Learning My Catholic Faith: Thoughts, Research, Documents: Saint Michael's Basic Training : Apologetics

Saint Michael's Basic Training : Apologetics

Introduction to Saint Michael's Basic Training : Apologetics

“Apologetics means never having to say you're sorry”. And, if done right, this really is what apologetics means. How many of us have been asked at a barbecue, “Oh, so what is it with Catholics and Mary? And why don't you people like homosexuals? And when are you going to allow women priests?” and had to respond with a sort of embarrassed smile and the answer, “I'm sorry – I don't think I know enough to answer.”
This course was designed to allow you – the average Catholic with no formal background in theology or spirituality – to answer any objection or attack against the Catholic faith, and to defend and explain any of the Catholic Church's teachings. When Christine Cantalin (my co-author) and myself were putting together these articles their unofficial title was Everything Your Friends Asked You About Catholicism But You Were Afraid To Admit You Didn't Know. What we wanted to create was a series of articles which would be user-friendly, easy to read and understand, but which contained powerful arguments and authentic Catholic teaching.
A decision we made very early on was to have these articles be as purely apologetic in nature as they could be – so these articles do not include a great deal of Catholic teaching. It is assumed that you will know what the Church teaches, for example, about Mary the Mother of God. If you do not then there are references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church on most of the articles, pointing you in the direction of the relevant passages which explain the teaching. There seemed to be no point in re-inventing the wheel, as it were, when the Catechism already explained the teaching perfectly and very clearly.
Although there is not a great deal of Catholic teaching here we have explained what non-Catholic religions believe where relevant – it is important, for example, to understand what the Mormons actually believe when attempting to refute their particular doctrines.
But, in the main, these articles are directed solidly at apologetics – they are not designed to teach you anything except how to explain what you already know to someone else. This is apologetics – you have the faith. We want you to go spread it to people.
These articles were written with the accompanying DVD videos in mind. At the end of each video you will be presented with a “homework” section. This contains a list of articles to read, together with a book or books of the Bible and sections from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. If you click on the “homework” link on the main menu then you will be able to find each of these homework assignments on this CD.
However, if you would simply like to use these articles on their own then you can browse through them at your leisure, using the complete list of articles as your starting point.
This CD is best used on a computer which is connected to the internet – you will then be able to access the Bible and the Catechism online without ever taking your hand off the mouse! Regardless of whether or not the PC is connected to the internet you will be able to navigate between the various articles with ease.
Links appear in the text in blue and purple – each of these links leads to an article connected with the highlighted words. So within the article on the Immaculate Conception a link will be found to the article about the typology of the Ark of the Covenant as this is a related topic. In this way you will be able to explore the articles by following a logical progression of topics. The link appears in blue when you have not visited that article recently and in purple when you have. This means that – at a glance – you can tell if you have read the particular article being referenced.
Where red links appear these are to external websites which are not found on this CD. These websites will only be accessible when you are connected to the internet. In the main these websites are the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, hosted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops – but there are other sites referenced. These links were correct at the time of publication, but Saint Michael's Media can accept no responsibility for broken links, nor are we responsible for the content of any external websites.
If you do not wish to use this CD and read the articles online then you can print the articles out – either directly from your web-browser or in PDF format. To read the PDF files you will need the Adobe Document Reader – this is installed as standard on most computers, but you can download it for free from the Adobe website.
To conclude then, both Christine and myself wish you every success in using these articles and hope that your apologetics efforts are successful. If you would like to contact us, please do so by emailing us at apologetics@catholicbasictraining.com.

Yours in Christ,

Simon Rafe
~co-author and chief editor, “Saint Michael's Basic Training : Apologetics”

Introduction