Law and Freedom – “Do I Have to go to Church today Mom!?”
By Dcn. Peter Trahan, MA, Th
I don’t do apologetics. I can do apologetics, I have a background in theology, from seminary formation as well as Catholic graduate education. I do catechesis, I teach and do theology, my understanding of the New Evangelization is what the Church expects the New Evangelization to be, particularly in its fides qua as well as its fides quae, the how of living the faith as much as the what of faith; I just don’t do apologetics, here’s why. Apologetics is all about, not just answering the questions, but answering the same questions over and over again, sometimes for the same people. But that in itself is not why I don’t do apologetics; with a little patience I can do that and have done that. What bothers me the most is when the person asking me the question has been asked the question by someone else and this third party is not curious or seeking to understand Catholicism, they are trying to sway the middle-man, the Catholic man or woman who does want to know more about their faith in order to grow in it and be strong in these apologetic conversations. Apologetics is, or should be, for those inquiring souls. For the third party, answers are not what they are after, doubt is what they are after. And, for the most part, they want confirmation in their own “Christian” anti-Catholic stance.