Tracts
Answering Objections
Clear responses to common misunderstandings and accusations against the Church. 16 tracts.
Anti-Catholic Myths
Professional anti-Catholics rely on whoppers, exaggerations and false implications that leave a bad impression even when not believed. Three examples, from Bob Jones, a Conversion Center leaflet, and Alberto Rivera, show how such material distorts the facts.
Are Catholics Christian?
Yes. Catholics become Christ's disciples through Trinitarian baptism, believe in Jesus Christ as God and man and Savior, and profess the Nicene Creed. Catholics are Christians, though not all Christians are Catholic: the Catholic Church is the one Church Christ founded.
Catholic "Inventions"
Loraine Boettner's *Roman Catholicism* lists supposed Catholic "inventions" with dates and popes, using innuendo and error. Examined, they are either misrepresentations or legitimate developments of a living Church that holds the same faith while growing.
Do Catholics Worship Statues?
God forbade worshiping images, not making or using them religiously; he even commanded statues for his sanctuary. Catholics use images to remember, teach and commemorate, and kneeling before a statue is no more worship of it than kneeling with a Bible. God has revealed himself in visible forms, above all in Christ, the image of the invisible God.
Fundamentalist or Catholic?
Before rejecting Catholicism, make sure you are rejecting the real thing, not a caricature. A brief case: the Catholic Church alone has an unbroken historical link to the Church of the New Testament; Scripture rejects private interpretation and points to Tradition; justification is real inner renewal; Christ gives grace through sacraments; and the Mass is the sacrifice foretold in bread and wine.
How to Talk with Fundamentalists
Knowing how to argue matters as much as knowing what to argue. An effective apologist knows Scripture, prays, is honest and charitable, defines terms, raises the question of authority, and aims to explain rather than to win.
Is Catholicism Pagan?
Critics claim Catholicism absorbed paganism after 313. This "pagan influence fallacy" judges a belief by supposed origins rather than its merits, and the same arguments are used by atheists against all Christianity. Claimed parallels usually fail on examination.
Myths About Indulgences
An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven, which the Church grants from the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints (*Indulgentiarum Doctrina* 1). It cannot buy one out of hell, cover future sins, forgive sins, or be bought.
Questions Every Catholic Should Be Able to Answer
Every Catholic is called not only to believe but to understand what the Church teaches and why. These ten questions cover the objections Catholics most often encounter.
Simony
Simony is the buying or selling of spiritual things, such as the sacraments, Church offices and other gifts of God (CCC 2121-2122). It is named after Simon Magus, who tried to buy the apostles' power to give the Holy Spirit. God's gifts are freely given and cannot be bought.
The Anti-Catholic "Bible"
Loraine Boettner's *Roman Catholicism* (1962) is the source most anti-Catholic organizations rely on. It looks scholarly, but it accepts any charge uncritically, cites Catholic sources vaguely or not at all, relies on bitter ex-Catholics, and ignores the early Fathers.
The Inquisition
There were several inquisitions: the Medieval (1184), the Spanish (1478), a state institution, and the Roman (1542), the most benign. Their abuses are real, but critics' statistics are wildly inflated, the Cathars were not proto-Fundamentalists, and the existence of an inquisition no more disproves the Church than Protestant inquisitions disprove Protestantism.
The Whore of Babylon
Fundamentalists like Dave Hunt claim the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon of Revelation 17–18. But the text itself rules this out: the Whore existed in John's day and persecuted apostles and prophets, so she must be first-century pagan Rome or apostate Jerusalem.
What Is Catholic Apologetics?
Apologetics, from the Greek *apologia*, "defense," is the reasoned explanation and defense of the faith from Scripture, Tradition, reason, history and science. Every Catholic is called to it, always ready to give a reason for our hope with gentleness and reverence (1 Peter 3:15), aiming to lead others to Christ, not to win arguments.
What Is Fundamentalism?
Fundamentalism is a relatively new form of American Protestantism, arising in the 1890s against liberal trends and named after *The Fundamentals* (1909-1915). It holds five fundamentals and stresses the Bible alone, personal acceptance of Christ, and evangelism. Many of its converts are former Catholics.
Why People Leave the Catholic Church
People leave the Catholic Church for many reasons, from doctrine and morals to scandal, poor formation and convenience. Understanding them helps Catholics respond with charity. But none justifies leaving the one Church Christ founded.