Catholic Apologetics Online

Choose a topic from Vol 3:

God

Man

Religion

The Religion of the Bible

The Christian Religion

A Definite Christian Faith

The Problem of Reunion

The Truth of Catholicism

The Church and the Bible

The Dogmas of the Catholic Church

Moral Teachings of the Catholic Church

The Church in Her Worship

The Church and Social Welfare

FOREWORD

This third volume of questions submitted to us concerning the Catholic Church and her teachings, together with the answers to them, is intended to complete our series of RADIO REPLIES offered to the public in book form. For the sake of reference and comparison this third volume also has been made to correspond as closely as possible with the two volumes previously published so far as the division of its contents is concerned.

An Inexhaustible Subject

Our three volumes of RADIO REPLIES do not claim to have exhausted all possible problems where religion is involved. Far from it. According to their various fields of study men could go on almost forever proposing difficulties suggested by their readings in history, philosophy, theology, science, ethics, psychology, or comparative religion. Indeed the Catholic Church, for nearly two thousand years, has been listening to the difficulties proposed by all types of men through all the ages. And to every individual who comes to her today with the request that she first solve his own little collection of viewpoints which seem to militate against the truth of Catholicism she can say, "Tell me all you have against the Catholic religion, and when you have done. I will tell you ten thousand further difficulties you have neither heard of nor could think of for yourself." It would be a vast mistake, therefore, to imagine that the Catholic Church is unaware of the difficulties which can arise in any human mind where religion is concerned. I say this because many a man has come to me with a difficulty under the impression that it is insoluble, and that no one before him has ever adverted to it. And he has found it rather disconcerting to learn that it is an old objection; one, perhaps, which has been proposed and demolished a thousand times in each recurring age.

Scope of RADIO REPLIES

Our three volumes, then, do not pretend to exhaust all possible problems in the field of religion. They contain but a classified selection of typical questions and answers chosen from a vast mass of material accumulated during twelve years of radio work and public lectures in which non-Catholics were invited to express their difficulties in the way of accepting Catholicism. And we maintain that these three volumes, or any one of them, will at least solve the particular difficulties listed, establish the truth of the Catholic Church, and provide the principles which will prove valid in the solution of all other possible submissions.

TheTrue Approach

Of course the man who sincerely desires the truth, and is earnestly seeking it, soon learns that if he waits until all possible difficulties which could invade his mind are solved he will never attain to the true religion in this life. Life is too short for that. He would arrive at his deathbed still with a host of difficulties unsolved, having ignored what is certain because of the tangle of his uncertainties. What every man needs to do is to ponder over the certainties, make them his positive conviction, and act according to them, trusting that more and more of his uncertainties will be clarified in due course. A track through a jungle to the mountaintop is not non-existent because the man entangled by difficulties in the jungle is unaware of it. And ,when such a man is informed that he will find the track if he but turns in another direction, he does not ignore the advice in favour of triumphing over all the difficulties along the wrong way of approach. That is, if he really does want to get to the mountaintop. The uncertainty as to whether he can get through that way he is content to leave unsolved whilst he makes use of the certain path that has been brought to his notice. So, too, the man too entangled in religious difficulties to see anything else will make no progress until he learns to abstract from them and consider the certain and positive aspects of Catholic truth. There he will find more than enough to justify unwavering confidence in the Catholic Church, and a practical way of life calculated to secure his spiritual welfare both in this world and the next.

Use of These Books

The three volumes of RADIO REPLIES are not primarily intended as reference books. Their full force will be perceived only by reading each of them from cover to cover, for thus only will the logic and consistency of the Catholic position be fully apprehended. Truth is consistent; error almost infinite in its variations. Often enough, indeed, the objections to the Catholic Church, if set side by side, would cancel each other out of existence. But in dealing with everything that can be urged against her the Catholic Church never finds herself compelled to unsay anything. In answering difficulties from the most diverse points of view, even the most contradictory, she never contradicts herself, having to unsay to one opponent what she has maintained in her replies to another. And it is this consistency, the hallmark of truth, which has appealed to the intelligence of thousands of converts who, by further study, prayer, and the grace of God, have completed their journey towards the truth, and have happily sought admission to the Catholic Church. Primarily, therefore, the books are intended for such continuous and consecutive reading that their full import may thus be grasped.

As Reference and Study Manuals

But after such use as above advocated, the books retain their value as works of reference, and this for Catholics and non-Catholics alike. It is for this purpose that each volume has been so thoroughly indexed. As for study-clubs, testimonies to the value of these apologetic works are being constantly received. In many study-circles the questions only are put to the members, and the replies they themselves jot down on paper are then checked with those given in the books. Converts under instruction have told me that they, too, have adopted this method, with great profit to themselves, and an immense clarification of their ideas on the subject of religion.

A Personal Note

And now, with this third and last series of RADIO REPLIES, I would like to offer our readers a final personal remark. I was brought up as a Protestant, probably with more inherited prejudices than most non-Catholics of these days. It is some thirty years since, in God's providence, I became a Catholic. Not content with that, I have also become a priest. I cannot therefore be charged with not knowing the Catholic Church thoroughly from within. And all I can say is this: had I found the Catholic Church as evil as I had been led to believe it was, had I found out that I had made a tragic mistake in becoming a Catholic, it is perhaps conceivable that pride might keep me from admitting my error. It would be possible to adopt the attitude of desperate obstinacy which says, "I have made my bed, and will lie upon it." But I am not entirely inhuman. And I would be man enough to advise other prospective converts against making the same fatal mistake. Privately, at least, I would say to inquirers, "I have made wreckage of my own life, and I am going to continue doing so. But there's no need for two of us to do so. You are still outside the Catholic Church, and I advise you to stay outside. If you have any love for your own soul, remain as you are." Yet, did I give such advice, incalculable would be my guilt before God. For the Catholic Church is not evil. She is the one true Church of Christ in this world, the very "pillar and ground of truth." And instead of saving people from it, I am constrained to labour to bring as many people as possible to it, knowing that I am thus bringing the greatest of God's blessings into their lives. Nor is there one of the hundreds of converts I have received into the Catholic Church who has not gratefully acknowledged the fact. What can I wish to the non-Catholic reader, then, except this same great happiness and blessing? It is in this wish that Father Carty joins with me as we offer this third series of RADIO REPLIES to a public that has already shown such appreciation of the previous volumes.

LESLIE RUMBLE, M.S.C.

MORE FROM VOLUME 3

• About the Author
• Preface
  - Msgr Fulton J Sheen
• Author's Foreword
  - Dr Rumble, MSC

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