Bob Sungenis’s comments are partly about Scott Hahn, but his complaint is more generic than that. Here is what he says at his web site:
- “Catholic Answers has proven over and over again that they [sic] are not in Catholic apologetics solely for the sake of truth, but mainly for the sake of keeping up the status quo and to keep the money rolling in.”
Bob is showing his jealousy again.
Yes, Catholic Answers has more “money rolling in” than does his group. Catholic Answers has 43 salaried employees, while Bob’s group has one (himself) plus two guys who apparently are volunteers (one is a student, the other works for a marketing company). From what I can gather from Bob’s own writings, his organization’s gross income is about 1% of that of Catholic Answers.
Why the big disparity in employees and budget? I think it’s because Catholic Answers accomplishes so much more than Bob’s group–it likely reaches more than 1,000 times as many people as does his outfit, and it doesn’t go off onto goofy tangents such as geocentrism. The credit for the success of Catholic Answers’ outreach goes to the 42 very talented, professional, and dedicated people who work with me.
- “Karl Keating, I’m sorry to say, has shown himself to be quite cowardly, since he will not address the tough issues facing us today in our own Catholic Church, and he has trained his staff to do likewise.”
I thought Bob read my E-Letter, “This Rock,” and the materials at our web site, including answers given by our apologists at these discussion forums. I guess I was mistaken. No one who has read those things would think that Catholic Answers “will not address the tough issues.”
Bob knows nothing about the internal workings of Catholic Answers, so he would not know whether or not I have “trained [my] staff” to avoid the “tough issues.” He just made up that charge because it sounded good to him.
Similarly, he knows nothing about my personal life, but that has not stopped him from repeatedly (and gratuitously) claiming that my wife and I are childless, which is not the case–as anyone who has read my December 28 E-Letter knows. He could have learned the facts from almost any of my acquaintances, but he didn’t even bother to ask. He just presumed.
- “You need to understand that Catholic apologetics today is based on ‘who knows who’ and ‘who will promote who.’ Most of the current apologists have made a pact not to critique each other’s work, no matter how bad it may be.”
We have “made a pact”? It must be such a great secret that neither I nor any of the apologists I know is aware of it. (When Bob can’t find an answer that satisfies him, he decides there must be a conspiracy.)
If apologists such as Steve Ray, Dave Armstrong, Al Kresta, Jeff Cavins, Pete Vere, Patrick Madrid, Marcus Grodi, Jim Burnham, Jimmy Akin, Rosalind Moss, Fr. Vincent Serpa, Tim Staples, and Jim Blackburn (the list could be extended) have written or spoken contrary to the faith, I am not aware of it. That’s why there has been no “critique” of their work.
- Why does Bob Sungenis say such outlandish (and often mean) things about Catholic Answers and about me?
Partly, as I said, it seems to be a matter of professional jealousy. Catholic Answers has been successful, and his organization has not been.
But Bob also has a personal animosity toward me. He has not forgiven me for not hiring him in 1993. In retrospect, I see it was one of the most prudent judgments I ever made.
