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“You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition…thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on.” -Mark 7:9,13“Where’s that in the Bible?”Any Catholic who talks religion with Protestants has at some time been challenged with this question. It stems from the Protestant belief that we shouldn’t accept any doctrine that isn’t explicitly found in the Bible, since it alone is our infallible rule of faith—a belief known as sola script …

  Day 1: Spiritual or Religious? CHALLENGE: I consider myself spiritual rather than religious. Why isn’t that enough? DEFENSE: Because God loves you and wants even better things for you. When people say they are spiritual rather than religious, they frequently mean that, although they don’t practice a specific religion, they recognize there is more to the world than matter, that it has a spiritual dimension. This is good! But it doesn’t go very far. Wouldn’t it be …

  How a Popular Mis-Quotation Made it Into the Catechism In the sixteenth century, St. Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. Supporters and critics alike have called them “God’s Marines” in recognition of their founder’s military background and their willingness to be deployed around the world in service of the Church. The Jesuits’ founding document is even addressed to “Whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God beneath the …

The history of Christianity is one of debate. As the Gospels reveal, Jesus was challenged right from the start. Rival schools like the Pharisees and Sadducees posed pointed questions to him, trying to trap him in his words and even to get him in trouble with the authorities. Some of Jesus’ most famous statements were responses to challenges from his critics: “What God has joined together, let man not put asunder.” “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” &ld …

Leading your Protestant friends into the Catholic Church can seem like a hopeless task. Your friend may seem too far away, too biased against Catholicism, or even too apathetic. I would have loved to have had Jimmy Akin as my wingman in discussions with Protestants about Catholicism more times than I can count, but he is usually busy and, last I checked, hadn’t mastered the art of bilocation. I was sitting at lunch one day with friends: one Catholic, two Protestants, and we were having a …