Faithful Catholics must always stand for truth

“What can I do to promote the mission of the Church amid all the confusion present in the Church and in society?” Catholics troubled by what is going on today want to do something to help defend Christ’s truth at a time when the very existence of truth is commonly dismissed. “There are only opinions, not truths, and everyone is entitled to his own opinion. Don’t try to impose your opinion on me!” say those who embrace a subjectivistic, relativistic outlook. What should we do?

Catholics need to remind themselves that truth exists. Christ said, “I am the truth” (Jn 14:6). Our duty as followers of Christ is to know the truth, to love the truth and to live the truth. Pope St. John Paul II gave the Church a wonderful summary of the truths of the Catholic faith in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Catholics who want to defend the faith should carefully read this easy-to-understand exposition of Catholic doctrine. It is a long book, but that should not frighten us. We need to learn as much as we can about the teachings of the Church, particularly when so many of those teachings are under attack by secularizing forces.

To love the truth means to see it as a gift from God that gives complete meaning to our lives and is therefore something good and necessary. God revealed His plan for our salvation in Christ, who calls us to be faithful to His teaching. You cannot love Christ with all your heart, mind, and soul without loving the teachings He gave us. God’s truth is lovable because God is lovable. He does not mislead us when He instructs us on what we are to believe and how we are to live.

When Catholic teaching is criticized and contradicted by those who reject it, there can be a temptation to mollify them by playing down the importance of certain doctrines. There can even be a temptation to say that eventually the Church will change those teachings and “come to an understanding” with “modern progress.” Sadly, some people within the Catholic Church are now in the forefront of efforts to do just that. A small but influential number of bishops in Europe have publicly called for the Church to change her teaching about the inherent immorality of homosexual acts. This is an impossibility.

The truth is not subject to change. What God has set forth as the moral order is beyond the control of any human power. We must pray for those who fail in their duty to uphold and proclaim the Church’s doctrine in its entirety. It is disappointing and disheartening to see such revolutionary ideas being championed by those who took a solemn oath to uphold the Church’s teaching when they became bishops. True charity toward these erring shepherds consists in standing firm in the truth.

Living the truth of the gospel by upholding the contested doctrines of the faith is a form of Christian witness that is very much needed today. When faithful Catholics reject innovations that deny what the Church has always taught, they often become subject to emotional blackmail and are accused of hating people. Such is the price of fidelity in today’s world.

True love of neighbor is manifested when we try to influence our neighbor to embrace Christ’s truth, not the errors of those who attempt to overthrow that truth. God is pleased by our faithful witness and will give us strength to bear calmly the opprobrium directed toward those who refuse to pretend that what is immoral can somehow now become moral. God is always with us when we defend His truth.

FATHER GERALD E. MURRAY 
is pastor of the Church of the Holy Family in Manhattan, NY, and author of Calming the Storm: Navigating the Crises Facing the Catholic Church and Society (Emmaus Road Publishing).