By Bob Sullivan
As Catholics, we live in a day and age in which nearly everywhere we turn, we face criticisms, challenges, and sometimes outright persecution. It may come from an atheist or agnostic acquaintance or coworker. It may come from an activist employer or a woke company with whom we have to do business. It may come from a relative who belongs to a “Bible Church” and who feels that he needs to “save” you from the Catholic Church.
It may come from a government regulator or official who believes that the FBI memo targeting Catholics was justified. It may come from your own spouse, child, or parent, who sees the Catholic faith as outdated, too rule-oriented, or maybe even prejudiced. It might even come from a fellow Catholic who either looks down on you because you are not changing with the modern Church, or maybe just the opposite; you are deceived because you recognize Pope Francis as the legitimately elected pope.
As you can see, the faithful Catholic has many critics these days, and I left out about 245,000 other examples. Many Catholics are confronted by many different critics. Who has the time and energy to stand up to all of this?
Well, there is a way, and it has little to do with convincing others that the Catholic faith is the pillar of truth. All of the critics, whether they know it or not, are strands in a web of lies. The web is woven by Satan in an effort to discourage, accuse, confuse, and isolate you. Yet, just like any spider, Satan will retreat and scurry away as soon as the integrity of his web is compromised. You don’t have to fight the spider, just tear through a little part of his web, and he scurries back into his hole.
Think about the challenges to your faith. It may be a direct challenge, like I described, or it may be a subtle challenge, such as a doubt placed in your mind long ago, or a temptation which continues to nag at you and causes you to fall into sin over and over again. You could make a direct attack on the source, which in my analogy is the spider, but like any spider worth his weight in salt, these challengers can be lightning quick, and they might just bite back.
The better way is often to tear down some or all of the web. This is where being Catholic in this day and age is a true blessing. This is because we live in a time in which there is an abundance of wealth in Catholic resources for such a task, and most of them are free. Additionally, you don’t have to become an apologist or a theologian because usually the only person you need to convince is yourself.
The internet is a great way to start. However, you have to be careful, because there are some deceptive websites which are also created and run by very deceptive people as part of the web of lies. Therefore, stick to the reliable sites such as www.lincolndiocese.org/evangelization, spiritcatholicradio.com, www.ewtn.com, www.catholic.com, stpaulcenter.com, www.augustineinstitute.org, www.askacatholic.com, ascensionpress.com, and catholicconvert.com.
You should also stick with the most reliable people. This includes the other faithful Catholics you speak with every day, such as your Catholic family members and friends, and certainly your pastor and other priests in the Lincoln Diocese. However, this also includes the saints and the great Catholic thinkers, both past and present.
Some people who are still publishing, giving talks, and producing new materials are Scott Hahn, Peter Kreeft, Ralph Martin, Jimmy Akin, Tim Gray, John Bergsma, Brant Pitri, Ted Sri, Cardinal Sarah, Fr. Timothy Gallagher, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Jeff Cavins, Matthew Kelly, Sr. Ruth Burrows, Fr. Jaques Philippe, and Chris Stefanick. Some great names from the past are Pope Benedict XVI, St. John Paul II, Frank Sheed, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, St. Louis de Montfort, Thomas à Kempis, St. Francis de Sales, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and St. Augustine.
That is an enormous amount of resources. However, I left out about 10,000 excellent books, hundreds of encyclicals and apostolic letters, 50 Bible studies, dozens of bishops, hundreds if not thousands of priests and religious sisters, six theologians, 75 apologists and evangelists, dozens of websites, and an unknown but significant number of podcasts and blogs.
This truly is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to available resources. Treat yourself to a little shopping excursion to a Catholic bookstore near you, like Gloria Deo in Lincoln or Omaha, or online at the websites listed above or at Dynamic Catholic, avemariaradio.net/product-category/books, ignatius.com, or bookstore.wordonfire.org.
In turning to some of these resources, you can pick the book, video, podcast, or other resource which addresses some part of the web of lies you are dealing with in your life. Once you absorb that resource, you can speak with other faithful Catholics in your parish, in your family, or in your group of friends. In doing so, you never even have to confront the critic. Your deepened confidence (faith in Christ) will do all the work for you. If the critic or the temptation tries to return, it will find that part of the web is torn down, and in its place is something very foreign and frightening to them. This is known as the truth.
As I mentioned earlier, there are some websites, resources and individuals you should avoid. In my next column, I’ll give you a list and some tips and hints on how to recognize a misleading and/or dishonest resource. Until then, look up some of these resources, keep your radio tuned to Spirit Catholic Radio, and accept the graces of the sacraments.
