Author name: Molly Hostetler

The new liturgical year begins November 28—are you ready?

Why study apologetics at all? There are at least three principal reasons. First, because we believe that the Catholic faith is true, and everyone has a right to hear the truth.

In 1960 the Church was paradoxically both aware that Western civilization was, by and large, no longer Christian and optimistic about the “natural law” tendencies within liberal democracy. Many within the Church knew that the world had to be evangelized; they understood the emptiness that haunted a great deal of popular piety. Many Christians could feel intuitively that something was deeply wrong in the Church, that many of the faithful were “going through the motions,” that somewhere along the line, the passion, drama, and excitement of a life truly in and through Christ had been lost. And yet, this pessimism was offset by an optimistic appraisal of the moral qualities of the liberal West.

Although we may have never said it aloud, many of us have likely prayed, in one way or another, “Lord, I want to be close to you, but not too close.” 

Do you know all the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Jesus? Do you know where the Last Supper took place? Find out how much you know about salvation history in this quiz from Genesis to Jesus!

Why is transgenderism incompatible with Catholic teaching? It is my hope that this short dialogue will not be perceived as a pat answer intended to close conversations but rather as an opportunity to spark a deeper and more interesting exchange of ideas. Here are common objections and the Catholic reply. 

In our day and age, trust and mercy are as popular as tape recorders and fax machines: people wonder if they’re still around and working. Yes, they are. And when combined, their credibility is off the charts. 

No one had more complicated thoughts about friendship than Augustine, who died in the year 430 at the age of 75. That may be partly because we have so much of his writing, and over a long life his opinions must have developed.

People who struggle with scrupulosity often think that any little misstep is a mortal sin, which is just flat out wrong. Every time we go to Holy Communion, we’re essentially saying, I’m confident that I’m in a state of grace. And this gave me a tremendous confidence. As my spiritual director said to me, “Matthew, when you come to Christ, when you accept his salvation, you are standing on a mountain, okay? And this mountain is not easy to slip off of. In fact, you can’t slip off of it. If you want to throw yourself off of this mountain, you can, but that takes a free, deliberate, conscious choice.”