Recently a friend posted on his Facebook page his anger at the Catholic Archdiocese for its ban of a 'Gay Mass' which was to be held June 19,2011 as part of Boston's Celebration of Gay Pride month. The "All are Welcome" liturgy was cancelled when conservative Catholics complained that the scheduled liturgy appeared to sanction Gay Pride Month.
Now, this friend is a homosexual and I am sure he is rather upset with the attitude of those individals who complained. Being raised a Catholic himself suggests that he is angered that his Church has made him feel as an outcast. He is a friend however, and as such I love him no matter what our differences in our moral beliefs.
It was some of the comments to his post that concerned me. One comment referred to the Pope as "Pope Benedict Arnold". The same commentator called the Pope "Cardinal Nazinger". Another comment likened the Church's treatment of the homosexual community to the "600 years of torture during the Church's Inquisition".
As I read the post and the comments, I saw not only the anger and animosity aimed at the church for it practices and beliefs, but anger brought about due to the half-truths propagated by those that would prefer to weaken the Church.
It is for this reason I decided to create a blog which would promote the Catholic faith, dispel the vast number of rumours regarding the Church and hopefully bring the Good News of Christ to those that have an open ear and a warm heart who might wish to seek out thier own answers to life's questions.
For those readers believing this to be a blog that would apologize for the actions of the Church one would be sadly mistaken. The title of this blog, The Apologetic Catholic, refers to the formal definition of the word 'Apologetic' rather than the popular contemporary definition in use today. The word 'apology' is derived from the classical Greek word 'apologia' which refers to 'defending one's position'. It is in this spirit that I offer this blog.
It is the intention of this author to examine, in the venue of this blog, those questions and controversies regarding the faith and morals espoused by the Church. Perhaps in the future readers might find articles on contraception, homosexuality, abortion, marriage. One might find blogs on the Customs and Sacred Tradition of the Catholic faith. This author encourages readers to suggest topics that should be considered and of course opine on the articles.
I loook forward to hearing your thoughts on this endeavour.
