Why do the docents answer apologetics questions?

[WJeffrey]

Why are half of your questions in the “Ask an Apologist” section answered by people who are not apologists? Docents lack the ability to answer specific questions. At best they are able to point people in the correct direction. Any answer given by a docent can usually be found by using the search feature on Catholic Answers. By their nature, docent answers are imprecise and create confusion that does not occur when questions are handled by apologists who can give concrete answers to specific individual circumstances.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

The apologists are only able to answer a small fraction of the questions we receive. Docents allow us to help more people, perhaps not by answering questions individually but at least by doing the searches of the forum for members. In fact, the docents’ service can perhaps inspire people to do their own searches in our forum and learn how to apply the answers given to others to their own circumstances.