Do Catholics impose their beliefs on others?

Tolerance seems to be touted as the supreme good these days. However, Jesus told his apostles to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). This is known as the Great Commission, not the Great Imposition. He commanded his followers to make others into Christians through conversion and baptism.

Through our evangelization, we must present the truth of the Christian faith to those who don’t yet accept it or who accept it only partially. In doing so we aren’t imposing anything on them. You can’t force people to believe. You can force them to act as though they believe, true, but you can’t force them to believe. Mere acting doesn’t count. It isn’t what Christ was after. He was, and is, looking for free acceptance of his saving message.

Catholic missionary activity is an act of charity. Through it, people discover that the Catholic Church was established by Christ as the guardian of the sacraments, which are the usual means for obtaining the grace we need for salvation. Catholics who are tempted to think they should tolerate every belief may profit from this story written by Dorothy Sayers:

Saint Lukewarm was a magistrate in the city of Laodicea. He was so broadminded as to offer asylum to every kind of religious cult, however unorthodox or repulsive, saying in answer to all remonstrances: “There is always some truth in everything.” This liberality earned for him the surname of “The Tolerator.” At length he fell into the hands of a sect of Anthropophagi for whom he had erected a sacred kitchen and cooking stove at public expense, which he was duly set on to stew with appropriate ceremonies. By miraculous intervention, however, the water continually went off the boil; and when he was finally served up, his flesh was found to be so tough and tasteless that the Chief Anthropophagus spat out the unpalatable morsel, exclaiming: “Tolerator non tolerandus!” (A garbled Christian version of this legend is preserved in Rev 3:16.).

Karl Keating is the founder of Catholic Answers, a lay-run apologetics and evangelization organization. This column is reprinted with permission from his book “What Catholics Really Believe — Setting the Record Straight: 52 Answers to Common Misconceptions about the Catholic Faith” (Ignatius Press, San Fransisco, 1995. pp 113-114).