One more time for a Pastor Billy question, Catholics how do you?

Question

Catholics how do you defend the faith from those who would attack it?

I've received emails from yahoo readers who ask, "how do I do it?"

please list any suggestions and quality Catholic websites that you regularly use.

I encourage everyone posting to report any anti-Catholic posters to this question leaving hate literature sites and or misinformation on what Catholicism teaches. Thank you

Answer 1

the sites i use most frequently
http://www.catholiceducation.org/index.html
http://www.scripturecatholic.com/
http://www.salvationhistory.com/
http://www.askmeaboutgod.org/
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
http://www.fisheaters.com/
http://www.ewtn.com/
http://www.vatican.va/
http://www.knxt.tv/
http://www.americancatholic.org/
http://www.catholic.com/
http://www.newadvent.org/

a catechism
http://www.newadvent.org/utility/search.htm?safe=active&cx=000299817191393086628%3Aifmbhlr-8x0&q=catechism&cof=FORID%3A9#898

scriptures.

http://www.littlerockscripture.org/en/Default.htm
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkjfR7D9HCKYAj1RXNyoA?p=little+rock+study+&fr=ybr_sbc&ei=UTF-8


ANTI CATHOLIC

people i have noticed from memory are
c.j
edge
realchurchhistorian
pastorart

anti catholic literature, the chick tracts the most famous but there are so many, i usually ignore them.

the key for me is to become familiar with my catholic faith, if i feel something is against my faith whether i am sure or not i turn to catholic sources to clarify the catholic teaching regarding the matter. secular history can be used as salvation history and secular history proves that catholicism is the ONE TRUE HOLY CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH.

thank you for this question and your efforts,may they be fruitfull and god bless.

Answer 2

BornAgainCatholic is right. I have been guilty of doing that, and funny thing is, I never was like that until Y!A opened up my eyes to the ways in which the Catholic church is misunderstood. I try my hardest to not see questions as attacks, but rather, as opportunity to spread Christ's love. It is not always easy, esp with some of the things I read on here. Anyway, these are some of the resources I look to:

- I highly recommend listening to The Conversion of Scott Hahn--he gives a lot of insight, information, and talks about 3 books at the end, which I plan on buying, one of which is called "Radio Replies" which is supposed to be amazing as far as defending the Catholic church in a simplistic way.

-I go to the Catholic Answers website a lot.

-Sometimes I use, "Ask a Franciscan" and I ask questions

-For questions regarding moral issues such as fornication, abortion, contraception, www.pureloveclub.com breaks it down pretty nicely

-CD's from the Mary Foundation have also helped, such as The Mass Explained and Confession by Father Larry Richards, as well as others such as The Truth About Mary and Marriage and the Eucharist by Christopher West

-Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Bible

-Catholic radio/EWTN

These have all helped me understand my faith better so that I may defend it properly and with love.

God Bless!

......................howcome I got a thumbs down =( ??

Answer 3

Pastor Billy, I like ImACatholic2's answer: "The Catholic Church is defended by God."

How can I add anything, except to say: A century ago, none of us was here to "defend the Church." Yet God defended her through His instruments - brilliant apologists then alive, doing the writing, teaching, preaching as the Lord inspired - Father Faber, Cardinal Newman, so many others.

And a century from now, none of us will be here to "defend the Church." Instead, God will have raised up others to take on this task.

God gives us the privilege of an opportunity to speak lovingly about Jesus to our brothers and sisters - with gentleness and with respect. My hope is that I will use that privilege wisely, and with humility.

". . . I try not to argue or debate. I am not really qualified for such activities," ImaCatholic2 wrote. . . Smart person! Does anybody ever win anyone else over by arguing or by debating over the Internet? From what I've seen, arguing just inspires the other fellow to dig a trench for himself.

A deep one.

This is counterproductive, to say the least.

"Neither is it my job to try to convert anyone. I proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to my fellow sinners and then it is God's job to touch their hearts. . . I just tell the truth as I know it."

Pastor Billy, yesterday I came across a question to which ImaCatholic2 had posted their "Best Answer". And you know what the questioner replied? She replied, "I have received an answer from ImaCatholic2! I am honored!"

"I am honored." . . . !

It's not often you come across *that* phrase in connection with anything you read posted on Yahoo Answers' Religion Forum.

(To say the least!)

But isn't that how the good people of Our Lord's day felt and responded when the Lord spoke to them? They felt "honored," you could tell that, by the way the responded to Him. (Not true of the Pharisees, of course. Even Jesus couldn't make them feel honored; they were too busy honoring themselves! Which is precisely the impression I receive about people today who are busy putting the Catholic Church down!)

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were a whole cadre of Catholic apologists on Yahoo! Religion pages whose responses were of such a quality - so informative, so high-calibre, so on-topic, so devoid of snark or hate - in short, with such class - consistently across the board, that other visitors of good will couldn't help feeling *honored* to receive their responses?

Is such a thing possible? I hope so!

Answer 4

It's important, I think, to guard against the tendency to treat any question regarding our faith expressed in negative or accusatory terms as an attack. I've had to struggle with this quite a bit, especially here where the same thing gets asked over and over and over ... by the 20th or 30th time we see the likes of "why do you worship statues?" or "why do you call your priests father when the Bible says ...?", et cetera, it's quite easy to type in something snide and sarcastic because by then we've had it up to here.

Some questions obviously deserve it. Whether or not it's a good thing (from a Christian perspective) to give them what they deserve is another story. Although I lack the patience which would allow me to calmly answer in love regardless (as many of my brothers and sisters here do), I'm at least learning to discern from the general tone of the question whether we have a bigot on our hands or just someone who misunderstands and is offended by what he/she *thinks* Catholics believe or do.

For the latter, my number-one resource for backup is the Catechism, either the very good St. Charles Borromeo Church site or the Vatican's. I will occasionally double-check Scripture references at scripturecatholic dot com, though by now I have much of what I need in personal notes. The best apologetics site in terms of sheer volume of material is catholic dot com, and while I dislike doing a direct cut and paste from it I'm likely to access the site often for insight on specific issues.

Answer 5

The Catholic Church is defended by God. Therefore I do not consider what I do as defending the Catholic faith.

I try not to argue or debate. I am not really qualified for such activities.

Neither is it my job to try to convert anyone. I proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to my fellow sinners and then it is God's job to touch their hearts.

I am here to explain what Catholic Christians believe and why we believe it. I am here to share my limited knowledge about God, Christianity, and the Catholic Church. I just tell the truth as I know it.

I try to answer questions using Scripture from the Bible: http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.htm

And official Church teaching from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/index.htm

And any other Church documents that are applicable, most of which are on the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

All you have to do is muster up your strength or "gird your loins" It's not hard to defend what you love.

When you become part of the body of Christ,he is your best friend, councilor, teacher, your savior, your guidance and your brother, your blood, your family. It's not hard to defend those you love. Especially when he proves he's in your life.

So my suggestion is go inside your heart where Jesus resides, put all of your love, strength and courage in him and because he is in your heart, he will speak for himself through the Holy Spirit.

I have a voice and I will use it, I will stand up for what I believe in because what I believe in, will save us all.

When he is in you and you are in him, no one can divide that bond of love, use your love. Use your voice, use your courage.

Tell them as long as they love him, they will do what is right, it's human nature to stand for those you love.

However this may not be that particular persons task, like a body we all have our own ways of doing God's work. If they want to do this on R&S make sure they know what they're in for.

There are serious haters here on both sides of the fence. If they want to do this make sure they know that people will try to rile you up and make you look like an aggressive person or a bad Christian.

So be on your gaurd at all times and when the anger starts to show through, step back, take a few days off. Anger eats at a person.

In all you do, do it with the love of Christ in your heart.
It takes a strong and faithful wittness to stand ground here month after month.

Answer 7

For me,as I am still somewhat a novice in terms of catholic knowledge on all fronts, I simply read catechism books as my source of intake;as for websites I haven't the faintest notion ?

God bless,

JMJ

Answer 8

it doesn't seem to matter what we say - they prefer to believe what they want to believe.

As for emails - boy have I gotten my share of hate ones! They are not interested in actually researching what we give them.

Very few attempt to use the wealth of early church documentation. there is significant documentation that highlight certain heresies throughout the history of the Church. It seems at nearly every turn the title of a patristic work is "Against Such and Such." It is most difficult to believe that early proto-Protestant (contra-Catholic) churches would not have been amongst those rebuked by the patristic writers, especially since the early church fathers appear to hold doctrines consistent with Catholicism and in conflict with Protestantism.

It should be underscored that the writings of the early church fathers and authors do not supercede Scripture. A lot of the problems that divide Christianity today come down to one thing: interpretation of Scripture. If you look hard enough you can most likely find at least 3 interpretations for nearly every line of Scripture. This is why it is important to read what some of the earliest Christians believed and taught. In some cases some of these early Christians were taught directly by Jesus's disciples themselves (e.g., Ignatius of Antioch was a student of John).

For my brother Edge:
Gregory of Nyssa, "On the Song of Songs" 13: PG 44, 1052 D-1053 B reprinted in Luigi Gambero, "Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Vigin Mary in Patristic Thought" (Ignatius Press 1999) [-]

As the Son has been given to us without a father, so the Child has been born without a birth. As the Virgin herself did not know how the body that received divinity was formed in her own body, so neither did she notice the birth. Even the prophet Isaiah affirms that her giving birth was without pain, when he says: 'Before the pangs of birth arrived, a male child came forth and was born.' (Is. 66:7) Therefore, he was chosen to introduce a twofold innovation into the order of nature, since he did not begin to exist because of sin, nor was he born in pain. This happened for an understandable reason; there is nothing absurd about it. Just as she who introduced death into nature by her sin was condemned to bear children in suffering and travail, it was necessary that the Mother of life, after having conceived in joy, should give birth in joy as well. No wonder that the angel said to here. 'Rejoice, O full of grace!' (Lk 1:28). With these words he took from her the burden of that sorrow which, from the beginning of creation, had been imposed on birth because of sin. Above quote by Gregory of Nyssa, "On the Song of Songs" 13: PG 44, 1052 D-1053 B reprinted in Luigi Gambero, "Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Vigin Mary in Patristic Thought" (Ignatius Press 1999) Gregory was Bishop of Nyssa (in modern day Turkey). He died approx. 391 A.D. and was known for his opposition to Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ.

Ephraim the Syrian



"You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than any others, for there is no blemish in you nor any stains upon your Mother. Who of my children can compare in beauty to these?" (Nisibene Hymns 27:8 [A.D. 361]).

Answer 9

If I were still a Roman Catholic I would use the information at www.scripturecatholic.com

I would stay away from www.aomin.org however because if I read the material on that website long enough I would see that the arguments I have been learning are not actually all that strong. That's what I would do.

Answer 10

Well, that depends mostly on the statement.

For example: concerning the inquisition, a popular subject, people are full of prejudices and empty of facts and knowledge. I just begin to state facts