Compromising the Truth

I saw recently that someone in Texas put up a sign on a billboard that said, "Vote Democrat". The billboard was right over a business owned by someone who did not hold the same sentiment. There happened to be a second billboard right beneath this one that was available, so the owner of the business decided to pay for it and put up his own sign there. A short time later, right underneath where it said "Vote Democrat" it said, "Just kidding, Vote Republican". I laughed so hard when I saw that I think I sprained a muscle in my side. I may be walking funny for the next couple of weeks.

One of the things that went through my mind when I saw that was "what would I do if I were on the receiving end of a joke like that?" If you take your sign down, you are admitting defeat. If you leave it up there, you are defeated. He knocked that one out of the park. Sometimes there are situations where no solution seems to come to mind, and we are just stuck with the unavoidable consequences.

In a similar vein, I heard another (!) story recently about a horribly unorthodox RCIA class. Someone who converted years ago was never taught many of the basics of the Catholic faith. This person expressed frustration at the situation, but because he was not taught about the faith sufficiently, he was not aware of the problem until now, nor of how to deal with it. I am beginning to think that a number of Priests think that RCIA stands for "Ruining Catholic Instruction for Adults".

What do we do with that? If we speak against their failure, we sound like nitpicky cranks. If we do nothing, more people will be misled. I know that many parishes "lighten" (read: compromise) the explanation of the faith in order to get more converts. This, however, does not achieve converts to the Catholic faith, it only gets warm bodies in the pews; and they will usually fall away since they are not properly grounded in the faith.

I do not have to go looking for the problem; if I just sit back and wait (and keep teaching the truth in a way that alerts people to the fulness of the Catholic faith), people come to me and say, "Father, I was never taught that. Will you help me to learn my faith now?" It is not uncommon for this to happen. If you think you know your faith well, then dig deeply and learn it better. If you know you have been cheated, then ask for help (from someone other than the incompetent Priest who lied to you in the first place). Knowing your faith is not optional.