Catholicity

It Is Time For A New Apologetics June 11, 2007      "Apologetics? What's that?"     Now, there's an unfamiliar term, "apologetics." People often wonder what it means,  so let me help with that.      In short, 'apologetics' is both a concept, and a process, whereby one defends the Catholic Faith. It can be applied to any defense of Christianity, but it has developed specifically from within the Church, and that is how I am using it.      It stems from a Greek word that means to DEFEND and promote - not to make apologies in our modern sense. So when I use the term here, it is to develop a defense FOR the Catholic Faith, not to make excuses for it.      Apologetics generally takes one of two forms: 1. It  offers convincing arguments to show the truth of various doctrinal propositions 2. It  offers persuasive demonstrations that the Catholic Christian faith is the best way to fulfill  legitimate human aspirations.      Both approaches have been around si

“Whosoever has tears and compunction of heart let him now weep with me. … Who is there so stony of heart who will not from this time forward, weep at the thought of that hour?” - St. Ephraim The Syrian      The "hour" of which the great Doctor of the Church, St. Ephrem the Syrian , was speaking is the day of the final judgment..., when life as we know it shall cease. And, among other relationships that will come to an end at that hour is that of our children.      But there is a potential problem with that, embodied this way in his sermon: “children [shall] be separated from their parents...”      Separated? Why?      Because of choices made by either parent or child - or both - in this life.        His sermon, ominously entitled “On the Various Places of Torment and on the Judgment,” is sobering. But it is REALLY sobering if our children have fallen from their Faith..., and OUR OWN sins of omission or commission, i.e., "what we have done, or failed to do,"

  "The history of religion shows it has ruined humanity and is a failure." Actually you have it backwards - the history of IRRELIGION has brought us to our miserable state. We shall consider briefly the main outlines of Christian civilization. - During the first 300 years, Christianity met, fought, and conquered the paganism of the Roman Empire. - Then it set to work to Christianize Europe. It was both supernatural and spiritual in those days. It taught the authority of a God beyond this world, and persuaded rulers and subjects alike to acknowledge His laws. There was but one Faith in Europe - the Catholic Faith. This was what Christ, Himself, instituted and set in motion. To be clear, Europe was not free from troubles. Men are always self-centered, and so the world will never be free of trouble. But those are the troubles of the world of men, not of God. But at least there was a recognized, international law; and the mechanism was there to further its observance. The Cath