Splendor of Truth and get this whole mess straightened out.
Name withheld
Pulled to Rome by CRI
The Christian Research Institute (CRI) takes a lot of flak and is frequently criticized by Fundamentalists as being “soft on Romanism” or by Catholics as being, well, anti-Catholic.
I was born into a Methodist family, joined a Presbyterian church at ten years of age, got “saved” at age 18 at a “non-denominational Fundamentalist” church, graduated from Pepperdine University (run by the Church of Christ), and joined the Southern Baptist Apologetic Brigade in 1991. As an avid donor/follower of CRI, I subscribed to its journal, read its books, and listened regularly to the daily broadcast of the “Bible Answer Man” radio show.
Here is the paradox: It was CRI which opened the eyes and heart of a 40-year Protestant to the truths of Catholicism. CRI taught me how to defend the “essentials” of the “historic Christian faith” and to discern who was practicing orthodoxy and who was teaching error.
In the process of sifting through the heresies of the Russellites, Mormons, Hare Krishnas, Moonies, Chick Publications, and other dingbats, I found myself defending the Roman Catholic Church as one that “held firmly to all the essentials of the historic Christian faith.” To This Rock readers this may seem less than profound, but let me assure you that it is a step across a chasm of Protestant misconceptions and deception.
Although I offer no excuses for the aberrant opinions expressed by certain members of the CRI staff, my experience has been that CRI has a heart for the truth, has always encouraged the representation of divergent views within the limits of orthodoxy, and endeavors to create healthy dialogue among Catholics and Protestants alike. CRI was the first to open my eyes to this possibility; my Baptist mind had never conceived that Catholics are Christians too.
Recently I find myself associating with Catholics. I attended a Mass and have participated in other Catholic functions. What particularly attracts me to Catholic liturgy are those Protestant rituals which are missing from it: extemporaneous prayers and the exasperating practice of “giving testimony.” These practices have become obnoxious to me.
I have touched on a few resources that struck me on my personal road to Damascus. They ultimately will lead me (I hope) to a conversion to Catholicism.
Steven McCoy
Crescent City, California
Shunned but Nearly Home
I feel compelled to write because I was recently handed the March 1993 issue of This Rock. In it were several references to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Until April 8, 1993 I was a JW. I was raised as one and for most of my life was very actively involved.
I have three children who are still being raised as Witnesses by my husband, an ex-Catholic, now a JW. My decision to come to the Catholic faith has been a costly one.
It has meant being shunned, having my relationships with all of my friends, my mother, my grandmother, and many of my relatives just end. My children are taught that one who continues on my course (I’m considered an apostate) is destined for eternal destruction from God from the moment I left, being cut off from a relationship with him.
Despite this, there have been many blessings in my life. I now have a deeper love for God the Father. But I also have a personal relationship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and Mary. It has also been a great joy to have been led to many ex-JW’s, most of whom are convinced they cannot even be heard by God in prayer unless they go back to the Witnesses. The purpose of these “accidental” meetings seems clear: They needed to know God cares about them and wants them to worship him.
I’d like to share one of these experiences with you. It happened this summer while I was visiting my in-laws in Arizona. A neighbor of theirs, a JW, told them she wanted to speak to me (something forbidden). We spoke for four hours that day and twelve the next.
The following morning she called and said she’d phoned her mother in Massachusetts (her mother is a devout Catholic) and told her she’d decided to leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses and go back to the Catholic Church. She has since done so and together with her husband and two sons is now unitedly worshiping in the true faith.
I have been going to a Catholic charismatic prayer group since getting baptized in the Holy Spirit on Holy Thursday, 1993 and am enrolled in the RCIA program. I am looking forward to being officially admitted into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil this year.
Bonnie Mastropiero
Bristol, Connecticut