Question from a Reader

I wanted to see if I could get you to share some of your knowledge & wisdom with me. In a conversation with some colleagues yesterday, I found myself between 2 lost souls discussing their experience with churches and what they were looking for. It was your quintessential “church shopping” conversation that is so prevalent in our “I need to be entertained” society.

So I spoke up and suggested that if I personally am looking for a church, I am more concerned with what that church teaches and its creed. My friend responded that it is because I am Catholic and Catholics are more into the whole “doctrine/dogma thing.” He said he used to be “into that kind of thing,” but he has come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter. Giving the topic of pre-destination as an example (he’s a former Presbyterian), he said my philosophy on that is “Who knows and who cares.” I was speechless.

Bottom line, I need your help on how to respond to these folks. What is the first step to get someone to even care or agree that the truth matters?

Thanks for your help,

I don’t have a lot of knowledge or wisdom about such matters. I suspect the best approach is to live out loud as a Catholic and talk about what you believe and what the Church teaches. People suddenly discover that they have very strong views about the doctrine/dogma thing when they are presented with what the Church teaches. Jesus never evoked boredom. Reactions tended to whipsaw between love and hate.

I have a friend who tells people who say “doctrine doesn’t matter”, “Great! Then let’s go over to Blessed Sacrament parish and pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede for the Holy Souls in Purgatory!”

Suddenly, they discover that doctrine matters. 🙂