Revelation After Love

Last week in my Trinity and Incarnation theology class, it was noted that not until after His atoning suffering and death – His perfect expression of love – was Jesus fully revealed as the Christ. Numerous witnesses to His resurrection verified it. In other words, revelation came after a expression of love.

A question came to mind: “Is it consistent to say divine revelation always follows an expression of love?” I’ve concluded yes. Yet, further revelations of love followed gifts of divine revelation in pointing toward Christ. Major examples of love preceding revelation were God making covenants with the patriarchs of the Old Testament.

First, God created all things for love of humanity. Here, an expression or “initiative of love” preceded the revelation of creation. Creation was first of all revelation as it “revealed” the mind and will of God. After the fall to Original Sin came the revelation of the protoevangelium (“first gospel”), where God promised a coming Christ to crush Satan’s power of death.

God’s covenant with Noah initiated a “preservation of love” preceding eight persons being saved from a flood that revealed divine wrath over sin. Christ revealed that the flood prefigured sanctification in baptism.

God’s covenant with Abraham initiated an “expansion of love” preceding circumcision, revealing their union with God. As Abraham’s descendants increased the knowledge of God expanded. Christ revealed the Holy Spirit to “circumcize hearts.”

God’s covenant with Moses initiated an “exposé of love” by an “exposé of sin” preceding the law to Israel, revealing that “all have sinned” as “through the law comes knowledge of sin.” Christ fulfilled the law by perfectly keeping it, revealing Him as the spotless “Lamb of God.”

God’s covenant with David initiated a “reign of love” preceding the throne of a religious kingdom. Yet, not until Christ would David’s “reign of love” be fully realized and inaugurated as a “kingdom of love.” Now the grace of God is poored out to fulfill the “law of love.”

Theology discerns two types of revelation: private and public. Private cannot contradict public, as public is universal and accessible to all in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture. Private revelations either guide one toward public or “reveal” deeper truths of public revelation (e.g., answered prayer; mystical experience).

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That having been qualified, since 2000 I have enjoyed a progressive series of private revelations in my deepening conversion. In the spring of 2000, after a prayer for relief from overwhelming stress, I had an initiatial conversion experience of grace. I realized three core realities: human sin; salvation in Christ; vocational sanctification in Christ. Yet, raised Protestant, I wasn’t sure which church to attend to learn more or be baptized.

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By the fall of 2000, fully aware of this uncertainty, at work I said a prayer for guidance. Later that day a friend of mine, led by the Holy Spirit, invited me to the Catholic RCIA program for catechesis and baptism! I began studying the differences and histories of Catholics and Protestants, wherein I had the revelation of the ancient Catholic Church as the biblical and historical “Body of Christ.”

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After baptism in the spring of 2001 I was able to better discern my vocation. Due to the nature of my initial experience I wans’t sure if I was called to priesthood or married life. Having a sense of both, in the summer of 2004 I took two years off dating and made Saint Augustine patron of my vocation. After acceptance to seminary by the Diocese of La Crosse, WI, I was introduced to a diocesan spiritual director who helped me discern my deisre for spousal family and possible calling to the diaconate.

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I started dating again the summer of 2006 and set to enter the University of Wisconsin. In the the spring of 2007 I met Melissa. We dated a couple months and really enjoyed each other’s company. One afternoon, setting beside the pond, Melissa shared with me how much she suffered in a short period of time: parental tragety; grandmother died; discovered she had a mild case of Multiple Sclerosis.

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Seeing how Melissa dealt with her suffering with suble grace, what came out of my mouth still startled me: “I lo…” I caught myself about to profess my love for her. Not long after this I made the ultimate connection: her last name is Augustine! Did I not realize this right away because her family pronounced it the Anglicized way rather than the Latin way I was used to hearing in reference to my patron Saint? Or was it a divine case of forgetfulness for the sake of revelation after an expression of love? Maybe both, but I’d suggest the latter as more fitting. Otherwise I might have inappropriately made more of it at the outset before coming to recognize love first.

Beatification of John Henry Cardinal Newman

As many know, John Henry Cardinal Newman, patron of the university that I study theology at, was beatified last Sunday, September 19, by Pope Benedict XVI in Cofton Park in Birmingham, England. Newman is now to be called “Blessed John Henry Newman” or “Blessed Cardinal Newman,” as he is considered one of the blessed in heaven. Several of the university faculty and staff traveled to England for the beatification Mass. My family and I watched the EWTN broadcast of the Mass here on campus Sunday night.

National Catholic Register correspondent Edward Pentin called attention to the fact that “A rainbow appeared over Cofton Park as Pope Benedict arrived this morning for the beatification Mass of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th century English theologian who has had a significant influence on the Holy Father’s own life.”

Commenting on the appropriateness of Cofton Park, Archbishop of Birmingham, Most Rev. Bernard Longley, said, “The finest recognition Cardinal Newman received was from the ordinary people of Birmingham whose lives were changed because of their contact with him. And more than 15,000 people spontaneously lined his funeral route from the Oratory to Rednal as a final tribute to this holy, caring parish priest.” Cofton Park is near both the Oratory where Newman lived and Rednal, his resting place.

What made the beatification possible was the first miracle assigned to Newman through the prayers and healing of Jack Sullivan from a serious back disorder in 2001. After his healing he was then capable to become a deacon of the Church. Being a deacon he was able to do the Gospel reading during the beatification Mass.

When asked by a reporter for the Boston Pilot, “Now that you have been cured, are you still devoted to Cardinal Newman?” Deacon Sullivan said, “I have so much, through my prayers to him. He has changed my life dramatically from one of total confinement. I probably would have never walked normally again or I could have been paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of my life. But with the healing I was able to realize my greatest strength, and that was to return to classes and be ordained. I was able to resume my work and provide for my family. Every morning, I say a prayer to him in thanksgiving. Since my healing, I have never missed a morning where I do not thank him with all my heart for his love and his concern.”

I am convinced that the intercession of the saints can have a powerful impact on the lives of Christians. Some are subtle. Others are not so subtle. As mention in my previous article, Saint Augustine’s influence in the lives of my wife Melissa “Augustine” and me was obvious. In contrast, Saint Bernard’s influence in our lives was more subtle. He was the patron saint of the parish of which I was received into the church in Madison, Wisconsin. He was also the patron saint of Melissa’s home church in which we got married in Abbotsford, Wisconsin, three hours away from the other. These being the only two “Saint Bernard parishes” I knew of, it was clear to my spiritual awareness that his intercession was guiding us as well – our secondary sign or “confirmation” saint for our vocations. Furthermore, my prayers in 2008 for which school to study theology at have also proved Blessed Cardinal Newman significant in my life: a convert to the Church beckoning another convert to his university.

Blessed Cardinal Newman’s influence in Deacon Sullivan’s life was also not so subtle, having received a miraculous cure. Though I would not classify my experiences of saintly intercession as miracles, regardless, it takes a personal measure of the theological virtue of faith to be able to recognize the intercession of the saints in one’s life.

Facing Family & Convert Books

To become a Catholic Christian is to regain one's Christian unity.

There is something truly joyous in discovering the real Catholic Church after one has the personal revelation that Christians are sinfully divided. The New Testament condemns church division/factions as one of the most grievous scandals (see 1 Corinthians 1:10, 12:25; Galatians 5:20) as it introduces strife and enmity between those called to loving unity in God.

Many of us who were raised Protestant either just ignore the fact if we are lax Christians, while those of us who were more zealous attempted to resolve the problem through proselytizing others into our denomination (I was of the latter category as a youth). Of course, such small scale efforts really don't work when hundreds of other denominations are undoing their work through the same efforts.

Yet, it is also truly frustrating after becoming Catholic when Protestant family members criticize you without being willing to engage in intellectual dialogue. It is one thing for one's family not understand or appreciate why people become Catholic, but it is another for them not to respect you enough to ask questions and learn why you made such an involved change in life.

Hence, many of us have written books on the matter of conversion to the Catholic Church. In fact, since the 1990s there has risen a whole genre of Catholic convert books now. There are about 20 of them that have become extremely influential in exposing Protestant misconceptions about the Catholic Church, helping people realize that The Church is not a big evil machine.

Several of such books have specific focuses and recount personal narratives of how the Holy Spirit moved them to discover what they needed to discover the real Catholic Church. Since the Protestant Revolt it became "necessary" for Protestant to demonize the Catholic Church in order to justify their divisions. If they called the Church evil, who could blame them for separating from it?

Thus the great division of the Protestant Revolt became another fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah's bewailing, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20) Protestants began calling The Church "evil" and their division "good." And the bitter relations between Catholics and anti-Catholic Protestants began.

I have written one of the latest of these books. I was raised as a nominal Christian, yet with many Seventh-day Adventist ideas (my Father's upbringing). Seventh-day Adventism is one of those denominations that are not only "anti-Catholic", they are hyper-anti-Catholic as an actual part of their theology.

After the Holy Spirit led me into The Church via answered prayers, I was easily re-influenced by Seventh-day Adventism and became a practicing one for about six months again. This lasted until I became conflicted with where God was leading me through answered prayer and where others were leading me through their interpretational arguments. Ultimately, I came to recognize the difference between allowing humans to lead me astray and allowing God to lead me by prayer.

The projected release date of the book is this fall through CHResources. It is entitled:

Praying Made Me Catholic

With the Biblical & Historical Reasons I Must Remain Catholic

Catholics Called to Care for Converts

Time certainly does fly after high school! It’s hard to believe it has been 12 years for me! Like many, I waited to enter college after working a few years. Then again, as I’ve come to appreciate in hind sight, in a way I had to wait to go to college as I did because it wasn’t until after my conversion to Christ that I discovered my calling.

This week I read a statement put out by the U.S. bishop’s conference calling Catholics to seek new ways at welcoming and supporting the thousands of new Catholics that will be entering the Church this Easter Vigil through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA).

Father Richard Hilgartner, assistant director of the Secretariat of Divine Worship for the bishop’s conference, offered several suggestions. On his list were for Catholics to offer special “prayer” for these individuals, for them to “listen” to the example of these who seek to “follow the Lord more closely,” as well as to “cultivate a welcoming spirit, to be a witness to the new Catholics, and to invite them to grow deeper in the life of the Church.”

Again, time flies, as it is hard to believe that it has been 9 years since I had gone through the RCIA program. On April 14th, 2001, I had received Baptism, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion.

Yet, to be quite honest with you, I still wasn’t quite there yet intellectually in my greater grasp of Christianity at the moment of Baptism, due to many of the things I was taught. However, sometimes that is to be expected for those who God is calling to follow Him by trusting His guidance.

I knew I had been called to Baptism in the Catholic Church as it came through a clearly answered prayer. After I had begun taking my Christian faith seriously at the age of 20 I had hesitations about where to begin going to Church. For my mother had been raised Lutheran and my father had been raised Seventh-day Adventist.

When I was little Mom had taken my brother and I to the Lutheran church she had gone to as a child. However, when we were older we had begun attending the Seventh-day Adventist church from time to time. Here, being older, I got more theology, whereby I picked up a few anti-Catholic statements.

For example, as a youth I was told, “Lutherans are nothing more than watered-down Catholics,” and, “The real day of worship is Saturday, not Sunday. The Catholic Church changed the Sabbath.” There were other statements, like, “Some day the Catholic Church will come to an end,” and ridiculing Catholics for “having beer tents at church functions.”

The most memorable moment, however, came when I was talking to a Seventh-day Adventist member about the different beliefs of various denominations, when he ended by saying, “Whatever you do, don’t become Catholic. Catholics worship Mary.”
Still, I wasn’t quite ready for Baptism, as that was left up to me when I was “ready,” as Dad recommended. It wasn’t until 2000 that I was ready, yet becoming aware of the countless “denominations” out there I really didn’t know where to go. So it was, one particular day at work I prayed, “Lord, I don’t know where to go from here. Please lead me.”

That SAME afternoon I was talking to a close friend of mine who knew I had begun taking my Christian faith seriously. On her own volition that day she had called the Director of Religious Education (DRE) of her parish to inquire about the possibility of Baptism for me. So when I called her that same day of my prayer, and she said to me, “I spoke with the DRE of my parish and we thought you might be interested in the RCIA program for Baptism,” I was shocked.

I immediately recognized that the Holy Spirit had just answered my prayer through her, a member of the Body of Christ! It was the call to Baptism, and so it was obvious! But in the Catholic Church?

Of course, it wasn’t until I joined the RCIA classes that I learned that Catholics do not worship Mary. However, I still lacked theological understanding about the Sabbath and the role of the pope, yet I persevered on to the call to Baptism.
Now, it wasn’t until after my Baptism that I discovered the truth of the Catholic teaching concerning the presence of God’s grace at Baptism. Hereafter I discovered those theological resources I was looking for, one of which came from Catholics who cared about a new Catholic like me.



Mr. and Mrs. Mangehra borrowed me Dr. Scott Hahn’s lecture set, “Answering Common Objections to the Catholic Faith,” in which he addressed the role of the pope, the role of Mary, the Communion of Saints, the Eucharist, and purgatory. Dr. Hahn also shared his own conversion story as a Protestant minister coming to discover the nature of the new covenant with the Church and the later rise of “denominations” since the 16th century.

Herein I discovered my love of Christ’s “original Church,” as I like to call it, my love of theology, and my desire to teach the ancient Christian faith. Thus, as noted before, it wasn’t until after my conversion that I found my calling and could finally enter college for a theology degree.

In the statement mentioned earlier put out by Father Richard Hilgartner, he acknowledged that new Church members remind all Catholics that this period after baptism is “ongoing and essentially what all members of the Church do throughout our lives.” He pointed out that it is their time also to perpetually “grow deeper in faith and relationship with Christ, constantly discerning his will.”

This RCI year of 2009-2010, as in years past since my own conversion, I have had a care and love for those who have also taken that step to enter into full communion with the Church. My wife and I are both sponsors to other adults who will be receiving Baptism, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion.

At the same time, as the Church and Father Hilgartner has called us to this Lent, I also seek to go deeper in my union with Jesus Christ. More learning about The Faith is essential for continued intellectual conversion. And more time spent in prayer, more frequenting the Sacrament of Confession, and more receiving the precious gift of Christ in the Holy Eucharist are essential for spiritual conversion.

A Biblical Theology of a Firstborn Son

Firstborn sons have been significant people in most cultures throughout the ages. During our winter break last month my wife Melissa and I were overjoyed to have our firstborn son, Isaiah, born to us January 5th. Our first child before him, our daughter Melika, had just turned 18 months.

If one were to ask if there was a major theme or thread throughout Scripture, bringing it all together, many theologians would say it is the theme of covenant. The Old Testament is essentially a chronicling of the covenants that God made with all humanity (through Adam and Noah), then with Israel (through Abraham, Moses, and David), and perfected in the New Covenant (through Christ).

In the Old Testament God describes a firstborn son, even those “unloved,” as having true pride of place for a father as “the beginning of his strength” (Deut 21:17).

All sons were expected to “teach their children” (Deut 4:10) the stories of the religious experiences and covenants of their forefathers to the succeeding generations. However, as every man could have a firstborn son of his own, whether or not he was a firstborn, it was to the firstborns who were expected to be strong leaders for the family – their father’s “strength.”

Although my grandfather was not a firstborn son, my father was his firstborn son (of two), and I am my father’s firstborn son (of two), as is Isaiah my firstborn son.

According to the created order, Adam was the firstborn of “the sons of God” (Gen 6:2,4) who received and perpetuated the creation covenant. Yet, as Genesis 6 illustrates, even the sons of God could be tempted by “the daughters of men” – those who were not covenant keepers. To this point even the sons of God became corrupt, thus instigating the Flood story and initiating Noah’s Gentile covenant.

Due to the human tendency toward sin, as Scripture came to reveal, eventually Abraham and later Moses were called to establish the beginnings of a nationalistic covenant, whereby Israel would become God’s “firstborn” (Ex 4:22), redeemed according to the national order.

In this, Israel was called to be a “light to the nations” (Is 49:6), as God’s firstborn son, while at the same time being prophetic of the coming Christ to be revealed as the “only begotten Son” of God (Jn 3:16) to redeem all humanity.

Why were daughters not their father’s “strength”? Here is where the “theology of the body” comes in, as Pope John Paul II called it, recognizing the biological differences between men and women and how that plays into marriage and procreation.

Speaking of the revealed truths within the creation story, Saint Paul gives us a basis for Christians understanding today. “I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. …[man] is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.”

“For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake. Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head [while in prayer]” (1 Cor 11:3,7-10).

This is not sexism! This is part of the theology of creation (not to be confused with Creationism). For Paul goes on to point out that, “However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.” (vv.11-12).

Woman “becomes one with” her man and shares glory with him as she is only “fruitful” with him. Now think about what we know now about genetics today. It is dependant upon the man’s chromosomes to make a male child. Certainly the ancients did not know that, but they did recognize that man’s “seed” gave him a creative share in “the image and glory of God” from whom “all things originate.”

Sons thus perpetuate humanity by holding the glory of God within their DNA! Female fertility does not hold the essence of both sexes. Man is necessary to give male life as God gave man his life. And so Genesis says, “When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.” (Gen 5:3).

Much later the prophet Zechariah prophesied of Christ, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zec 12:10). In the Old Testament firstborn sons, whether Adam or others after him, were imperfect prophetic types of Christ, the perfect Son of God who would offer His own life as a ransom for all.

Now, with Christ restoring humanity to its great dignity, Paul said, “For those whom [God] foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom 8:29). Thus, for men to follow Christ is to bring salvation to the world, as they not only bring their wives and daughters with them, but also their sons, and their grandchildren vicariously through them.

This says nothing to consecrated virgins, such as priests or the sisters and brothers within religious orders, whose gift of their fertility is offered to God (cf. Matt 19:12; 1 Cor 7:6-9). That is a different matter of “spiritual fatherhood” and “spiritual motherhood.”

In all humility, women share glory in participation with a male counterpart’s glory, whether a loving daughter to her loving father, a loving wife with her loving husband, or a loving Mother Superior with her loving bishop. Yet, as Paul pointed out, women are very integral to the whole design of humanity “for the man’s sake,” since without them, men cannot do their part to transmit life, whether natural or spiritual.

Thus, the Christian revelation of the “image and likeness of God,” as being a Trinity, has greater meaning on the human family since the New Covenant and the revelation of the Son of God. The Son reflects or speaks (logos) the loving glory of the Father, and the Holy Spirit communicates that bond of love, three in one. A wife reflects the loving glory of her husband, and a child(ren) is the fruit of their bond of love. Yet, this is an imperfect reflection or analogy, as humans are not gods, but reflections of His glory.

It is my prayer for Isaiah, my firstborn son, is that I am a good father for him, so that he can know how to seek God’s will in order to fulfill his personal calling, whether it is to be a natural father, passing on the glory of God within himself, or as spiritual father, teaching others to recognize the glory of God within humanity.

I also pray the same for my daughter Melika, my firstborn child, that I am a good father for her, that she can likewise know how to seek God’s will in order to fulfill her calling. All in God’s glory, Amen.

Conversion to Christ and His Church

Many times Catholic apologists are asked for that apologetic “silver bullet” to help someone else they know with understanding or appreciating the fullness of the Christian faith as it has been upheld within the Catholic Church. I was recently asked if there was such a tool for the best way to help someone to become open to Catholicism, or the process to join the faith, especially if they are distrustful of religion.

The unfortunate answer: there isn’t one single issue or idea. For most converts to discover the ancientness and originality of the Catholic Church as that which was founded by Jesus Christ upon the leadership offices of the Apostles it often takes each individual several personal steps. However, in my own studies, as I relate in my upcoming book, there are several common themes or “lessons learned” among intellectual converts to Catholicism, especially the countless Protestant ministers that have been coming in over the last few decades. Thus conversion is a complex process of a spiritual conversion, an intellectual conversion, and a conversion of will to do what God desires.

Number One: be open to the Holy Spirit’s ability to guide through answered prayer and be prepared to accept the signs of answers. The spiritual life of a prayerful relationship is the beginning of learning about God, experiencing the revelation of Jesus Christ, and embracing the wondrous Church He gave as an extension of His “body” as Saint Paul called it, which Christians are incorporated into. The “Body of Christ” on earth is not perfect, of course, but in the process of being cleansed for those who desire purification.

Those who are distrustful of religion often are so because they are distrustful of people who present it. Again, as previously discussed in past articles, the word “religion” comes from the word meaning “to bind” as in a “relationship.” Thus religion is a relationship with God. Authentic religion is divine revelation: religion that God revealed because humanity, due to our falleness, tend toward false religion. Therefore such skeptics need to learn about the nature of divine revelation, as it is quite inspiring!

Number Two: discovering and resolving personal and denominational misconceptions about the Catholic Church. Speaking from experience, having been raised a Protestant I held several “common Protestant” misconceptions about the Catholic Church, some theological and some historical. For example, I had to discover that though I was taught that “Catholics worship Mary” it was false, and based in large part upon misconceptions of the nature of prayer. Furthermore, I had to discover that the Catholic Church didn’t “start in the time of Constantine” but was, by nature and historical lineage, clearly connected to the perpetuated leadership role of the Apostles of Christ, and that the word “catholic” (universal) is simple one of the four “marks” that point out the original Church.

Number Three: learning more Church history and historical theology. I didn’t realize that, as a youth, some of my beliefs were in part based upon modern (non-historical or non-ancient) interpretations of the Christian faith. In other words, as I discovered the root issue, due to the new idea of believing in “the Bible alone,” people thus tended toward private interpretations, whereby apart from the historical context they were written (i.e., Sacred Tradition), it is truly impossible to “get it right” on one’s own on all doctrine.

This also is due in part to the nature of the Bible, especially the New Testament, as it was never intended to be a sort of catechism of the Christian faith. It is most often here, by delving into Church history and discovering the richness of such treasures as the writings of the Apostolic and Early Church Fathers, those men who were ordained by the Apostles or who followed their disciples, that a great number of academics, very often Protestant ministers, Christian college professors, and other lay intellectuals, discover what Cardinal Newman did: “To go deep into history is to cease being a Protestant.”

After initial conversion to Christ and to His Church it is easy to fall into sin again, as the temptations of the world are powerful. Thus a conversion of will is perpetually necessary. For this reason many spiritual masters and writers will tell you that conversion is not a “one time” deal, but a continual process, a life-long journey toward God, whereby one continually and daily “takes up their cross” to follow Christ.

Evangelization & Prosteletization

(12//09 - My Catholic column for Newman University newspaper The Vantage)

If anyone wants me to give them a brief lecture on the difference between a religion and denominations of a religion, just make the false distinction between Catholics and Protestants as belonging to “different religions.” Catholics and Protestants are not of “different religions,” of course, because they acknowledge the same God (as the Holy Trinity) and believe that we are ultimately saved through the same atoning sacrifice Jesus Christ. Now, how we envision the application of atoning grace may be different.

For Catholics, salvation comes by grace is freely given through the 7 Signs of the New Covenant (sacraments), which are gifts from Christ, not “Catholic works” as many mistakenly believe. For many Protestants, salvation comes by grace freely given to those who request it from God. On the other hand, many other Protestant groups are closer to the ancient teaching of the Church, recognizing the requirement of Baptism and the Eucharist. Still, for most Baptism is recognized as the rite (sacrament) that initiates one into the New Covenant.

Ultimately, because we believe in the same God and the same Christ who freely saves those who call upon Him, and because we share a common Trinitarian Baptism, Catholics and Protestants are of the same religion: Christian. Distinctions within that religion are historical anomalies and come from division.

As I’ve pointed out in the past, the Catholic Church (including those of the Eastern Orthodox schismatic rites) comprises the “whole church,” as their leaders have received legitimate teaching and governing authority from the Apostles. Protestant groups began dissociated themselves with the Church’s teaching and governing authority in the sixteenth century and thus began forming “denominations” within the Christian religion as distinct from the Catholic Church. In turn, losing that stability of an authoritative teaching and governance, the Protestant groups began to further divide over doctrinal disputes.

A Newman student recently asked me to address the difference between evangelization and proselytization and why Catholics don’t proselytize. As you can tell, I first felt the need to establish that Catholics and Protestants are of the “same religion.” I’m sure there are many reasons why many Catholics are not proselytizers, and the recognition that we are of the same religion may be one of those reasons.

However, many Protestants, especially Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, do not see it the same way, and have been theologically led to believe that the Catholic Church is off-base, and thus feel the need to proselytize Catholics out of the Church.

Yet, I’ve heard that false distinction between Catholics and Protestants mostly from older Catholics as a remnant of that historical anti-Protestant rhetoric of the Catholic Counter Reformation. The Counter Reformation sought to highlight for Protestants that their leaders had separated from historical Christianity. However, I would argue that Protestants did not lose the essence of the religion.

It appears that one of the major reasons why Catholics do not proselytize Protestants is based on a historical critique against Catholics; they’ve typically lacked a good biblical education, whereas Protestants pride themselves on this. Ironically, Catholics belong to the biblical Church, which might be why many have grown complacent over the centuries in their religious education.
Now the real question is, “should Catholics proselytize?” Again, some educated Catholics who recognize them being of the same religion may say “No” and choose to go on doing some other work for the Church. Other educated Catholics, on the other hand, would say “Yes, Catholics should proselytize. It is the essence of regaining Christian unity.” This second view is most appreciated by Catholic converts like me, who are glad to have discovered the “original Church” in the midst of the plethora of “Protestant denominations.”

What is also ironic is that the new movement of Protestant clergy converts I mentioned in the last two articles is due, in large part, to the great amount of historical, biblical, and theological resources now available in our modern “Age of Information.” And this spreading of information on the part of Catholics, such as through Catholic radio (1360 locally), cable television (EWTN), and extensive internet sites (vatican.va; catholic.com; ewtn.com) are products of the late Pope John Paul II’s call for a “new evangelization.” In this respect, one might prefer to say that Catholics are “more fully evangelizing” Protestants – teaching them about Christ’s historical Church – while Protestants are the ones who proselytize Catholics when they lead them out of Christ’s Church.

This leads me to another question, of whether proselytization is good or bad. If one comes to appreciate that the Catholic Church is the original Church founded by Jesus Christ upon the authoritative teaching and governing role of the Apostles, and that those who lack the fullness of the faith that Christ gave them, like all 7 sacraments, it is good to lead others to Christ’s Church. Herein, it would be done for the sake of the greater blessings the new converts would receive from Christ. In reverse, then, it would be clearly bad to lead less educated Catholics out of the Church.

This clearer distinction of Catholics “evangelizing Protestants” and Protestants “proselytizing Catholics” follows from the appreciation of the original historical religious integrity of the Catholic Church, the in-continuity of the Protestant divisions, and the continued commonalities between the two.

This distinction may also give insight as to why it is appropriate for Catholics to “proselytize,” or rather, “more fully evangelized” our non-Catholic family and friends. For such reasons Saint Francis de Sales is so well know among Catholics for having assisted the Holy Spirit in the conversion of thousands of Calvinist Protestants of Geneva, Switzerland, back to the Church. The brotherly love that Christian unity reveals strengthens the persuasiveness of the Gospel. From personal experience, having been raised a Protestant, I am glad I was proselytized, or rather, “more fully evangelized,” by such outlets as Catholic radio.