Should Catholics be silent about their beliefs in public when confronted?

[Bill_7154]

Of course we should defend our faith.

That does not mean it’s always a good time or place for it though. Recently I was on the phone with a friend who had just lost his dad. He was angry and upset at God, the Church, and other things. That was not the right time for me to get into an argument over theology. He didn’t need a debate, he needed someone to talk to, not get talked to by.

While a fully agree with you about the right time and place, and in your example it seems this was NOT the right time and place, something I have found helpful in general when talking with people ‘angry at God’…

Well, about 15 years ago I used to go to AA. At one meeting I went to regularly there was a well known guy who sort of headed up the meeting. He believed in a higher power, but it became known to me that he had a younger brother die at a young age… and this man remained angry at God since that time, probably 30 years or so.

At one meeting before I spoke I prayed “God please be on my mind, on my lips, and in my heart” as I would often do before speaking to someone. This guy had said something to the effect of him “being angry at God”. I responded by saying something like “It’s comforting to know that you have a relationship with him”. This had a significant impact on him. I think, prior to that, he was kind of thinking that he was an athiest, when in fact he wasn’t, as he believed in God and was angry at God, holding God responsible for allowing his younger brother to die (think it was some kind of illness he had when young).

The man approached me after the meeting to talk with me because what I said had a profound impact on him. I then told him before I spoke I prayed for God to be on my mind, on my lips, and in my heart before speaking.

I think this was the beginning of him changing his relationship he had with God.

More generally, on rare occasions I have found it to be hepful to point out that a person has a relationship with God (I put a positive spin on it such as “it makes me happy to know” or something like that…that you have a relationship with God) and the few occasions I have had the opportunity to point this out to someone (in their response to stating anger or hatred toward God) has a relationship with God and I see this as positive, it has always seemed to have a significant impact on them, in a positive way. It always seems as if they sort of consider themselves athiest, when it fact they are not, and by my pointing out they have a relationship with God it seems to have a dramatic effect. They begin to re-think their postion with respect to God and thier faith.

The gentleman I spoke with I had ongoing talks with after that and was pleased to see him go through the process of ‘forgiving God’ in his heart, and learning to accept that if God were to be responsible for the bad things that happened in the world, he must also be responsible for all the good things that happen. I used this as part of an approach to trying to help this man, it’s not an approach I would use in general (assigning responsibility to God for things that happen in the world). He announced at one meeting some time after that, that God was his higher power now, talked about how he was angry, etc and was in the process of learning to have a positive relationship with God.

So that is just one approach I’ve been fortunate enough to use, to point out that the person has a relationship to God, and that this is a good thing, rather than debate with them what God is or isn’t responsible for, whether or not the person has a right to be angry at God for whatever, etc…

God Bless,
Bill