Responding To The Call At Home
- Tonia Gooding
- Mar 29, 2015
- 3 min read
Developing a New Apologetics
In responding to Pope Benedict XVI's call for Catholics to make their voices heard in the public square; means; we need to learn to think in terms of the common good, and develop arguments that convince, in a culture dominated by the ethic of autonomy. At the heart of the Catholic Voices project is an approach and a method which allow Catholics to understand why the criticism of the Church can be intense, and how to
identify with the (usually distorted Christian) values behind that criticism. The method is designed to avoid the defensiveness and self-defeating responses which many Catholics instinctively deploy in the face of hostility; and it lies behind the books and materials. The latest, published in the US, is Austen Ivereigh's How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice – Civil Responses to Catholic Hot-Button Issues . These books are available at the Dominican book store Diego Martin, and Living Water’s Book store Port-of-Spain.
There are two main reasons we believe that Catholic Voices is needed right here in T and T as a major role in the apologetics of the 21st. Century:
1. Many of us local Catholics may know what the Catholic Church teaches, but do not know WHY – hence we cannot defend it, and
2. We are being called to speak out in secular society where truth and reason are needed to be heard , but more so, the manner in which we state our case is of utmost importance in determining whether we are able to ‘ plant the seed in an attractive, appealing manner’ OR ‘create enemies by becoming too emotional in order to drive our point home’
It is about Winning Friends, NOT arguments
It is about shedding Light NOT Heat
It is about reframing the Argument so that Hearts can be opened and Minds can be Inspired!
This is what Catholic Voices is about.
You may ask – Do you think that this methodology can work? I can answer by saying it is already working all over the world. Even at the canonisation of Saint John –Paul 11 the words “Catholic Voices’ were being heard.
I know it can work, the underlying message is that every ideology has behind it an ‘apparent good’ – no matter how misguided it may be, the key is to first identify the good, break down the barrier and then defend your case. We are all human beings; knowledge of anthropology, Theology of the body, Humanae Vitae, Virtues and Vices, the purpose of marriage and all other teachings of the Catholic Church do not amount to much if we cannot impart its immense value with Love and Respect.
"I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men [and women] who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity - I wish...to enlarge [their] knowledge, to cultivate [their] reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism..."
Blessed John Henry Newman
Please feel free to contact us for any further information at catholicvoices.trinidad@gmail.com
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