Last week I was invited to attend what was termed an “apologists’ barbecue.” My first thought was, “Who’s being roasted?” Then I realized the inviter meant a barbecue for apologists and their families. I had to decline, already having signed up to man the soaring club’s table at the annual airshow given at nearby Miramar Naval Air Station. But I liked the idea: Southern California apologists getting together to swap stories and, where necessary, mend fences. (Yes, sometimes, like clumsy dancers, we step on one another’s toes and need to acknowledge that we aren’t the religious analogues of Fred Astaire.)
Looking back about a decade, when Catholic Answers was transformed for me from a weekends-and-evenings avocation into a full-time vocation, I marvel at the growth of the apologetics movement. I like to think Catholic Answers has played a key role in making apologetics, well, respectable again. (I can remember when the word couldn’t be uttered in polite company.) Now, it seems, everyone wants in on the act, and that’s good. Within the last year there has been a marked rise in the number of groups trying to disseminate the faith—first to Catholics themselves, most of whom are uncatechized, then to other Christians, most of whom misunderstand the Catholic faith, and then to others, most of whom don’t care a whit about things supernatural.
As savvy readers know, while there are sixty million Catholics in the U.S., few of them can be reached through direct-mail appeals because few of them subscribe to any Catholic periodicals. I’d say that the “reachable universe” is about a million names. That leaves 59 million Catholics whose names we can’t get directly. How to reach them? One way is through radio. As our feature stories last month noted, Catholic radio is booming. There isn’t just WEWN, Mother Angelica’s international shortwave and AM–FM network—there’s also a growing contingent of independent Catholic stations. At Catholic Answers our expertise isn’t in operating the hardware of a station, let alone a network; our expertise is in the ideas that travel along the airwaves, so . . .
Here’s an early announcement: Beginning January 5, 1998, Catholic Answers will produce a one-hour call-in radio program. The title hasn’t been selected yet (maybe “The Catholic Answers Show”?), but we already have a commitment from WEWN. Our program will air weekdays during the afternoon “drive time” slot, starting at 6:00 P.M. Eastern, 3:00 P.M. Pacific time. It will be aired simultaneously on most of the independent Catholic stations.
We already have hired the host of the program, Jerry Usher, who joins our staff in September. (You’ll find an article by him in last month’s issue.) Programs will feature Jerry and one of our apologists, plus guests. So, on any particular day Jerry and I, say, might be visiting with author Peter Kreeft or Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz or Humanae Vitae expert Janet Smith, and about half the program will be devoted to live phone calls from our listeners. Stay tuned.