Apologia - great booklet

The Catholic Truth Society recently launched its latest batch of pamphlets; as ever, an excellent collection. I hope to write some more about some of the publications but I would like to single out first of all the new booklet by Fr Marcus Holden and Fr Andrew Pinsent, authors of Evangelium.

Their new booklet is called Apologia: Catholic answers to today's Questions.Traditionally, apologetics focussed largely on the refutation of protestant errors. This is still needed but a more urgent task facing us now is to give a positive answer to the various challenges posed by secularists and atheists. Apologia addresses such questions concisely and effectively, following the structure of Catholic catechesis under the headings of Creed, Sacraments, Morals and Prayer - without neglecting those points raised by protestants or unformed Catholics such as "Why do I need to confess my sins to a priest?" or "Why can't we have women priests or married priests?"

The very first question is "Can I ask difficult questions on issues regarding the Catholic faith?" To some people, that may sound a daft question since one of the main tasks of priests and catechists when teaching people is exactly that of answering difficult questions about the faith. Nevertheless, the question is one that I have often been asked because the black propaganda that so many people have imbibed from various sources presents a caricature of the teaching of doctrine in the Catholic Church according to which nobody is allowed to question anything.

Apologia is a most welcome contribution to Catholic apologetics and evangelisation and I warmly recommend it. Enquirers will find much to assist their growth in faith, and priests and catechists will be greatly helped by such a comprehensive but handy resource.

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