catholics in america have perpetually had a hard time competing in an environment that is so heavily dominated by protestantism, and not the more cold, statist protestantism of europe that inevitably led to apathy and secularism, but a more fervent, puritan protestantism.
Speaking from my own thoughts on it from recently accepting the faith, i believe catholics suffer the dilemma of asking themselves “where do i even begin?” the catholic church is so massive, rich, deep, and it has many elements to it that are entirely foreign - and potentially offensive - to somebody from a protestant background, that a person might not know where to begin. They need to overcome the idea that they’re suppose to explain everything. When my mother asked me why i was converting i paused for several second because it was such a big question. How could i answer her? I ended up responding “i believe it is the church that christ established” which i suppose was as good of an answer as i could give. With the faith of the jehovah’s witnesses, which has the flavor of cultism, you just need the abcs and you’re good to go.
I think if catholics want to try to just plant seeds with people in an american setting without trying to summarize a year of rcia in a single session, they need to focus on key things like the eternal reliability of the faith, the authority of the faith, and the corporal charity of the faith (contrary to withering liberal protestant churches or preacher-centered megachurches). These are the things that are going to have a powerful charismatic pull for a questioning protestant or nominal protestant, or for an irreligious person. A person wearied with the circus of differing opinions in american churches will want to hear that. The key to “quick evangelizing” is to get them curious enough to start looking into it themselves.
