Page 374 – Regnum Christi

2019 Tour to France for the Regina Apostolorum is Underway

July 11, 2019 / Weekly Message Blog

For the second year in a row, Fr. Clemens Gutberlet, LC, is leading the “Tour to France” which aims to spread awareness about the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum and raise money for their scholarship fund.

Last year’s inaugural “Tour to France“ was held in honor of the University’s 25th anniversary. It began in St Peter’s Square and ended six days later in Lourdes, after an 8 stage-ride of 1550 km (963 miles) through three countries.

Fr Clemens Gutberlet, LC, graduated from the Regina Apostolorum in 2003 after his studies in Theology and Philosophy. Currently he works in the Vatican in the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. He is also an untiring cyclist with a passion for uniting faith and sports. Over the years, Fr Clemens and his bicycle have completed many long and hard trips. In 2009 he participated in and won the Clericus Bike Cup, a race reserved for priests and seminarians from all over the world. The race was held before the conclusive stage of the Giro d’Italia of that year.

The “Tour to France” was born from Fr Clemens‘ desire to unite the two great passions of his life: cycling and Christian Integral Formation. He explains that, “The path of living the faith and giving testimony of the Love of God is a service. Love, as the way of authentic humanity, always becomes concrete in real works.”

The mission of Regina Apostolorum is the formation of apostles and Christian leaders. “Every year we welcome thousands of students from all over the world, we foster dialogue and discussion, we join the knowledge of the tradition of the magisterium with the understanding of transformation in global society to form true leaders capable of acting efficaciously, guaranteeing a formation of excellence,” affirms Fr. Thomas Montanaro, LC, Administrative Vice Rector of the Athenaeum, who is also participating in the cycling tour. “Thanks to the push from Fr. Clemens, we have made our own the words of Pope Francis, “In Life as well as in Sport, the important thing is to get out there, with the others and with God in the search of the good, in the Church and in society, without fear, with courage and enthusiasm.”

This year’s tour began in Saint Peter’s Square on July 6th and will end in Paray-le-Monial, France on July 13th. The Tour will cross Italy and France, this year also riding 150 km across the Swiss Alps, for a total of 1275 km!

Last year the Tour to France raised US $8,450. As of this date, three days into the event, the 2019 tour has already raised about US $11,160 ( €9,959.00).

You can follow and support the physical and spiritual endeavor of Fr. Clemens Gutberlet, LC, who is currently working in the Vatican Congregation for Religious Life on Facebook and on the Athenaeum’s website.

[gdlr_video url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwKxyHDnkww” ]

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Spiritual but not Religious Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Spiritual but not Religious: The Search for Meaning in a Material World

July 9, 2019 / Book

A Guide for Exploring the Horizons of Your Heart

More people than ever find themselves unfulfilled by merely material abundance and prosperity. More people than ever find their hearts yearning for some kind of satisfaction beyond swiping right or going viral. This is because the human soul was made for more than video games, social media, SMS messages, and flashy distractions. Maybe you are spiritually restless yourself. Maybe you know others who are, and you want to connect with them better. In either case, this book is for you. This book, written with the warmth, sincerity, and clarity characteristic of Father Bartunek’s many popular books, opens the door to a rediscovery of the spiritual landscape present in every human heart.Listen to an interview with Fr. John Bartunek HERE. See the promotional video below.

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Regnum Christi Spirituality Center Ask a Priest

“Ask a Priest: How Can I Evangelize My Atheist Friends?”

July 9, 2019 / Ask a Priest

Q: I have some close friends who are atheists. We get along great, and I love them dearly! They know I’m Catholic as I’ve talked about going to Mass, Lent, choir and avoiding eating meat on Fridays. I don’t hide what I am, but I’m not overly loud about it. I felt that by being a good influence and being close to God, my example might be a way to evangelize. However, reading the Bible and hearing the portion about telling people when they are sinning … that sort of thing gives me a lot of anxiety. I’m a very awkward person and am bad with timing on things like this. Also, my friends sometimes seem to be defensive when the conversation strays too close to religion. I’m not sure what to do. Am I supposed to vocally evangelize them and point out their sins? I feel like I struggle with my own sins enough that I feel like a hypocrite. Would you provide me with some guidance? Is there a way to go about evangelizing and helping others find God without being so direct? If I joined my local RCIA group to help others to join, would that count as helping to evangelize others? – M.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: Thanks for your interest in evangelizing your friends.

You are asking the right questions, and fact that you are feeling unsure about this area of evangelization is an invitation from the Lord to begin to understand more completely this dimension of your life.

When trying to evangelize atheists, we need to start with some basics.

First is our prayer life. We need to pray for those whom we are trying to bring closer to Our Lord.

Second is our example of charity.

Third is our depth of thought. This doesn’t mean that we have to be rocket scientists. But it helps if we come across as thoughtful and logical and willing to dialogue.

Those are three quick points to keep in mind.

It is good to remember that evangelizing means living an integral dimension of our lives as Christians. It should be part of what we do day by day. We should want to share our faith with others.

Evangelization isn’t the same as proselytism. The latter is when we try to recruit people to our cause. That isn’t what evangelizing is about. It’s more a sharing of our faith in a gentle way, with an eye toward helping people learn about Christ and drawing them closer to him.

There is no simple formula for evangelizing. Rather, it involves a complex set of factors. Let me throw out a few suggestions for your consideration.

First, to share the faith, it helps to understand it well. This you can do by serious reading. There are lots of resources for this, among them:

— RC Spirituality (this site), which helps people in their prayer life as well as in their ongoing formation.

— Catholic Answers (https://www.catholic.com/), which has a wealth of apologetic material.

— Publishers such as Ignatius Press, OSV, Ascension Press, Sophia Institute, etc., which offer hundreds of fine books.

Second, you might focus on material that helps you deal with evangelization specifically.

The book Go! 30 Meditations on How Best to Love Your Neighbor as Yourself, was written precisely to answer the type of questions you raise: What is the missionary dimension of my Christian identify? How am I supposed to live it out? What does “evangelization” really mean for me?

If you read that book, 30 short chapters, one per day, you would find a lot of light.

Third — and this is more for your sake — you want to step back occasionally and ask yourself how your relationship with your atheist friends is going. Are you changing them for the better? Or are they changing you for the worse?

Here, it might be good to network with faith-filled people too. Being in community with believers can strengthen your own faith.

The idea here is that you don’t want to get worn down by the atheists around you, or to let their lack of faith hurt your beliefs.

You mention the RCIA. The RCIA can be good for learning about the faith if the program is well run. The quality can be uneven. That is why I recommend those publishers and websites, which are pretty solid.

As for correcting your friends: it might be good to go easy here, since they don’t sound as though they are ready to hear corrections. They need to discover the richness of Jesus first.

I hope some of this helps. Count on my prayers.

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Spiritual Direction: A Powerful Foundation for the Mission

July 8, 2019 / Weekly Message Blog

Photos are of Judy and husband, Bill, and Judy with granddaughters.

When you think of a Regnum Christi member you could well think first of someone on a mission.

Regnum Christi and apostolate got together. Apostolate can be a Regnum Christi program like Challenge, Conquest, ECYD, Camps, and Missions. Apostolate can be something the Regnum Christi member does to serve others in the Church and community, always reflecting the Regnum Christi spirituality.

Judy Guilfoil is a prime example. She, along with husband Bill–and Arlene and John Gannon–founded Pinecrest Academy in Atlanta and help launch Regnum Christi in that city.

In her 18 years of direct involvement with Pinecrest, Judy filled various roles in addition to founder, including admissions director and guidance counselor. Those roles involved direct, apostolic, hard work. And they produced unforgettable moments of inspiration.

“When I did admissions it was an opportunity do show love to others. We had visitors for an hour of presentation and tour and you can do a lot of loving in an hour,” Judy explains. “The tour always ended in the chapel. And there is one dad I especially remember. “He said he was an atheist and just there for his wife. He had never been in a chapel, so I explained the various parts and why we make the Sign of the Cross and use holy water. He sat down in a pew and asked if he could stay when it was time for me to leave. “God’s work is so mysterious. That man’s children ended up attending Pinecrest and several years later he came into the Church.”

You might think the credit for that new member of Christ’s Church should go to Judy’s skill as an admissions director–and certainly that was a factor. But Judy would give God and credit and suggests that her role was founded in spiritual direction.

Regnum Christi has five dimensions – and the first dimension of the life of a Regnum Christi Member is the spiritual life. The core of a member’s life is to know Christ’s love, love Him deeply and share that love with others. Closely related is the fifth dimension: personal accompaniment. A key element of this accompaniment is spiritual direction (sometimes called spiritual guidance).

Spiritual direction has been part of Christianity from the start. Paul was a mentor–a spiritual guide–to Timothy and Titus. John the Evangelist tutored Polycarp. And if you think about it, what was Jesus if not the spiritual director to the 12 apostles? In addition to his famous spiritual exercises, St. Ignatius was a proponent of spiritual direction. The Jesuit description of spiritual direction is fairly simple:

Spiritual direction focuses on religious experience. It is concerned with a person’s actual experience of a relationship with God.
Spiritual direction is about a relationship. The religious experience is not isolated, nor does it consist of extraordinary events. It is what happens in an ongoing relationship between the person and God. Most often this is a relationship that is experienced in prayer.
Spiritual direction is a relationship that is going somewhere. God is leading the person to deeper faith and more generous service. The spiritual director asks not just “what is happening?” but “what is moving forward?”
The real spiritual director is God. God touches the human heart directly. The human spiritual director does not “direct” in the sense of giving advice and solving problems. Rather, the director helps a person respond to God’s invitation to a deeper relationship.

For Judy Guilfoil, spiritual direction is an essential part of accompaniment in Regnum Christi. It is an apostolate she has been involved in since very early in her time with Regnum Christi. And she says she has benefited both from giving and receiving spiritual direction. “What I have received from my spiritual directors has helped me to process what I hear and help others discern what is truly from God…and it has helped me to do the same in my own life,” Judy says. “It is a beautiful thing to have someone accompany me–and for me to be able to accompany others. “It influenced everything I did at the school, even in giving me the ability to listen to others and accompany people at work. The longer I worked at the school the more I came to believe the most important aspect of the job was my technical expertise but how well I would connect with people, loving them and sharing Christ with them. “Lots of the people I’ve guided are extremely holy people. So I’m learning from them as I accompany them. It really is a blessing for me and I pray for them.” Judy grew up in a large Catholic family in a small house in Fish Bay, Wisconsin. She recalls her parents as great role models. They weren’t heavy-handed about the faith and didn’t talk about it much. They simply lived their faith by example. Anyone who know Judy will attest to the power of her own example as wife, mother, and Regnum Christi member.

And while Regnum Christi certainly didn’t invent spiritual direction, it is doing something about it. (In addition to the vast wealth of spiritual materials provided for free at the RCSpirituality Center. Divine Mercy University (DMU) and Regnum Christi of North America are partnering to address the pressing need for spiritual directors in the life of the Church and the world. The Spiritual Direction Certificate (SDC) Program began in January 2019 and available online for enrolled students. The SDC Program is designed to provide the knowledge, skills, and supervision for future spiritual directors. The program seeks to respond to the ongoing need for followers of Jesus Christ to assist others on their path of hearing the Lord’s ongoing call in their lives and becoming ever more His faithful disciples. Program Director Fr. Robert Presutti, LC notes: “Pope Benedict stated it beautifully when he reminded us that the Church continues to recommend spiritual direction to every all Christians who wish to live their Baptism. That means that Spiritual Direction should be a part of every Christian’s life! For his part, Pope Francis reiterates the need for Christians who personally accompany others on the path of the Gospel, which is precisely what spiritual direction accomplishes.” The DMU program is to serve the Church, not just Regnum Christi. But as Judy Guilfoil explains, spiritual direction is vital to Regnum Christi.

“At the heart of what Regnum Christi does is forming apostles. And an apostle must have a growing relationship with Christ to be effective in the mission. This forms the foundation for everything in Regnum Christi – the relationship with Christ is what moves the apostle to act.”

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“Ask a Priest: What If My Sons Have Drifted From the Faith?”

July 5, 2019 / Ask a Priest

Q: I have three sons who are young men living their life away from their faith. To some extent, away from their family as well. The oldest is 27, living with his girlfriend since two years ago. The second, gay, is living with a partner since a year ago. The youngest, 20, living at home, is in frontal battle with family life and a young man’s independence. I really, really struggle between loving my sons by expressing that love in deeds and accepting their voices and who they are becoming. I confess to be afraid of the day when I cannot be part of their lives, except in spirit. In the meantime, there are life issues that I have doubts with: When they visit, do I offend God by allowing them to stay as couples at our home? How can I humanly avoid my details of affection to their partners or partners, without falling into “acceptance/approval”? I greatly appreciate your advice. – A.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: My heart goes out to you. It must be heartbreaking to see your sons, at least two of them, living apart from the ways of Our Lord. A few ideas might help.

First, people are on a spiritual journey. They might drift from the faith for a while; some find their way back with the grace of God.

This means that you want to keep a horizon of hope in view. Try to see where your sons might be in three or five years if you pray for them and sacrifice for them day by day. You are still their mom, and they still need you, whether they know it or not.

A corollary is to cultivate your motherly heart. Remember that it’s the devil who is usually tempting people to stray. The devil is the culprit here.

As a mom, you know the value of tough love. There are times when you need to say no to your children, even if they are adults.

You already seem to sense that it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to spend the night with their partners in the same bedroom under your roof. To allow this would amount to direct material cooperation in evil and possibly formal cooperation.

Here, you might want to make clear even before they visit that they wouldn’t be allowed to sleep together in your house. It’s better to say that now, rather than breaking the news at dessert time when they come for dinner.

As for the 20-year-old living at home, it is understandable that he wants to exert his independence. This is healthy to a degree. Here you might consider giving him as much as leeway as possible, while insisting that he shows respect to you and that he observes the moral norms you set for your home.

The thing that will help him mature is for him to pull his weight and to feel the consequences of his decisions. So it might not be out of line to ask him to make contributions to the household, for instance, by doing housework.

Young men need space to mature. They also need to feel those consequences of their decisions.

As for your sons and their partners: it doesn’t hurt to be charitable, even though their respective relationships are very different.

You might find it helpful to see our Retreat Guide A Mother’s Tears: A Retreat Guide on Our Lady of Sorrows.

In the short term, there might not be any easy answers. But keep up those prayers. And stay close to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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From Regnum Christi to the Home of the Father

July 4, 2019 / Weekly Message Blog

Photo: Maria Lorite’s incorporation in May of 2018

A 20-year-old recently incorporated Regnum Christi member in Madrid, Spain, Maria Lorite, has passed away unexpectedly. She had recently attended spiritual exercises, a part of God’s plan that only he knew the importance of. Maria‘s testimony was recently featured on Jóvenes Cathólicos, a Spanish on–line magazine for Catholic youth.

She first met Regnum Christi through her friends and a local high school team she was in contact with while she was studying for a Pharmacy degree at the University of Francisco de Vitoria in Madrid, which is run by the Legionaries of Christ.

On the day of her incorporation in May 2018, she shared her testimony with Lomás RC, a Spanish Regnum Christi blog, ” A few months ago, around November or December, I started to consider the possibility of joining Regnum Christi, but I didn’t know where the idea had come from. I did not know why I was considering it, and I thought it was just my own idea. Then I started to experience times in which I really thought that this was something that could have come from God, but I did not want to pay attention to it, because I was afraid that I would find that it wasn’t true, so I decided to put the question aside.

Throughout the last year and this year, I have had the good fortune—through the high school, through the Regnum Christi team and through people that God has put into my life—to find a God who has allowed me to live life in this way, and this has allowed me to give myself to others, to surrender, and live with immense joy and fulfillment.

I realized that my relationship with God was growing more and more, and that it was thanks to the Movement and the people that make up [Regnum Christi]. Each time [God] asked me more questions, each time I needed God more, each time I felt more in prayer.

There came a time when I felt that God was giving me everything. I felt full and enormously loved, and I felt that all this love had to be passed on to others. It was something that I needed to do and I felt that God was asking me for it.

As I was meeting with the team, I was getting to know people in the movement with an immense desire to encounter Christ, people willing to give everything, and full of a love of God that they needed to show to others.

I began to realize that I was missing something, that what I was doing did not fill me up and that everything I had inside needed to be taken out. What I felt was something that went much further, something that I no longer controlled, something I needed; I realized that it came from God.

It was at that moment that I decided that I had to leave this in the hands of God, I knew that He would want the best for me, and that’s how it was, today I could not be happier about my decision. “

We invite you to join the Regnum Christi Federation in praying for Maria, her family and all who know and love her.

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“Ask a Priest: Could We Hope That Fallen-Away Catholics Will Be Saved?”

July 2, 2019 / Ask a Priest

Q: I live in Australia where many people whether young or old are cohabiting. There is no thought of God whatsoever. My sister-in-law who was formerly Catholic and now totally into New Age is also cohabiting. Another sister-in-law (formerly Catholic) converted to Islam to marry a Muslim man, and any discussion of Catholicism or Islam is not taken well. She would accuse us of blasphemy. I always listen to Catholic Answers on YouTube, and one of the topics discussed is about the state of one’s soul and eternal damnation. So according to Church teaching, a person is in danger of losing his/her soul only if they are aware of the teachings of the Church and the word of God and still choose to reject it. They also mentioned that maybe they know Church teaching and don’t believe it, and so they won’t be damned. So in light of this argument, is it safe to believe that in the above situations we can hope they all will be saved? – G.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: The short answer is that we can hope that everyone will be saved. Whether it is “safe to believe” this is another matter.

God alone knows the hearts and minds of the people you mention here. None of us can judge them. And none of us is called to judge them.

That assertion has a double edge, however. There is no guarantee that any of them will be saved.

Faith is a gift, and some people lose it through negligence and plain bad behavior. They will be held accountable for that.

In other cases, a genuine lack of true understanding of the faith, or perhaps the scandalous behavior of so many Catholics, might cause people to drift away without their being fully blameworthy. This could lead them to be judged much more leniently at the moment of their death. (The Catechism’s section on moral conscience, starting at No. 1776, is helpful reading.)

Still, the hope that all might be saved doesn’t let any of us off the hook. We are called to safeguard and strengthen our faith, through prayer, the sacraments, almsgiving, fasting, works of charity, etc. We need to shun any thought of presumption, too; indeed, we are urged to work out our salvation “with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).

Moreover, Catholics are obliged by their baptism to participate in the work of evangelization.

Evangelization doesn’t mean we do a hard sell of the faith. Rather, it means that, motivated by love, we want to share our experience of Christ with others. We want to witness to our beliefs and to the beauty of the Catholic Church and its treasury of sacraments and teachings and liturgy. We believe profoundly that Christ gave us these resources to help us attain salvation.

Perhaps you might want to keep some of these folks on your prayer list. And keep open a dialogue if possible. Sooner or later they might find the path they are on isn’t very satisfying. That might be the moment for God’s grace to bring them back to the embrace of the Church.

You also might find it useful, for yourself, to watch the retreat guide called “The Complete Christian.”

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New Mission Assignments for 2019

July 1, 2019 / Press Release, Weekly Message Blog

The new mission assignments for the North American territory for the Legionaries of Christ and the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi were released this morning, July 1, 2019

Legionaries of Christ

To view the complete list of new mission assignments for the Legionaries of Christ in the North American Territory please click here.

New Members of the Territory

NAME	POSITION	TERRITORY
Fr. David Daly, LC	Delegate of the General Director	Delegation of Rome
Fr. Vincenz Heereman, LC	Professor	Delegation of Rome
Fr. Paul Alger, LC	Licentiate Studies	Delegation of Rome
Fr. Lucio Boccacci, LC	Licentiate Studies	Delegation of Rome
Br. Andrew Kang, LC	Continue studies	Delegation of Rome
Br. Maximilian Nguyen, LC	Continue studies	Delegation of Rome

Members Departing the Territory

NAME	POSITION	COMMUNITY
Fr. Andres Orellana, LC	RC Young Adults Chaplain	San Jose, CA
Fr. Stephen Cho, LC	ECYD Boys Section Director, RC Young Adults	Seoul, South Korea
Br. Darren Wallace, LC (Deacon this year)	Dean of Apostolics	Sacred Heart Apostolic School
Br. Kevin O'Byrne, LC (Deacon in July)	ECYD Boys Chaplain, Highlands School Chaplain	Dallas, TX
Br. Abraham Eo, LC (Deacon in August)	Lower School Chaplain, Holy Spirit Prep	Atlanta, GA

Changes and Renewals within the Territory

Locality	Name	Effective Date
Calgary	Margaret Matthews	June 2023
Dallas	Andrew Rawicki	June 2023 (renewal)
New York Tri-State	Mary Rohe	August 2023
San Antonio	Adriana Perez de Castillo	August 2023
San Jose	Fr. Kevin Lixey	June 2023

Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi

Changes within the North American Territory

Location	Section	Name	Effective Date
Atlanta	ECYD-Boys	Fr. Michael O'Connor	May 2023
Calgary	ECYD-Boys	Dubert Gutierrez	July 2023
Cincinnati	ECYD-Boys	Fr. Andrew Gronotte	July 2023
Dallas	ECYD-Boys	Fr. Kermit Syren	July 2023 (1 year)
Detroit	ECYD-Boys	Fr. Luis Villalobos	July 2023
Manila	ECYD-Boys	Fr. Mauricio Guajardo	July 23 (renewal)
Philadelphia	ECYD-Boys	Fr. Aaron Loch	July 23 (renewal)
South Korea	ECYD-B&G	Fr. Steven Cho	July 2023
Philadelphia	ECYD-Girls	Emily Ziegler	January 2023

Coming to the North American Territory

Locality	Name	Effective Date
Louisville	Joseph O'Connor	September 2023 (renewal)
Louisville	Julia O'Connor	September 2023 (renewal)
Louisville	Jeremy Leachman	September 2023 (renewal)
Louisville	Laura Kline	September 2023 (renewal)
Louisville	Tomascina Reaugh	September 2023 (renewal)
Louisville	Elizabeth Dawson	July 2023
Ontario	Oscar Strassburger	May 23 (renewal)
Ontario	Fr. Jerek Scherber	May 23 (renewal)
Ontario	Fr. Pierre Caouette	May 2023
Ontario	Alexander Volkel	January 2023

Leaving the North American Territory

Location	Section	Name	Effective Date
Baton Rouge	Men	Greg Boudreaux	March 2023
Dallas	Men	Fr. Fergal O Duill	July 23 (1 year, renewal)
Detroit	Men	Fr. Juan Sabadell	June 23 (renewal)
Los Angeles	Men	Fr. John Hopkins	July 23 (renewal)
Oakville	Men	Alexander Volkel	January 2023
Philadelphia	Men	Fr. Scott Reilly	June 2023 (2 years, renewal)
San Antonio	Men	Carlos Veana	July 2023
Washington DC	Men	Fr. Robert Presutti	March 23 (2 years)

Renewal of Assignments in the North American Territory
(all for three years unless otherwise noted)

Location	Section	Name	Effective Date
Atlanta	Women	Denise Gunderson	May 2023
Detroit	Women	Ann-Marie Neme	September 2022
Edmonton	Women	Donna Fausek	September 2022
Jacksonville	Women	Vickie Loftis	June 2023
Lafayette	Women	Michele Noel	March 2023
Manila	Women	Tessa Coscolluela	May 2023
New Orleans	Women	Lisa Cates	September 2023
New York	Women	Lisa Leonard	Dec-22 (1 year renewal)
North Houston	Women	Shamy Billes	June 2023
Omaha/Lincoln	Women	Stephanie Neugebauer	October 2022
Orlando	Women	Mary Gulde	September 2022
Pacific Northwest	Women	Janet McLaughlin	March 2023
Philadelphia	Women	Gina Pelella	June 2023
Southwest Houston	Women	Laura Alvarado	May 2023
Washington DC	Women	Peggy Oshinski	September 2022
Wichita	Women	Carolyn Spexarth	July 2023

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“Ask a Priest: Is It a Sin to Doubt Church Doctrines?”

June 28, 2019 / Ask a Priest

Q: Is it a sin to doubt? I have difficulty with some doctrines of the Church and often find myself doubting “their” authority. Is that a sin? I have read what their position is and why, but I still find it hard to believe. I just don’t feel any emotional contact to God/Jesus, so I have to go with logic and often times the logical answer for me just isn’t the religious message. – S.C.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: It is good to distinguish between a difficulty with the faith and a doubt.

Difficulties are not uncommon. We are, after all, dealing with more than a little mystery when it comes to the things of God. John Henry Cardinal Newman famously stated, “Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.”

Doubt is in a different realm. A number from the Catechism is worth quoting here:

2088 The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith:

Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated, doubt can lead to spiritual blindness. [end quoted material]

Note that “doubt” is treated as sin. One reason why doubt is a serious matter is because it is dealing with things taught by God through his Church. If we don’t believe the Church, in effect we are questioning Christ himself, for he said, “Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me” (Luke 10:16).

But let’s step back for a moment.

Perhaps a good way to handle a difficulty about the faith is to ask ourselves a few questions.

Does it make sense that the Church, after 2,000 years, would have made a mistake on a point of doctrine?

Does it seem plausible that the Holy Spirit would let the Church commit an error for so long a time, only to reveal the truth to me in 2019?

Is it a wise assumption to think any one of us has more wisdom than the Church on this or that point of doctrine?

The Catholic faith is not unreasonable. It might be beyond the powers of normal reason to grasp, but it is not against reason. God created both faith and reason, so in strict terms there is no incompatibility between the two.

It is good to recall that our powers of reason are not perfect. We have inherited original sin, and one of its effects is that it darkens the intellect. Faith can shed light into this darkness.

Faith opens a broader horizon. The Catechism in No. 157 says:

“Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but ‘the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives.'”

It is also good to remember that someone is out to trip us up: the devil. He lurks in the background and loves to sow confusion in us. He knows how to play on our sense of self-sufficiency – our sense that we can figure out everything for ourselves.

In the face of a difficulty we should make an act of faith, ask the Holy Spirit for guidance, and then do more research into a topic.

Here, we need to be careful about where we are doing research. The Internet is full of sites that misstate the Catholic faith. It is important to go to reliable sources: papal documents, the Catechism, the Church Fathers, and the writings of solid theologians. Through studying sources like those, we can truly resolve many of our difficulties and strengthen our understanding and our faith.

Other factors could be involved. You mention that you don’t feel any emotional contact with Our Lord. Religion isn’t based on emotions. But it does help to think of your Catholic faith as your relationship with Jesus.

Jesus, who suffered and died for love of you, only wants the best for you. That is why he gives you the Church, its sacraments and teachings, and his own Mother to help you. This is a man you can trust.

Also, it helps in the face of doubt to step back and see how one’s spiritual and moral life and habits of prayer are going. Sometimes a person’s faith can start to weaken because of laxity in following the Commandments or in neglect of prayer.

Or sometimes a person simply exposes himself to the wrong kinds of books or websites or TV shows. Many media are laced with anti-Christian, anti-religious ideas, sometimes in subtle ways. All these can weaken a person’s faith.

It might help to cultivate your devotion to Mary. She is a great intercessor. She can win you the grace you need to make the acts of faith that are so pleasing to her Son. You might like to begin that cultivation with one of our Marian retreat guides, such as “Welcoming the Word.”

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