Canadian Catholic radio and television talk show personality Michael Coren begins a series this week for The Record, giving readers reasons to be proud Catholics and to defend the Faith.
Being Catholic in the public square is a fascinating experience.
In the past month or two I’ve written extensively about the Church in the National Post and the Sun group of newspapers – no more in the Post because the Sun chain has generously bought my exclusive services.
What is intriguing, however, is how little information about Catholicism my critics possess.
Regrettable but understandable for those not concerned with religion but positively outrageous for those who think themselves informed and write letters and even articles.
One of the constant complaints we hear is that there are Catholic teachings that are not to be found in the Bible. A consistent if flawed argument from a Protestant but the problem is that it often comes from people who claim to be Catholics.
All Catholic beliefs can be supported by an intelligent reading of the Bible but, perhaps more importantly for this debate, the very basis of Scripture is that we cannot live as Christians merely by Scripture.
We weren’t left a Bible but a Church, a Papacy and a teaching office, the Magisterium. Christ was quite explicit about this and how could He not be?
The Saviour knew that as fallen creatures we needed a guide, knew that we would sometimes be unable to understand the Bible and that if the written word is left to individual human interpretation there will be myriad disagreements and errors.
So He gave the continuance of the faith to a Church led by Peter and his descendants, a Church which in due course would give us the very Bible that critics now claim contradicts Church teaching. Putting aside the poor theology, it is dreadful logic.
The notion of Scripture alone is simply non-Scriptural, as is the belief in salvation by Faith alone.
These are man-made notions – which, ironically, are precisely the errors of which Catholics are accused.
Again, while I may disagree with genuine Protestants I respect their views.
What I find far more difficult to tolerate because of their anti-intellectualism and arrogance, are failed Catholics who have no idea what they are supposed to believe but condemn the Church because it dares to be Catholic.
Papal infallibility, they so often claim, is a modern invention.
No, it’s not.
The Church merely affirmed it when it was challenged; it had been a self-evident truth, abundantly proven in Scripture, from the earliest times.
Yet when the Catholicophobes make this argument, what they really mean is not that they dispute papal infallibility but that they don’t like what the Pope says. If the Holy Father suddenly said, for example, that women could be ordained, condoms used and that homosexual behaviour was not sinful, I have a feeling those who now moan on about infallibility would suddenly see its merits.
It’s rather like people who constantly tell us about the actually non-existent concept of separation of Church and State when a Catholic or evangelical leader annoys them but forget the idea when a United Church or Anglican spokesman delights them.
There is no Faith without the Church.
The cry from the 1960s that “we love Jesus but don’t like the church” is rather like saying we love the idea of childhood but don’t like children.
Christ gave us the Church, not to obstruct our fun or stifle us but to reflect His teachings, life and sacrifice and act as a road from the 1st century until the end of time, along which we can both travel forward to God and look back to the where the message began.
Many of the streets and alleys that have been created in the past 500 years are still attached to that road but they make the path far more circuitous and difficult.
There are also the more modern detours that take people on a totally different and horribly dangerous path altogether.
It’s not about Catholics who may have acted contrary to Catholicism, not about the occasional bad priest or even weak Pope and it’s certainly not about the personal ambitions of activists and their sordid desire to make the Church resemble the contemporary world and all of its failings.
It’s about listening to God; and that, for some, is the most difficult thing of all.