Family Question

[WaltLove]

Brothers and Sisters,

Long time no post. I would like you all to know that things are going well on my end and that I am happily finishing up my degree in special education and am now a canidate for Secular Franciscan Order. I did have a personal family question that alarms me. During my discerning process, an uncle of mine also was discerning on which theology school to go to. (I was discerning whether or not to studt theology of special education) He ended up choosing a liberal Catholic institution and he is openly practising relativism in his theology thoughts and papers. Whenever I approach him with proper Church teaching he claims that I don’t know anything because I am not studying theology. This hurts because I feel God called me to the path I am now following. So my question…Can people still take me seriously as a deacon (I hope one day!) or preacher if I don’t have a doctorate in theology? I admire people like Rahner, Hahn, Pope Benedict who all obviously have high degrees in theology. I am just more confused now…Sorry if I rambled.

I pray all is well with all of you!

-WaltLove

 

[skallal]

Hey Walt,

As you already guessed, you don’t need a theology degree to discuss intelligently about the faith. That’s because the faith is a gift to us all. Theology is going deeper with our minds into the gift. And getting a theology degree is just one way to do that. To be a deacon you will have to study and people will respect that.

Still, the position of your uncle seems to be a logical fallacy called ad hominem. That means that since he doesn’t know how to rejoin your statements, he simply rejects them wholesale by rejecting you as their source. What he forgets is even a blind squirrel finds an acorn at times, and anyone can learn from anyone else if he just asks the right questions. He may have also forgotten that theology can never contradict faith just like science can’t contradict the facts. Maybe you could take up some of these issues on another forum like apologetics.