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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

How do I explain the faith to my friends?

Question:

I’d like to help some friends who are having trouble with the faith, but I’m no expert and am afraid to get in over my head. What should I do?

Answer:

Jump right in. The biggest mistake is to do nothing. You don’t need to be an expert, and you don’t need a degree in theology. Normally common sense and your personal testimony of the faith will be your best tools. If you’re asked a question you can’t answer, admit your ignorance. (The worst thing is to pretend you know the answer when you don’t.) Say you’ll have to get back to the inquirer—and then go to the library and look up the answer. At Catholic Answers we have to do this all the time, although in our case we have the library right here at our offices.

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