“Catholicism is essentially a calm faith…”

“Catholicism is essentially a calm faith, rooted in the scriptures and the Tradition, and it has no need whatever to take a shrill tone with those who interpret the scriptures differently or who have inherited different traditions. This is not to practice the heresy of indifferentism: it is merely to hold the Catholic position in a way that is coherent with a faith-filled approach. After all, we shall convince no one of the rightness of certain disputed positions by polemics and sectarianism. We may convince them to have a second look at what we believe, and the reasons we have for believing, by calmness, kindness and Christian charity. Polemics and sectarianism of the type I have in mind usually give the impression that the Faith we hold rests on shaky foundations, in that such an approach seems to be overcompensating for the lack of credibility in the doctrines it seeks to support.

In the end, when one looks at its opposite, there is no substitute for charity.”

— Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith, The Catholic Herald

Read it all.