Fr. Barron on The Last Acceptable Prejudice

I don’t mind the open antipathy as much as the misunderstanding. To hear non-Catholic friends talk about the Eucharist as a symbol, for example. To hear an Episcopal minister speak of “the church becoming political with Constantine”, when it clearly became political with Henry VIII and Constantine wasn’t even Christian. Catholics MUST learn our faith and history and teach the world. And we must never apologize, but learn apologetics. I can easily ignore nuts like Bill Maher, or whatever his name is, and everyone on Comedy Central. But sincere people with misunderstandings and half-truths are hard to ignore. I’m glad we have Fr. Barron to tackle the nut jobs.

I pray for the courage to politely but clearly respond to my ignorant family members who nonchalantly spew ignorant and prejudicial statements about the Church and Church teachings. As an educated Religion instructor, I try not to lapse into my ‘teacher mode’ at family gatherings, but I have been thinking it is about time to dispel ignorance with information, even if I make bad name for myself at with the relatives. Better to speak the truth and suffer rejection than to keep silent and burn with indignation.

One never meets someone who ended formal schooling somewhere between the ages of six (6) and nine (9) who disparages higher mathematics or higher sciences such as astronomy and medicine, with good reason. A person with an extremely limited education such as that is not qualified to criticise it.

However, one meets plenty of people who ended religious instruction between those ages say things like, “I don’t believe a loving God would make someone burn in Hell for divorcing and remarrying while the former spouse is still alive.” That person is as equally unqualified to comment on religion as the person who dropped out of school after one year of schooling due to poverty (not one’s own fault). (However, the person who ended religious practice usually chose that himself.) [“He, him, his,” and “himself” have been both masculine and gender-neutral for over 500 years; anyone who claims otherwise does not understand the nature of language and linguistics. For example, “personne” in French and “persona” in Spanish are feminine words meaning “person;” as a straight man, I am not offended when someone calls me “une bonne personne” or “una buena persona.”]

No one with scant mathematics or science education dares to disparage Einstein, yet scores of people with scant religious education disparage the Catholic church. In my opinion, St. Thomas Aquinas was the greatest thinker who ever lived. I have read his one-volume “Compendium of Theology” written for laymen. (It is published by Sophia Institute Press under the title “Light of Faith.”) It is very deep, with logic so solid it cannot be disproved. I can only imagine how deep and undisprovable is the logic in his five-volume “Summa Theologica.”

Two good books proving the Catholic faith that I have read are “Apologetics” by Paul J. Glenn, and “College Apologetics” by Fr. Anthony F. Alexander. They both are for anyone who is either atheistic or agnostic, or both. They take about 180 pages to prove the existence of God. On page 180 or so, they say “Therefore God exists.” Then they examine the premise that Jesus Christ is either a liar, lunatic, or who He says He is (God). They prove He is God, and then go on to examine whether anyone should believe in any church or denomination, and conclude that one should believe in the Catholic Church. They continue with whether one should believe and abide by what the Catholic Church teaches, and conclude that one should.

Though written by different authors, the books are similar. I challenge anyone to read them and disprove them. I will not accept a “this book is generally a bunch of baloney” thesis. I want an “on page so-and-so, sentence so-and-so, there is a fault in the logic; therefore, everything following is based on false logic” thesis. (And, it goes without saying, one must meticulously prove the fault in logic; simply saying something is illogical will not suffice.) Both books are published by TAN.

Disclaimer: I am not in any way associated with or connected to either aforementioned publisher. Neither I, nor any of my friends or relatives (that I know of) owns stock in, works for, or receives any compensation, monetary or otherwise, from them.

As my old friend & colleague Peter Viereck said a long time ago now, anticatholicism is the antisemitism of the left. It’s an entirely non-rational emotion animating ignorant people who think they are paragons of forward-looking reason and skepticism. There’s not a lot one can do with them. Meanwhile they are dismantling what is left of our civilization.

Thank you Father Barron………keep it up. We in the Philippines are also experiencing this kind of attack openly, using the tv to destroy the image and our church doctrines…

A lot of those who are not Catholic don’t understand that the election of a Pope, as well as the work of the Pope, is God’s work. God gives signs to the faithful as to whom should be elected. Joseph Ratzinger was the the correct choice. People who are away from the church, and away from God aren’t going to understand the process. It’s like trying to do advanced math when you have limited knowledge of math. The problem solving is likely to be wrong-especially without the help from God. As far as fighting anti catholicism-we can fight it, but the efficacy of persuasion through the fight will be limited, due to the fact that faith must be practiced to be understood.