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Why we should be well armed to defend our faith
A conversation with Patrick Madrid, author, apologist and TV and radio broadcaster
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| By Candice Cokinas
27 May, 2012 |
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| defence: Catholics should learn to protect their faith, says Patrick Madrid. |
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Patrick Madrid’s Australian tour couldn’t have come at a better time, in light of what he calls “the New Atheism”.
Patrick is a renowned US apologist, teaching a field in Christian theology that aims to ‘defend the faith’ in a rational and logical way.
He is also the author of 16 books, and a well-known speaker and TV and radio broadcaster.
“I try to see every atheist as someone whom I would like to have a good conversation over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine,” Patrick says.
“To talk to them, listen to their views and be able to share my own beliefs.”
New Atheism is a term coined by journalist Gary Wolf who wrote in an article for Wired Magazine: “They [the ‘New Atheists’] condemn not just belief in God but respect for belief in God. Religion is not only wrong; it’s evil.”
And he claims that three writers – Professor Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett – have contributed to the popularity of this opinion.
Of the recent debate between Professor Dawkins and the Archbishop of Sydney, George Cardinal Pell, on ABC’s Q&A, Patrick says that both are “exceedingly articulate and intelligent”.
“After having viewed many of his videos and having read a few of his books, I can confidently say that I think Dr Dawkins is a fine scientist, but a lousy philosopher.”
He says that the “fanciful notion” that science can disprove God’s existence is like “hitting the bull’s-eye on the wrong target”.
This is because “the question of God’s existence is one of philosophy, not science”.
“A scientist can no more prove or disprove the existence or non-existence of God on the basis of science than a philosopher or a musician or a Spanish teacher prove or disprove the existence of organic life on Mars on the basis of philosophy, music theory or the rules of Spanish grammar.”
Patrick believes that a more logical and philosophical standpoint should be taken when defending the Catholic faith.
“Catholics should learn apologetics for the same reason people should lock their doors when leaving home for vacation.
“A sturdy lock can prevent a thief from breaking in and stealing your valuables.
“In the same way, learning apologetics is way to protect your faith from those who would take it from you; to invigorate your faith so that it will not atrophy and die.”
However, he does not see atheists as enemies but as “potential friends”.
“Catholics can show atheists, by our personal interactions with them, the kindness, peace, and good will that Christ tells us we should treat all people with.”
And he says progress can be made in helping atheists see that “there is far more to the issue of God’s existence, and actual rational evidence for believing in God, than what a great many of them think there are”.
His Australian visit is taking in a few lectures on the “subject of atheism, its arguments against God, and what Christians can say and do in an effort to explain rationally and convincingly why they believe in God”.
He says when dealing with atheists “Catholics should always be polite, charitable, and respectful, but they should never be afraid of or intimidated by atheists or their anti-God arguments”.
“As my co-author Kenneth Hensley and I explain in our book The Godless Delusion, it is in fact Christians who have the compelling rational case for believing in God, not atheists for denying Him.
“It is the Christian, theistic worldview that can adequately account for the world around us (including evil), not atheism’s purely naturalistic worldview.”
He also says: “True, many atheists are aggressive, even militant, in their intolerance of Christianity, but that is no reason at all for Christians to shy away from ‘giving reasons for the hope that is in them – though we must always do so … with gentleness and respect’ (1 Peter 3:15-16).”
Patrick is a life-long practising Catholic and was born and raised in a Catholic family in Orange County, California.
“Our Catholic faith was at the centre of our family life, not in some weirdly pious way, but in a normal, healthy, and taken-for-granted way that taught us to see our Catholic identity as the defining hallmark of who we are as people,” he says.
He is the eldest of eight children and recalls that he had a “happy and stable upbringing in a loving family” where being a Catholic was practised everyday as a part of who he was and “not something we did only for an hour a week on Sunday”.
During his childhood years he went to a grammar school at the Mission San Juan Capistrano parish school in California and also served as an altar boy for the parish’s daily Traditional Latin Mass in the Serra Chapel for three years.
“I learnt the old Mass, first of all the 1962 ritual, all the prayers in Latin, how to serve the low and high Mass. I also served many nuptial and funeral Masses.
“I loved this experience and learned a great deal about the truths of the Catholic Faith simply by soaking up by osmosis all the signs and symbols and realities of Catholicism through the Mass. I also served as an altar boy at our nearby Novus Ordo parish, which was nearly the polar opposite of the traditional Mass setting of Mission San Juan Capistrano.”
It was the principles that he learnt in those years that provided the foundations for his career in apologetics and the publication of his works about Catholic thought across all mediums.
In 1987 he underwent what he calls a “reconversion experience” in which he felt a “profound repentance for my past sins and lukewarmness in some ways and a very deep recommitment and reconversion of heart to Christ”. It was at this stage that he started writing his books on apologetics.
“I had a desire to communicate apologetics in book form in a way that would have more impact than just writing articles and delivering lectures.”
Although his interest in apologetics began at the level of a hobby, he started to teach it professionally in January 1988 when Karl Keating, a prominent Catholic apologist and author asked him to join the full-time staff at Catholic Answers, a lay organisation that spreads the message of the Church.
“When he invited me to join him there was just one other employee!
“We had a tiny office in suburban San Diego and it was from those very humble beginnings that the Catholic Answers people know today grew from.”
He was there for eight years teaching in the form of seminars conducted throughout the US, primarily in parishes.
“For the past 25 years, I have continued to do this kind of popular-level, more informal teaching of apologetics at seminars and conferences, as well as on radio and television.”
Last year Patrick was invited to start teaching theology to undergraduate students at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
“I have taught courses on the sacraments and apologetics, and will reprise my apologetics course again this fall semester. And let me tell you, as enjoyable as conducting parishes has been, I have found a whole new level of personal fulfilment in teaching formally in academia,” he says.
As well as 16 books, he is the publisher of Envoy magazine which aims to help Catholics explain and defend their faith more effectively. He has written numerous articles, hosted the EWTN Television series Pope Fiction and Search and Rescue and hosts the Thursday show on EWTN radio’s Open Line.
“I attribute to God first and in a special way to the loving intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary any positive contribution I may have made to the Church and the world thus far in life,” he says.
Patrick and his wife Nancy, who have been married 31 years, have 11 children – six sons and five daughters.
He views each of their births as a milestone in his life.
Through his career and as part of his Australian tour, Patrick is trying to “love the Lord with all my heart, I love the Catholic Church He established”.
“I want to share with others the tremendous treasure of the Catholic Faith that I was blessed to receive,” he says.
“Given the many ways in which I failed to serve God in my youth and young adulthood because of sin and selfishness, I want to make up for that lost time by trying to help others as best I can.
“I am overjoyed to be able to do this work and am constantly astonished each time it reoccurs to me that God is allowing me to participate in it when there are so many smarter, more talented, and holier people than I who could be doing this work much better than I can. But I’m not complaining! I’m very grateful to the Lord that he has let me have a small part to play in the Church’s great work of explaining, defending, and sharing the Catholic faith.”
Patrick will be in Australia until 31 May, courtesy of the Catholic Adult Education Centre and the Mustard Seed Bookshop. For more information visit www.patrickmadridlive.com
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