Post by homeschooldad on Mar 8, 2023 15:51:06 GMT
As many others have, I have been puzzled by the appeal of Pope Francis "never proselytize". I know, the word doesn't sound nice (possibly because, in English anyway, it subliminally raises brows because it sounds like "prostitute", even though the two words have nothing to do with each other), but does this mean that we are not, according to Pope Francis, supposed to engage in apologetics, not to show the non-Catholic where their thinking goes wrong, and rely solely upon Christian witness of charity, to bring people to the Faith who do not presently have it?
Apparently not. Here is an excellent article that draws the distinction:
www.catholicnewsagency.com/column/53899/pope-francis-proselytism-vs-evangelization
So the traditional approach (exemplified nowhere as excellently as in Radio Replies, which is "in-your-face" polemics --- the good kind! --- if there ever were such a thing) apparently remains intact. If we present the truth to someone --- even though those in incomplete possession of the truth do not realize it until it is explained to them (and, most of the time, not even then) --- and it puts them under conviction, gets them to thinking, perhaps introduces doubt in their own beliefs to them for the first time in their lives, then we have done all we can do. Sometimes you plant a seed that doesn't bear fruit until quite a while later. That's the point at which we just have to leave it to the Holy Ghost.
A good place to start might be the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Many non-Catholic Christians have never even thought in those terms before.
Apparently not. Here is an excellent article that draws the distinction:
www.catholicnewsagency.com/column/53899/pope-francis-proselytism-vs-evangelization
So the traditional approach (exemplified nowhere as excellently as in Radio Replies, which is "in-your-face" polemics --- the good kind! --- if there ever were such a thing) apparently remains intact. If we present the truth to someone --- even though those in incomplete possession of the truth do not realize it until it is explained to them (and, most of the time, not even then) --- and it puts them under conviction, gets them to thinking, perhaps introduces doubt in their own beliefs to them for the first time in their lives, then we have done all we can do. Sometimes you plant a seed that doesn't bear fruit until quite a while later. That's the point at which we just have to leave it to the Holy Ghost.
A good place to start might be the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Many non-Catholic Christians have never even thought in those terms before.